Georg Friedrich Handel(Handel) (02/23/1685, Halle - 04/14/1759, London) - German composer. The barber's son. At the age of seven he began to learn to play the organ, harpsichord, and oboe. His teacher, the organist in Halle FW Zachau, also taught Handel the basics of counterpoint and fugue. At the age of 12, Handel became an assistant organist. In the same years he wrote his first works - a motet and 6 sonatas for 2 oboes and bass. In 1702, Handel received a position as organist in his native city, but the following year he moved to Hamburg, the center of musical life in what was then Germany. Here begins the operatic activity of Handel, which lasted over 30 years. He worked as a violinist, and then as a conductor of the orchestra of the Hamburg Opera, headed by a prominent musical figure and composer R. Keyser. Handel soon wrote his first opera Almira, Queen of Castile (1705) for this theater. Big role for Handel, his friendship with the gifted theoretician and composer I. Mattheson, his future first biographer, played. Opera art captures Handel more and more. The Hamburg theater no longer satisfies him, and Handel decides to go to the birthplace of opera - to Italy.
In 1706-1710 Handel lived in Florence, Rome, Venice and Naples. He soon gained fame in Italy as an excellent improvising organist and harpsichordist. In Rome, Handel became close to D. Scarlatti; Handel gave him advice in playing the organ, in turn, Scarlatti helped Handel in mastering the technique of playing the harpsichord. In 1708, Handel's opera "Rodrigo" was staged in Florence, and in 1709 in Venice - "Agrippina", which was liked by demanding Italians. In Italy, Handel wrote his first two oratorios - "Resurrection" and "The Triumph of Reason and Time", the pastoral oratorio "Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus", etc. Handel was nicknamed in Italy "the famous Saxon", and after staging operas - "Orpheus our time".
After a short stay in Hanover, where Handel was the court bandmaster, he moved in 1710 to London, with which almost all of his future life. The very next year, Handel's pasticcio opera "Rinaldo" based on the plot of the poem by T. Tasso"Jerusalem Liberated" (music was mainly composed of separate numbers of his former operas). The public enthusiastically accepted this work, and the name of Handel became widely known in London, and soon throughout England. Performing as an organist and harpsichordist, first in the music salons of the London aristocracy, and then to a wider audience, Handel increasingly strengthened the fame of the best musician in England. He writes a solemn ode in honor of the queen, a number of patriotic works that were appreciated by the English court. The study of English musical art and, first of all, G. Purcell's operas, as well as folk music, as well as impressions from the life and life of London gave his works an English national character. (The exclamations of street vendors, according to Handel, helped him create song melodies.) In 1717-1720, Handel served at the court of the Duke of Chendos. In the same years, Handel is working on the creation of choral works; he writes 12 psalms. "Anthemes of Chendos" for soloists, choir and orchestra, the first English oratorio "Esther" (1st edition - "Haman and Mardochai"), the cantata "Acis and Galatea", etc. In 1720, Handel wrote for his student Princess Anna a collection of suites for harpsichord, which contains an aria with variations from the suite in E major, known as "The Harmonious Blacksmith". (Aria from the suite in B-flat major served Brahms the theme of his famous piano variations.)
In 1720, Handel headed the "Royal Academy of Music", for the opening of which he wrote the opera "Radamist". His best operatic works, Julius Caesar (1724), Tamerlane (1724), Rodelinda (1725), were also staged here. Gradually, however, the tastes of the English public are changing; she is no longer interested in heroic images, strong passions and experiences of the heroes of Handel's operas; the audience was more attracted by the coloratura of Italian prima donnas and sopranos.
Representatives of the London nobility, led by the Prince of Wales, who himself tried to write operas, took up arms against Handel. The persecution of Handel in the press, the preference given by the English high society to the Italian composer D. Bononcini, and finally, the resounding success of the parody of the opera series "The Beggar's Opera" by J. Gay and Pepush staged in 1728 - all this was the reason for the closure of Handel's theater. He was forced to leave for Italy to recruit a new troupe. In 1729, performances of the newly created Opera House by Handel took place in London. Soon this troupe broke up. But the cessation of performances did not break Handel; in 1734 he created a theater for the third time, investing all his savings in it. Intrigues began again, and in 1737 Handel's theatrical enterprise collapsed, and he himself was ruined.
