George Frideric Handel, 1685-1759, achieved great fame during his life, traveled extensively and reaped sizable financial rewards. As a composer, Handel was prolific and excelled in every genre, especially opera and oratorio.
George was born to a middle class family in Halle, Germany. He was a talented child but studied music in secret due to objections by his physician father. A duke at the court where Dr. Handel worked heard George play harpsichord and suggested he study formally. Thus, the child was begrudgingly allowed to study with a local church organist, excelling on organ, harpsichord and oboe.
At twelve, Handel composed impressive choral and instrumental works. His early success attracted offers of patronage from the Court of Berlin, offers his father refused in hopes of a law career for his son. Handel entered Halle University at seventeen, but despaired of his studies and, when his father died, dropped out.
Hamburg
Determined to become an opera composer, Handel moved to Hamburg and worked as a violinist and harpsichordist in the Hamburg Opera House. After three years of toil his first opera, Almira and Nero, was a success while another flopped.
Italy
Handel moved to Italy in 1706 to further his career. A Medici prince initially invited him but he soon had cardinals and princes as patrons. George bumped elbows with the finest Italian composers of the day and toured with Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), the premier opera composer of the late Baroque.
During his four years in Italy, Handel composed oratorios, cantatas and chamber music. His opera Agrippina was staged twenty-seven times in Venice. Most significantly, he absorbed the essence of Italian music into his writing style.
The Charming Brute | Joseph Goupy, c.1680-1770 | A caricature of Handel depicting him as a vain and crude beast. | Fitzwilliam Museum
London
Returning to Germany in 1710 with fame and success, Handel assumed the role of music director at the Electoral Court of Hanover. He also accepted a commission to write an opera in London and garnered acclaim there with Rinaldo in 1711.
Handel returned to Germany but, scheming further productions, asked Elector Georg Ludwig for another leave of absence. It was granted on the condition he return to Germany within a reasonable amount of time.
During 1712 he staged four more operas in London and enjoyed the status of being England’s most popular composer. Queen Anne gave Handel a lifelong royal subsidy. Anne died in 1714 without an English heir and her cousin, Elector Georg Ludwig, became King George I of England. The king wasn’t offended at Handel’s long absence and doubled his royal subsidy.
Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt), 1724 | George Frideric Handel | Title page from the score published by Cluer | Wikimedia Commons
Handel formed an opera company in 1729, competing with local theaters. Jealousy arose among native musicians. After all, he was a foreigner who quickly moved into the forefront of opera and the inner circle of the royal court. Hatred rose to the point hoodlums were hired to assault Handel’s audiences. Eventually the three rival opera companies—Handel’s company, the Royal Academy and the Opera of the Nobility—all closed by 1737.
Chandos Portrait of George Frideric Handel | James Thornhill, 1675-1734 | The Fitzwilliam Museum
Personal Life
Handel's personal life was an enigma. He never married, avoided scandal was loyal to friends and colleagues, but had a frightful temper. During a dispute over orchestra seating, he drew sword and dueled with the composer Johann Mattheson. Handel survived because Mattheson's final sword thrust was stopped by a metal button on his coat. Oddly, the two remained close friends afterwards.
As Handel aged, he lead a more private life, practicing harpsichord, composing and attending church. He died in 1759 at the age of seventy-four. Three thousand people attended his funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Oratorio
The oratorio is a multi-movement work similar to opera but with an emphasis on choir and Old Testament text, but lacking props and acting. Although set to a Biblical text, Handel's oratorios were intended to be performed on stages, not in church. We'll take a look at Handel's legendary oratorio, Messiah.
Bathsheba at Her Bath | Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, 1654-1727 | Oratorios were often based on Old Testament scripture. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Messiah
By the early 1740s, George Handel was heavily in debt due to business failures. In 1741 a group of Dublin charities commissioned him to write for a benefit concert to free men from debtor's prison. This commission became the oratorio, Messiah.
Composing Messiah
The writing of Messiah commenced August 22, 1741, and was completed on September 14, 1741. Handel rarely ate or slept during while writing. It took twenty-four days of nonstop work to create two hundred-sixty pages of music.
