Essay about George Frederick Handel

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George Frederick Handel

George Frederick Handel was born on February 24, 1685 in Halle, Germany.
One of the greatest composers of the late baroque period (1700-50) and, during his lifetime, perhaps the most internationally famous of all musicians. Handel was born February 24, 1685, in Halle, Germany, to a family of no musical distinction. His own musical talent, however, expressed itself so clearly that before his tenth birthday he began to receive, from a local organist, the only formal musical instruction he would ever have. Although his first job, beginning just after his 17th birthday, was as church organist in Halle, Handel's musical tendencies lay elsewhere. Thus, in 1703 he traveled to Hamburg, the operatic center of Germany; …show more content…
Handel died in London on April 14, 1759; the last musical performance he heard, on April 6, was of his own Messiah. Throughout his life
Handel avoided the strict techniques of his exact contemporary Johann Sebastian
Bach and achieved his effects through the simplest of means, trusting always his own natural musicianship. The music of both composers, however, sums up the age in which they lived. After them, opera took a different path; the favorite baroque genres of chamber and orchestral music, trio sonata and concerto grosso, were largely abandoned; and the development of the symphony orchestra and the pianoforte led into realms uncharted by the baroque masters. Their influence can't be found in specific examples. Handel's legacy lies in the dramatic power and lyrical beauty inherent in all his music. His operas move from the rigid use of traditional schemes toward a more flexible and dramatic treatment of recitative, arioso, aria, and chorus.
His ability to build large scenes around a single character was further extended in the dramatic scenas of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the
Italian Gioacchino Rossini. Handel's greatest gift to posterity was undoubtedly the creation of the dramatic oratorio genre, partly out of existing operatic traditions and partly by force of his own musical imagination; without question, the oratorios of both the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn and the German
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