Already in these years, Handel, in addition to operas, also created oratorios, and from the beginning of the 1740s he almost completely switched to this genre. (Handel's last opera, The Diademia, was composed in 1741.) In 1738, he created the oratorio Saul, and the following year, Israel in Egypt. Initially, Handel's oratorios were coldly greeted by Londoners, and the clergy also opposed their performance. Only after his next oratorio "Messiah" was performed with great success in Dublin in 1742, and especially after the creation of the heroic oratorio "Judas Maccabee" (1746), which impressed the mood of the British after the victory over the Scots in 1745, in relation to the composer fracture has occurred. Now, in the twilight of his life, he was universally recognized in England. In 1751, while working on his last oratorio "Jephthae", Handel became blind, but he continued to participate in the performance of oratorios as an organist.
Handel worked with exceptional speed on his works; so the opera "Rinaldo" was written by him in two weeks, one of his best works, the oratorio "Messiah", in 24 days.
Turning exclusively to the opera seria genre, Handel created various works within this genre. In the first place here it is necessary to put his historical-heroic operas "Radamist", "Julius Caesar", "Rodelinda"; in fact, Handel initiated this genre. He also wrote magic-fantastic operas - "Theseus" (1712), "Amadis" (1715), "Alcina" (1735) and "exotic" operas - "Tamerlane" (1725), "Alexander" (1726), " Xerxes" (1738), and also turned to the genre of pastoral opera-ballet, which was very popular at that time - "The Faithful Shepherd" (1712; 2nd edition of "Terpsichore" - 1734), "Feast on Parnassus" (1734) , "Hymen" (1740).
Handel's instrumental works are also of great interest. Handel's instrumental music is very close to his theatrical music in terms of clarity and concreteness of images, in terms of the specificity of the themes, in terms of its pictorial tendencies. Among Handel's orchestral works are the suites with overtures "Music on the Water" (1717) and "Music of Fireworks" (1749). Handel wrote these compositions for mass performance in the open air, in London parks and gardens. Hence the large composition of the orchestra, and the folk dance character of individual pieces, and the availability of music for a wide audience. Among the other most characteristic instrumental works of Handel are the Concerti Grossi, in which the forms of Italian and french music, and organ concerts, about which one of Handel's Soviet biographers, R. I. Gruber, wrote that Handel re-created this genre, since he first "brought the organ out of the cult framework, used it widely and in a variety of secular terms, preserving it properties of mass action".
Handel's oratorios retain their significance to this day. Written mainly on biblical subjects, they sing heroic deeds for the benefit of the people languishing under the yoke of foreign tyrants. In the center of the oratorios, distinguished by the unity of their dramatic design, are the masses of the people and their leaders; all the attention of the composer is focused on their life and experiences. Showing the courageous, brave biblical heroes, Handel emphasized in them the features of fighters for freedom and justice. Almost all Handel's oratorios end with the victory of the people, the triumph of justice; the finale of the works is a jubilantly solemn hymn glorifying the winners. Doing people central character, Handel, naturally, strengthened the role of the choir in the oratorio, embodying the image of the masses. Before Handel, musical art did not know such a powerful and monumental use of choral episodes in music. Handel's mastery of choral sound delighted and Beethoven("That's who you need to learn from modest means to achieve amazing effects," he said), and Tchaikovsky, who wrote that "Not at all forcing the choral vocal means, never leaving the natural limits of the vocal registers, he [Handel] extracted from the chorus such excellent mass effects that other composers have never achieved ... ". Along with Bach Handel is the largest master of polyphonic choral writing, who perfectly mastered the entire palette of sonorities.
In his works, Handel also painted pictures of nature. Among them there are works that are clearly inspired by nature. Pictures of nature occupy a central place, for example, in the oratorio "Cheerful, thoughtful and restrained" to the text of J. Milton(1740). Not to mention Handel's oratorios or his best instrumental works, dramatic arias from operas (for example, famous aria from "Rinaldo"), instrumental largo from "Xerxes", Sicilian and many others. others continue to excite listeners to our time. The heroic features of Handel's work were further developed in the works of such different composers as glitch , Cherubini, Beethoven, Mendelssohn , Berlioz , Wagner. Handel was greatly appreciated by Russian musicians, led by Glinka. In 1856, the "Handel Society" was founded in Germany, which published until 1894 the complete works of Handel in 99 vols. edited by one of the best connoisseurs of his work F. Krizander. It has become a tradition to hold Handel festivals in Germany and England.
