Composer | George Frideric Handel

Born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, in 1685 (an exact contemporary of J S Bach and Scarlatti), George Frederick Handel was one of eight children born to a court barber-surgeon. Stories of paternal opposition and a nocturnally-played clavichord in the family attic are dubious, but the Duke of Saxony urged Handel’s father to arrange for musical studies with Zachow, the Halle organist, and Handel rapidly developed skills in composition, and on harpsichord, organ, violin and oboe. After some years as professional organist in Halle, Handel moved to Berlin and in 1703 to Hamburg, where his first operas were staged.

After a period in Florence, at the invitation of the Medici Duke of Tuscany, where he wrote his first Italian operas, as well as oratorios and sacred music, in 1710 Handel became Kappelmeister to the Elector of Hanover (later George I of Britain) and settled in London in 1712, enjoying the patronage of Queen Anne, George I (for whom his famous Water Music was written) and George II, for whom his 1727 Coronation Anthems, including Zadok the Priest, were written, and have been played at every British coronation since. In 1727 Handel became a naturalised British subject.

A wealthy patron, Lord Chandos, sponsored Handel’s direction of the Royal Academy of Music, providing London with Italian operas, often composed by Handel himself, and from 1729 he co-directed the Queen’s Theatre, Haymarket. After the triumphant success of The Messiah (1742), Handel gave up Italian opera for oratorio. Handel’s huge output included 40 operas, many oratorios, sacred organ and choral works, as well as chamber and orchestral works.

From 1750, he dedicated himself to the Foundling Hospital for orphan children, giving generously and raising large sums for it. After a 1752 carriage accident and a failed cataract operation, Handel lost his eyesight. An astute businessman and a popular social figure, Handel never married and kept his personal life private. He died a wealthy man in 1759 and was buried with state honours in London’s Westminster Abbey.