George Frideric Handel and the Creation of Messiah
This paper surveys the life and career of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), tracing his journey from a childhood in Halle, Germany, through musical studies in Hamburg and Italy, to his permanent home in London. The paper examines how shifting social and political conditions in England led Handel to abandon Italian opera in favor of the English oratorio, culminating in the composition and tumultuous reception of Messiah (1741). It discusses the libretto, compositional process, charitable productions, and the enduring legacy of Messiah as one of the most celebrated works in Western music history.
- Introduction: Handel's Enduring Legacy: Overview of Handel's fame, life, and career
- Early Life and Musical Education: Childhood in Halle and formative musical training
- Hamburg, Italy, and the Road to London: Travels, friendships, and early compositional career
- The Rise of the English Oratorio: Shift from opera to oratorio amid social change
- The Composition and Reception of Messiah: Creation, Dublin premiere, and London controversy
- Later Years and Legacy: Blindness, final works, death, and enduring reputation
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper weaves biographical narrative with cultural and historical context, showing how Handel's personal experiences — his travels, financial difficulties, and philanthropic instincts — directly shaped his artistic output.
- Specific anecdotes, such as the famous duel with Mattheson and the story of Handel sneaking into the attic to play the clavichord, ground the historical account in vivid, memorable detail.
- The paper situates Handel's shift from opera to oratorio within the broader social transformation of English society, demonstrating awareness of the relationship between art and its audience.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses multiple secondary sources to corroborate and enrich claims, drawing on music historians such as Burrows, Barber, Keates, and Jacobi. Quotations are deployed sparingly and purposefully — used to validate specific claims about Handel's compositional habits and the reception of his work — rather than as substitutes for original analysis.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a broadly chronological structure: it opens with Handel's reputation and birth, moves through his education and early travels, explains the social forces that redirected his career, and concludes with the composition, reception, and enduring legacy of Messiah. This narrative arc allows readers to understand not just what Handel accomplished, but why and how the circumstances of his life made those accomplishments possible.
Introduction: Handel's Enduring Legacy
Described as "the greatest oratorio composer in the English language" by music historian Stanley Sadie, Handel's Messiah continues to receive lavish and popular praise (Barber, 1994, p. 2). The English oratorio remains one of the most recognizable works of music, and earned its composer considerable fame and fortune during his lifetime. Born on the 23rd of February, 1685, Georg Friederich Handel was the son of German barber-doctor Georg and his second wife, Dorothea. The Handel family resided in Halle, a small Saxony town on a tributary of the Elbe River.
His musical prowess and sense of purpose drove the composer to travel widely: in addition to many parts of Germany, Handel also lived in Italy, Ireland, and England. All the places in which he lived offered him inspiration for his music. Starting with a humble career as a church organist, Handel eventually tackled the demanding tasks of writing operas, anthems, psalms, arias, cantatas, and his signature English oratorios, of which Messiah is one. In spite of a few — mostly financial — ups and downs in his career, Handel enjoyed a healthy following, and most of his works were met with popular and critical acclaim.
He made London his most permanent home and eventually became a naturalized Englishman, Anglicizing the spelling of his name from Georg Friederich to George Frideric. The musician died in London in 1759. Testimony to the respect he earned, Handel is interred in Westminster Abbey.
The personal life of George Frideric Handel seems not to have been as colorful as his musical career. He never married, and there are few stories of romantic dalliances. He was known to be a corpulent man, especially during the later years of his life, and enjoyed drinking. He did not have a reputation for aggression, however. In general, his life appears to have been consumed by a passion for music and the dramatic arts. He was nonetheless generous with the money he earned from his successes, giving much of it away to charities.
Works Cited
Barber, D. (1994). Getting a Handel on Messiah. Toronto: Sound and Vision.
Burrows, D. (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Handel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jacobi, P. (1982). The Messiah Book: The Life and Times of G.F. Handel's Greatest Hit. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Keates, J. (1985). Handel: The Man and His Music. London: Victor Gollancz.
Leissa, B. & Vickers, D. (2003). George Frideric Handel. Retrieved July 24, 2003, from http://gfhandel.org
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