1685 - born in Galle. Discovered in early age outstanding musical abilities, incl. the gift of an improviser, did not cause much enthusiasm for his father, an elderly barber-surgeon.
WITH 9 year old took composition and organ lessons from F.V. Zachau,
With 12 years wrote church cantatas and organ pieces.
IN 1702. studied jurisprudence at the University of Halle, at the same time served as organist of the Protestant cathedral.
WITH 1703 worked at the opera house in Hamburg(violinist, then harpsichordist and composer). Acquaintance with Kaiser, musical theorist Mattheson. Composition of the first operas - "Almira", "Nero". Passion for John.
IN 1706-1710 improved in Italy where he became famous as a virtuoso master of playing the harpsichord and organ. Met Corelli, Vivaldi, father and son Scarlatti. Handel's productions of his operas brought him wide acclaim. "Rodrigo" "Agrippina". oratorios "The Triumph of Time and Truth", "Resurrection".
IN 1710-1717 court conductor in Hanover, although from 1712 he lived mainly in London(in 1727 he received English citizenship). Opera success "Rinaldo"(1711, London) secured for Handel the fame of one of the greatest opera composers in Europe. The composer's work at the London Royal Academy of Music was especially fruitful, when he composed several operas a year (among them - "Julius Caesar", "Roselinda", "Alexander" and others.) The independent nature of Handel complicated his relations with certain circles of the aristocracy. In addition, the genre of opera-seria, which was staged by the Royal Academy of Music, was alien to the English democratic public.
IN 1730s Handel is looking for new ways in musical theater, trying to reform the opera seria ( "Ariodant", "Alchina", "Xerxes"), but the genre itself was doomed. After suffering a serious illness (paralysis) and the failure of the opera Deidamia, he gave up composing and staging operas.
After 1738 the central genre of Handel's work was oratorio: Saul, Israel in Egypt, Messiah, Samson, Judas Maccabee, Joshua.
While working on the last oratorio "Jewfay"(1752) the composer's eyesight deteriorated sharply, he became blind; at the same time before last days continued to prepare his essays for publication.
Bach and Handel
The work of Georg Friedrich Handel, along with the work of J.S. Bach, was the culmination in the development musical culture first half of XVIII century. Much unites these two artists, who, moreover, were peers and compatriots:
- both synthesized the creative experience of various national schools, their work is a kind of summing up the development of centuries-old traditions;
- both Bach and Handel were the greatest polyphonists in the history of music;
- both composers gravitated toward genres of choral music.
However, in comparison with Bach, Handel's creative fate was completely different, from birth he was brought up in different conditions, and subsequently lived and worked in a different social environment:
- Bach was a hereditary musician. Handel, on the other hand, was born into the family of a rather wealthy barber-surgeon, and his early musical inclinations did not cause any enthusiasm among his father, who dreamed of seeing his son as a lawyer;
- if the biography of Bach is not rich in external events, then Handel lived a very turbulent life, having experienced both brilliant victories and catastrophic breakdowns;
- already during his lifetime, Handel achieved universal recognition, was in full view of musical Europe, while Bach's work was little known to his contemporaries;
- Bach served almost all his life at the church, wrote a huge part of the music for the church, he himself was a very devout person, who knew perfectly well Holy Bible. Handel was exclusively secular composer, composing primarily for the theater and concert stage. Purely ecclesiastical genres occupy a small place with him and are concentrated in the early period of his work. It is significant that the clergy during Handel's lifetime hindered attempts to interpret his oratorios as cult music.
- WITH young years Handel did not want to put up with the dependent position of a provincial church musician and, at the first opportunity, moved to the free city of Hamburg - the city of the German opera. During the Handel era, he was cultural center Germany. In no other German city was music held in such respect as there. In Hamburg, the composer first turned to the operatic genre, to which he gravitated all his life (this is another difference from Bach).
