George Frideric Handel: Music for Kings and Rivers
George Frideric Handel was a composer born in Germany who lived most of his life in London, in England. He wrote music for kings, for boats on a river and for big choirs. His Messiah is still sung by choirs every year.
In this lesson
From Halle to London
George Frideric Handel was born in 1685 in Halle, a town in Germany. As a boy he studied music with an organist named Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, and he learned to play the organ very well.
He worked in Hamburg, in Germany, and then visited Italy around 1706 to write operas. In 1712 he settled in London for good, and in 1727 he became a British citizen. He died in London in 1759, at the age of 74.
A gift for children
According to a famous old story, Handel's father did not want him to study music, so the young Handel secretly practised on a small keyboard in the attic. Historians are not sure the story is true, but people still like to tell it.
When Messiah was first performed in Dublin, the concert raised money for charities. Later, in London, Handel gave Messiah concerts to help the Foundling Hospital, a home for children who had no families to care for them. He did this every year starting in 1750.
Many people still sing Messiah around the winter holidays. Some audiences stand during the Hallelujah chorus, following a popular story about a king standing up, although nobody has found proof of it.
Big, bright and grand
Handel's music often sounds big and festive. He loved to write for trumpets, drums and large choirs, and many of his tunes are easy to remember.
He was also great at telling stories with music. In his operas and oratorios, singers act out or sing about a story, and the music shows how everyone feels.
Try listening for
These four pieces show how Handel used trumpets, voices and drums.
- Messiah, Hallelujah chorus
- Listen for the trumpets, the choir shouting joyful words, and the way the music keeps getting bigger.
- Messiah, "Comfort ye"
- Listen for the tenor soloist, who sings the first words of the work, softly and calmly.
- Water Music
- Listen for the bright horns and trumpets, music made to be heard outdoors on the water.
- Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Listen for the oboes, horns, trumpets and drums, with no violins in the first version, like a big outdoor band.
Listen to the Hallelujah chorus and raise your hands higher each time the music grows bigger. Then listen to Water Music and sway like a boat on the river.
Some pieces to know
Handel wrote a lot of music, including dozens of operas and many pieces for choir and orchestra.
- Messiah
- A big work for choir, soloists and orchestra, sung in English. It was first performed in Dublin, in Ireland, in 1742.
- Water Music
- Music for an orchestra to play outdoors. It was first played in London in 1717.
- Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Loud, festive music for wind instruments and drums, written to celebrate the end of a war and played in London in 1749.
- Zadok the Priest
- A choir piece written in 1727 for the coronation of King George II in London. Choirs have sung it at British coronations ever since.
Meanwhile, around the world
- 1685Another great composer is born
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, in Germany, in the same year as Handel.
- Around 1700A new kind of keyboard
In Florence, Italy, Bartolomeo Cristofori built an early piano that could play soft and loud.
- 1703Teaching in Venice
Antonio Vivaldi started teaching violin at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, in Italy.
- 1750Bach's last year
Bach died in Leipzig, in Germany, at the age of 65.
- 1756A future star is born
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, in what is now Austria.
Piano sound: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0).