Song library
Browse piano sheets by Georg Friedrich Händel on Zen Virtual Piano. In 1741 Handel, then at the height of his powers, composed his greatest oratorio, Messiah, and its inspired successor, Samson; Messiah was given its first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742. In the early 1740s, with public interest in Italian opera waning, he began to introduce new oratorios during the opera season, works written to English texts and without costumes, sets or staging that were immediately popular. Putting new oratorios inside the opera season shows an artist using the existing machinery of the theatre. Without costumes, sets or staging, the oratorios left the music and the English text to hold the audience. George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Saxony, on 23 February 1685. His father was a court surgeon and initially objected to his son’s interest in a musical career, but at the age of 17 he was appointed organist in Halle’s Domkirche. In 1703 he moved to Hamburg to play in the orchestra of the opera, where his first three operas were performed, and in 1706 he travelled to Italy, where in Rome he benefited from the patronage of Prince Ruspoli and the Cardinals Pamphilij and Ottoboni. In Italy he attracted the attention of a number of important English visitors who were keen for him to visit London, and he was also approached by representatives of the court of Hanover. Attention from English visitors while he was still in Italy hints at how portable a musician’s name could be. In 1718 he became director of music to the duke of Chandos, for whom he composed the 11 Chandos Anthems and the English masque Acis and Galatea, and in 1719 he was appointed Master of the Orchestra of London’s first Italian opera company. Over the next 40 years he wrote some 31 operas for the London stage. In February 1727 he became a British subject, which enabled him to be appointed a composer of the Chapel Royal, and the revivals in 1732 of Acis and Galatea and Haman and Mordecai, renamed Esther, led to the establishment of the English oratorio. A composer who wrote some 31 operas for London and also turned to oratorio seems to have read his public’s changing taste. He helped establish the Fund for the Support of Decayed Musicians, now the Royal Society of Musicians. He died on 14 April 1759, at the age of 74, and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey; in his will he left bequests to his servants and the Foundling Hospital, among others. Bequests to servants and to the Foundling Hospital, and a hand in the fund for decayed musicians, point to generosity beyond the concert hall. Interest in Handel’s music has grown since the mid-20th century, and his music was admired by Classical-era composers, especially Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. That the admirers were composers themselves, and not only listeners, hints at how much his craft mattered to other musicians working in the same art.
Browse piano sheets by Georg Friedrich Händel on Zen Virtual Piano.
In 1741 Handel, then at the height of his powers, composed his greatest oratorio, Messiah, and its inspired successor, Samson; Messiah was given its first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742. In the early 1740s, with public interest in Italian opera waning, he began to introduce new oratorios during the opera season, works written to English texts and without costumes, sets or staging that were immediately popular. Putting new oratorios inside the opera season shows an artist using the existing machinery of the theatre. Without costumes, sets or staging, the oratorios left the music and the English text to hold the audience.
George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Saxony, on 23 February 1685. His father was a court surgeon and initially objected to his son’s interest in a musical career, but at the age of 17 he was appointed organist in Halle’s Domkirche. In 1703 he moved to Hamburg to play in the orchestra of the opera, where his first three operas were performed, and in 1706 he travelled to Italy, where in Rome he benefited from the patronage of Prince Ruspoli and the Cardinals Pamphilij and Ottoboni. In Italy he attracted the attention of a number of important English visitors who were keen for him to visit London, and he was also approached by representatives of the court of Hanover. Attention from English visitors while he was still in Italy hints at how portable a musician’s name could be.
In 1718 he became director of music to the duke of Chandos, for whom he composed the 11 Chandos Anthems and the English masque Acis and Galatea, and in 1719 he was appointed Master of the Orchestra of London’s first Italian opera company. Over the next 40 years he wrote some 31 operas for the London stage. In February 1727 he became a British subject, which enabled him to be appointed a composer of the Chapel Royal, and the revivals in 1732 of Acis and Galatea and Haman and Mordecai, renamed Esther, led to the establishment of the English oratorio. A composer who wrote some 31 operas for London and also turned to oratorio seems to have read his public’s changing taste.
He helped establish the Fund for the Support of Decayed Musicians, now the Royal Society of Musicians. He died on 14 April 1759, at the age of 74, and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey; in his will he left bequests to his servants and the Foundling Hospital, among others. Bequests to servants and to the Foundling Hospital, and a hand in the fund for decayed musicians, point to generosity beyond the concert hall. Interest in Handel’s music has grown since the mid-20th century, and his music was admired by Classical-era composers, especially Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. That the admirers were composers themselves, and not only listeners, hints at how much his craft mattered to other musicians working in the same art.
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Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Georg Friedrich Händel
Common questions
Messiah, composed in 1741, was given its first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742.
The revivals in 1732 of his masques Acis and Galatea and Haman and Mordecai, renamed Esther, led to the establishment of the English oratorio, and in the early 1740s he introduced new oratorios to English texts during the opera season.
In England: except for a few visits to the European continent, he spent the rest of his life there after settling, became a British subject in February 1727 and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.