Opera by Handel
As an opera composer, Handel could not avoid going to Italy, especially since the Hamburg opera was in decline at the beginning of the 18th century (Bach never traveled outside Germany in his entire life). In Italy, he was struck by a purely secular atmosphere artistic life, so unlike the closed life of German cities, where music sounded mainly in churches and princely residences. Creating new operas for various theaters ("Rinaldo » , "Rodrigo» , "Theseus") Handel, however, very clearly felt that not everything satisfied him in this genre. He always strove to embody heroic content, vivid and strong characters, to the creation of grandiose mass scenes, but the contemporary opera seria did not know all this. In the course of his many years of work on the opera (37 years, during which he created more than 40 operas, including "Orlando" ,"Julius Caesar", "Xerxes") Handel made attempts to renew the seria genre. This often caused opposition from the aristocratic public, who valued only virtuoso singing in the opera. However, the type of opera that Handel heroically tried to defend, enriching him from within, was not viable in a historical sense. In addition, in England, where the second half of the composer's life passed, the democratic part of the public had an extremely negative attitude towards the seria opera (as evidenced, in particular, by the huge success of the Beggar's Opera, a cheerful parody of the court opera). Only in France, by the middle of the 18th century, the ground was prepared for the operatic reform, which was carried out by K.V. Gluck shortly after Handel's death. And yet, many years of work on the opera for the composer was not in vain, being the preparation of his heroic oratorios. Exactly oratorio became the true vocation of Handel, the genre with which in the history of music his name associated in the first place. The composer did not part with him until the end of his days.
Oratorio by Handel
Cantatas, oratorios, passions, anthemes Handel wrote throughout creative way. But from the end of the 30s, the oratorio came to the fore in his work. In the oratorios, the composer realized those bold ideas that he failed to implement within the framework of modern opera. Here the most pronounced character traits his style.
The great merit of Handel was that in his oratorios he first brought out the people as the main protagonist. The theme of sublime love, which dominated Handel's contemporary opera, gave way to images of the people fighting for their freedom. In characterizing the people, the composer, of course, relied not on solo singing, but on the powerful sound of the choir. In the grandiose oratorio choirs, Handel is the greatest. It was common for him to think close-up, picturesquely and voluminously. This is a muralist, whose music is appropriate to compare with the monumental sculptural works, with fresco painting (parallels with art are especially often drawn).
Handel's monumentalism grew out of the heroic essence of his music. heroics- a favorite area of this composer. The main themes are the greatness of a person, his ability to a feat, heroic struggle (Handel was the first to touch on the topic of heroic struggle in music, anticipating Beethoven in this). Bach in his monumental choral works is more psychological, he is more concerned with ethical issues.
The main source of the plots of Handel's mature oratorios is the Bible, the Old Testament. There is a lot of fierce struggle, blood, exciting passions (hatred, envy, betrayal). There are many bright, extraordinary, contradictory characters. All this was extremely interesting to Handel, the connoisseur of human souls, and was close to his powerful and whole nature. New Testament, actually Christian stories in Handel very little(early "Passion according to John", oratorio "Resurrection", "Passion according to Brokes"; from the later ones - only "Messiah"). Bach was primarily attracted to the New Testament. Its main character and moral ideal- Jesus.
Among Handel's most popular compositions are oratorios "Saul", "Israel in Egypt", "Messiah", "Samson", "Judas Maccabee" , which were created in the last decade by an active creative work(late 30s - 40s). At this time the composer lived in London. Bible stories were perceived in England as "their own" - just like in Italy, antique or Roman. The Bible was sometimes the only book read by a literate average Englishman. Here were common biblical names(Jeremy - Jeremiah, Jonathan - Jonathan). In addition, the events described in the Bible (and, accordingly, in Handel's oratorios) were ideally in tune with the military-political situation in England in the first half of the 18th century. Handel himself, apparently, in biblical heroes was attracted by their inner complexity.
How does the musical dramaturgy in Handel's oratorios differ from his operatic dramaturgy?
