How are
you?
This week's
lecture is “George Frideric Handel”, the 5th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “90.
Classical Music: 5. George Frideric Handel” introduced
on June 3rd, 2017.
George Frideric Handel was a German-born composer who was born on February 23, 1685 and died on April 14, 1759. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach, he is a composer representing the Baroque era.
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| Handel, Balthasar Denner (1733) |
Educated in music in his hometown Halle, Handel worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy, and then settled in London in 1712, where he spent most of his career and naturalized to England in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque.
Having achieved success with the oratorio “Messiah”, Handel no longer composed Italian operas. His works, "Water Music" and "Music for the Royal Fireworks" are steadfastly gaining popularity.
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| The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, where Messiah was first performed |
The “Water Music” is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites. It was composed at the request of King George I of England for a concert on the River Thames and premiered on July 17, 1717.
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| Handel (left) and King George I on the River Thames, 17 July 1717, Edouard Hamman |
“Music for the Royal Fireworks” is a suite for wind instruments composed by Handel at the request of George II of England for the fireworks scheduled to be held at Green Park in London on April 27, 1749.
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| Green Park, London |
Unlike other musicians, Handel, who is optimistic and free-minded, has accumulated a lot of wealth because of his entrepreneurial skills, but he has lived a life of twists and turns, with repeated failures. Almost blind, he died in 1759, and his funeral was held at Westminster Abbey.
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| Handel's monument, Westminster Abbey |
Handel
composed more than forty operas for over thirty years. Since the late 1960s,
interest in Handel's music has grown, and his music exerted a strong influence
on Classical-era composers, including Mozart and Beethoven.
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| A carved marble statue of Handel, Louis-François Roubiliac, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1738) |
Thank you.
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