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Handel compositions6/7/2023 ![]() According to a widely circulated but undocumented story, Handel was initially afraid to appear at court. If it was strained, he may well have felt some discomfort when, in September, Elector Georg Ludwig arrived in London to be crowned King George the First. We do not know whether the truant composer ignored calls to return to Germany, or, indeed, what the state of his relationship with Georg Ludwig was at this time. Handel had by this time effectively abandoned his post in Hanover and taken up permanent residence in England. ![]() In August 1714 Queen Anne died leaving no heir and by an ironic twist of fate the English crown now passed to the House of Hanover. The country’s ruler, Queen Anne, showed her approval by granting Handel an annual stipend and commissioning him to compose works for her birthday celebration, the signing of an important peace accord (the Treaty of Utrecht) and other national occasions. By day he composed operas for the London theaters during the evenings he consorted with the cream of English society, including the royal family. Although he agreed to return to Hanover before long, Handel now settled into a comfortable routine in his new home. ![]() Handel soon returned to Hanover in 1711, but he had found the cosmopolitan atmosphere and busy music life of London so much to his liking that he obtained leave from his duties in Hanover to visit England a second time in 1712. Although he could not have know it at the time, this would be merely the first of many triumphs he would achieve in the English capital. Handle arrived in London in September 1710, and scored a conspicuous success with his opera Rinaldo. It seems, however, that the young musician already had his sights set on London, where Italian opera was enjoying a sudden surge of popularity, and he managed to obtain an immediate leave of absence in order to visit England. In 1710, at age 25, Handel returned to Germany, obtaining a position as court composer to Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover. As his biographer Winton Dean put it, Handel “arrive in Italy a gifted but crude composer with an uncertain command of form, and left it a polished and fully-equipped artist.” In Italy he learned the art of writing appealing and expressive melodies, acquired the dramatic sensibility that would serve him so well as a composer of operas and oratorios, and attained an understanding of orchestral composition. These years were vitally important to Handel’s development as a musician. During the next four years he stayed in Florence, Rome, Venice and other cities, hearing the music of his foremost Italian colleagues an becoming acquainted with many of them in person. Accordingly, he set out for Italy in the autumn of 1706. Handel’s stay in Hamburg whetted his appetite for opera and he soon realized that he would do well to seek knowledge of that genre at its source. His experience of many contemporary operas encouraged him to write several of his own. The harpsichord was the most important instrument in opera, which attests to Handel’s skill as a player. Like many composers of his day, Handel was eager to make his mark in the theater, and he was fortunate to obtain employment as a violinist and harpsichordist in the opera orchestra. A year later, in 1803, he departed his native town and for the next three years worked in Hamburg, the German city most devoted to opera. At age 17 he obtained a position as organist in one of Halle’s principal churches. Handel seems never to have considered seriously his father’s wish that he study law. When Handel was just 10 years old, during a visit to a relative employed at the court of Johann Adolph, Duke of Weissenfels, his playing on the organ made such an impression that the Duke financed the boy’s music studies. Handel, however, displayed not only an exceptional talent but a strong will, developing his skill as a keyboard player despite paternal objections. His family was not musical, and Handel’s father initially tried to discourage his son’s musical interests, hoping that he would pursue a more dependable career in law. George Frideric Handel was born in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, in the central German city of Halle. Handel became England's national composer. Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite III Movements I – IV Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite II Movements I – VĢ5. Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite I Movements VII – IXĢ4. Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite I Movements IV – VIĢ3. Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite I Movement IIIĢ2. Listener’s Guide to The Water Music Suite I Movements I & IIĢ1. The Water Music Suite II Alla HornpipeĢ0. The Water Music Suite I Allegro, Andante, Allegroġ1. The Water Music Suite I Adagio e staccatoģ.
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