- Operas, as a rule, do not have a choir (for commercial reasons) and do not have extended choral episodes. The choir plays in the oratorios leading role, sometimes completely overshadowing the soloists. Handel's choirs are extremely varied. None of the composer's contemporaries (including Bach) can compare with him in this respect. His skill rather anticipates Mussorgsky, who also created choral scenes inhabited not by faceless masses, but by living faces with unique characters and destinies.
- The participation of the choir dictates a different content compared to the opera. It's about here about the fate of entire nations, all of humanity, and not just about the experiences of individuals.
- The heroes of the oratorios do not fit into the traditional baroque opera ideas about this or that type of character. They are more complex, contradictory, sometimes unpredictable. Hence - and more free, diverse musical forms (the traditional form "da capo" is rare).
Oratorio "Messiah"
Handel's most famous and most frequently performed oratorio "Messiah" . It was written by order, which came from Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Even during the composer's lifetime, the oratorio became a legendary work, an object of enthusiastic worship.
The Messiah is practically the only London oratorio by Handel dedicated to Christ himself. The concept of the Messiah (Savior) is the point at which the Old and New Testaments pass one into the other. The appearance of the divine Savior foretold by the prophets is realized through the coming of Christ and is expected by believers in the future.
Part I embodies the tremulous expectation of the Messiah, the miracle of the birth of Christ, and rejoicing in his honor.
Part II depicts the events of Holy Week and Easter: the crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ; it ends with a festive choir hallelujah. By order of George II, he acquired national importance and was performed in all British temples, it was to be listened to while standing, like a prayer.
Part III is the most philosophical and static. These are reflections on life in Christ, on death and immortality. The composer's biographers write that, dying, he whispered the text of the soprano aria from this movement: "I know my savior is alive". These words, with the appropriate melody, are placed on the monument of Handel in Westminster Abbey, where he is buried (a rare honor that was awarded only to kings and the most worthy people England).
Romain Rolland, in his book on Handel, suggested that if the composer had moved not to England, but to France, then the operatic reform would have been carried out much earlier.
A popular poet in the early 18th century.
Gendel G.F.
(Händel) Georg Friedrich (23 II 1685, Halle - 14 IV 1759, London) - German. composer.
Most of his life (almost 50 years) lived in England. Born in the family of a barber-surgeon. His teacher was the composer and organist F.V. Zachau. At the age of 17 G. took the place of organist and musicians. head of the cathedral in Halle. Since that time, G.'s invariable attraction to serious art and the synthesis of chorus and instr. music, to-ry was a tradition of it. music. However, religious interests were alien to the composer. Gravity to secular, especially theatrical, music forced him to move from Halle to Hamburg in 1703 - the only city at that time where German existed. opera theater . In Hamburg, G. created the operas Almira and Nero (post. 1705). However, the Hamburg Opera fell apart (for economically backward, feudal Germany, the time of the national opera school had not yet come), and in 1706 G. left for Italy, lived in Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice and won the glory of a first-class composer. He wrote the operas Rodrigo (1707), Agrippina (1709), oratorios, the pastoral serenade Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus (1708), chamber cantatas, duets, tercetos, psalms. In Italy, G. became known as an outstanding performer on the clavier and organ (competed with D. Scarlatti). From 1710 adv. Kapellmeister in Hannover (Germany). In the same year he was invited to London, where at the beginning. In 1711, his opera Rinaldo was staged with great success. In the 1710s G. worked alternately in London and Hanover, in 1717 he finally broke with Germany and in 1727 adopted the English. citizenship. In 1720, G. headed the opera company in London (Royal Academy of Music). Here he experienced strong opposition decomp. layers of English society. Against G. raised a campaign aristocratic. circles that were in opposition to the king (who provided patronage to G.) - a representative of the Hanoverian dynasty. The Prince of Wales, who was at odds with the king, organized the so-called. The high-society opera and, together with other representatives of the nobility, supported the fashionable Italians who competed with G.. composers, authors of superficially virtuoso operas. G.'s independent character complicated his relationship with the court. In addition, the higher clergy obstructed the conc. performance of G.'s biblical oratorios. On the other hand, the genre of opera in which G. worked in England is Italian. opera seria - was alien to English. bourgeois-democratic. to the public and according to their conditional antique-mythological. plots, and