With fifty-three movements, Messiah is a substantial work. The original was simply scored for SATB choir, vocal soloists, two trumpets, timpani, two oboes, two violins, viola and basso continuo. Many modern arrangements take considerable liberties, expanding the instrumentation to mammoth proportions.
Messiah's Text
The scriptural text of Messiah was compiled by Charles Jennens and is mostly based on passages from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The text is structured to proclaim prophecies of Christ's nativity, passion, resurrection and, finally, his second coming and glorification in heaven.
Portrait of Charles Jennens, librettist for Messiah (c. 1740) | Thomas Hudson, 1701-79 | Handel House Museum
DublinDebut
Messiah's debut in Dublin in 1741 sold out in advance. Ladies were asked not to wear hoop dresses and men were implored to leave swords at home to make room for more people. The acceptance of Messiah in London was slower but by 1749 it was a staple of the repertoire, remaining so to this day.
Hallelujah Chorus | Autograph score before final orchestration. Handel's hand writing was not as neat as Bach. | British Library (R.M.20.f.2, 103v)
Hallelujah Chorus
The famous Hallelujah Chorus is movement forty-four of the Messiah, concluding the second section of the work. The text for Hallelujah is knit together with passages from the book of Revelation:
Revelation 19:6: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”
Revelation 19:16: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”
Revelation 11:15: “And he shall reign for ever and ever.”
Here are the complete lyrics for the Hallelujah chorus:
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
(For the lord God omnipotent reigneth)
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
(Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah)
Hallelujah
The kingdom of this world;
is become
the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ
and of His Christ
And He shall reign for ever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and lord of lords
King of kings and lord of lords
And he shall reign
And he shall reign
And he shall reign
He shall reign
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings forever and ever
and lord of lords hallelujah hallelujah
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings and lord of lords
King of kings and lord of lords
And he shall reign forever and ever
Forever and ever and ever and ever
(King of kings and lord of lords)
The Hallelujah Chorus is sectional in form. Sections are delineated by texture changes, shifting between homophonic, monophonic and polyphonic for dramatic effect. For example, the text, "Hallelujah," is presented in homophonic texture near the beginning. The text, "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" is rendered with a dramatic shift to monophonic texture—choir and orchestra perform the same melodic line without harmony or counterpoint.
The Video Performance
The 1741 premier in Dublin featured a small choir of men and boys with chamber orchestra, in contrast to the massive productions typical today. Handel's original vocal forces amounted to sixteen men (bass and tenor), sixteen boy choristers (sopranos and altos) and two female soloists. In Baroque choirs, boy sopranos were preferred over women for their lighter bell-like upper range.
The performance by the Tölzer Knabenchor and Kammerorchester Basel strive to replicate Handel's original instrumentation and sound, with boy choir and period correct instruments (e.g., use of long trumpets without valves).
Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah | George Frideric Handel. Performed by the Tölzer Knabenchor and Kammerorchester Basel (3:50).
Rehearsal of the Oratorio | William Hogarth, 1697-1764 | Hogarth was a 18th century London painter, engraver and satirist | Wikimedia Commons
Water Music Suite
Handel's oratorios garner the most attention and, thus, it's easy to forget he was also a prolific composer of instrumental music.
Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames | Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) c. 1747 | Yale Center for British Art
King George's Party
The Water Music Suite was written for King George’s boating party on the River Thames on July 17, 1717. There are twenty-one movements scored for flute, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, strings and basso continuo. Here’s what the London Daily Courant, July 19, 1717, wrote about it:
On Wednesday evening about eight, the King took water of Whitefall in an open barge. Many other barges with persons of quality attended, and so great was the number of boats that the whole river was covered. A city company’s barge was employed for the music composed for this occasion by Mr. Handel: which his Majesty liked so well that he caused it to be played three times over in going and returning.
The King's shindig helped propel Water Music to major hit status and, indeed, three hundred years later, Water Music is still popular.
Alla HornpipefromWater Music | George Frideric Handel (3:08)
Air from Water Music | George Frideric Handel (3:20)
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Messiah 
Composing Messiah
Dublin Debut
Hallelujah Chorus
Water Music Suite 