in a foreign language. Advanced journalism (J. Addison, J. Swift, and others) attacked G., criticizing the reactionaries in his person. aesthetics of anti-national adv. aristocratic operas. In 1728, The Beggar's Opera was staged in London (text by J. Gay, music by J. Pepush) - bourgeois. comedy with many inserts from nar. songs and popular arias. This play with a pronounced political orientation included a satire on the aristocratic opera. Main the blow was directed against G., as the most famous composer, "Italian". The resounding success of the "Opera of the Beggars" intensified the attacks on G. and led to the collapse of the opera company he led, and G. himself was paralyzed. After recovering, Mr.. again returned to the energetic creativity. and organizational activities, wrote and staged operas, staged performances and concerts, but suffered one defeat after another (in 1741, his last opera, Deidamia, failed). In 1742 the oratorio "Messiah" was enthusiastically received in Dublin (Ireland). However, in London, the performance of Messiah and a number of other subsequent oratorios by G. caused new wave persecution by high society, which subjected G. to a deep mental depression (1745). In the same year, a sharp turning point came in the fate of the composer. In England, a struggle began against attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty, G. created the "Hymn of the Volunteers" and the "Oratorio in case" - a call to fight against the invasion of the Stuart army. These patriotic and especially the militantly victorious heroic oratorio "Judas Maccabee" brought G. wide recognition. His subsequent oratorios were also enthusiastically received. G. found a new, democratic audience. G.'s death in 1759 was perceived by the English people as the loss of a national composer.
English limitation. bourgeois culture that failed to create the prerequisites for the development of nat. operas high style, forced G., who gravitated towards t-ru all his life, after a long struggle, to abandon this genre. His Italian. opera series (in total, G. wrote St. 40 operas) reveal a continuous purposeful search for dramatic. style and have great melodic. wealth, emotional power the impact of music. However, in general, this genre fettered realistic. composer's aspirations. All R. 30s G. turned to wok.-symp. the genre of oratorio, not related to stage action. He almost completely devoted the last decade of his active work to her. activities (1741-51). In oratorio creativity - the main thing is historical. meaning D. On the material of biblical traditions and their refraction in nat. English poetry (J. Milton), the composer created full of epic grandeur and dramatic. the power of the picture nar. disasters and suffering, the struggle for liberation from the oppression of the enslavers. People imbued with the spirit patriotism, G.'s grandiose creations reflected the democratic. English aspirations. people and in its general ideological meaning and emotions. character do not belong to a cult art. G. considered his oratorios as secular works of the concert type and resolutely rebelled against their performance in churches. Later practice distorted G.'s intentions, interpreting his folk musical tragedies as sacred music.
G. deeply transformed the oratorio, creating a new type of monumental wok.-orchestral product, distinguished by the unity of the dramaturgy. intent. In the center of the oratorio G. - Nar. the masses, its heroes and leaders. The active role of the people determined the leading role of the choir. Western European secular music before G. did not know such a huge scale and power of expressiveness of the choir. Dramatic variety. choir functions, beauty and fullness of chord and polyphonic. sound, flexible, free and at the same time classically completed forms made H., along with J. S. Bach, unsurpassed in Western Europe. music by a classic of choral writing. Brought up in the traditions of it. polyphony - choral, organ, orchestral, G. in his oratorio work also implemented the traditions of English. choral culture (from the first years of his activity in England, G. wrote choral anthems - English psalms such as cantatas, studied folk polyphonic music and the work of G. Purcell). G. developed in the oratorios the best elements of his opera music. G.'s melodic style, striking "the ingenious calculation of the most dramatic strings human voice"(A. N. Serov), brought by him in oratorios to high degree expressiveness. Democratic the orientation of G.'s oratorio creativity determined its general accessibility both in relation to plots familiar to a wide audience, and nar. language, and in relation to music, which is distinguished by a special relief and clarity of development. In the oratorios of G. appeared operatic and dramatic. tendencies ("Samson", 1741; "Ievfay", 1752, etc.), epic ("Israel in Egypt", 1739; "Judas Maccabee", 1747, etc.), sometimes lyrical ("Cheerful, thoughtful and restrained ", 1740, according to J. Milton), but in all of them one can feel G.'s inherent optimism, a sour sense of beauty, love for the genre, concrete, pictorial principles. G.'s oratorios were created on the basis of a libretto loosely interpreting legends from the Old Testament. Only "Messiah" is written in the original gospel text. Total G. wrote approx. 30 oratorios.
Among the extensive instr. G.'s heritage, which included almost all modern. composer of genres, the type of instr he created stood out. music for outdoor performance and representing colorful suites for large orchestral ensembles with a particularly active role of wind instruments ("Music on the Water", ca. 1715-1717; "Firework Music", 1749). Significant in depth of content and mastery of forms are orchestral ensemble concertos (the "concerto grosso" form) and the new genre of organ concertos introduced by G. (accompanied by an orchestra or ensemble), written in an emphatically secular, festively brilliant style. G. also owned suites for the Harpsichord (an English version of the harpsichord), sonatas and trio sonatas for decomp. instruments and other compositions. G.'s work did not find continuation in England itself, where there were neither ideological nor muses for this. creative incentives. But it had a strong influence on the development of Western Europe. classical music of the bourgeois era. education and Great French. revolutions (K. V. Gluck, J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, L. Cherubini, E. Megyul, L. Beethoven). G. was highly valued by leading Russian musicians. V. V. Stasov called G., like J. S. Bach, "the colossus of new music."
Key dates of life and activity
1685. - 23 II. In the Central German city of Halle, in the family of the adv. Saxon barber-surgeon George G. was born the son of Georg Friedrich.
1689. - G. self-taught mastered playing the harpsichord, despite the protests of his father, who outlined a career as a lawyer for his son.
1692-93. - A trip with his father to the residence of the Elector of Saxony and in the city of Weissenfels, where G. played the organ in the church.
1694. - Beginning of music lessons with the composer and organist F. V. Tsakhau (studying the general bass, composition, playing the harpsichord, organ, violin, oboe).
1695. - The first muses. compositions: 6 sonatas for wind instruments.
1696. - Trip to Berlin. - First performance as a harpsichordist and accompanist during court concerts.
1697. - Return to Halle. - Creation of a number of cantatas and pieces for organ.
1698-1700. - Classes in the city gymnasium.
1701. - Acquaintance with the composer G. F. Teleman. - Replacing the post of organist in the Calvinist Cathedral in Halle.
1702. - Admission to the legal. f-t un-ta in Halle. - At the same time. G. receives the position of organist and music director in the cathedral. - Teaches singing and music theory at a Protestant gymnasium.
1703. - Moving to Hamburg. - Acquaintance with the composer I. Mattezon. - Work in the orchestra of the opera t-ra as a 2nd violinist and harpsichordist.
1704. - 17 II. Execution of the first oratorio G. - "Passion according to the Gospel of John".
1705. - 8 I. Staging of G.'s first opera - "Almira" in the Hamburg Opera House. - 25 II. Staging in the same place the second opera G. - "Nero". - Left the orchestra due to severe financial position t-ra.
1706. - A trip to Florence (Italy).
1707. - The first Italian was performed in Florence. opera G. - "Rodrigo". - A trip to Venice, acquaintance with D. Scarlatti.
1708. - In Rome, acquaintance with A. Corelli, A. Scarlatti, B. Pasquini and B. Marcello. - A trip to Naples.
1710. - A trip to Hanover. - Getting Started as an Apprentice Kapellmeister. - Autumn trip to London, through Holland.
1711. - G.'s opera "Rinaldo" staged in London with great success. - Return to Hannover.
1712. - Late autumn, the second trip to London.
1716. - A trip to Hanover (July) in the retinue of King George. - Return to London at the end of the year.
1718. - G. directs the home orchestra of the Earl of Carnarvon (later the Duke of Chendos) at Cannon Castle (near Edzhuer).
1720. - Appointment of G. muses. Director of the Royal Music academy in London. - G.'s trip to Germany to recruit singers for the opera.
1721-26. - The culminating period of creativity. activities G. as an opera composer.
1727. - G. received the English. citizenship and title of composer of music of the Royal Chapel.
1728. - The success of the Beggar's Opera (text by J. Gay, music by J. Pepusch) contributed to the collapse of G.
1729. - G. received the post of muses. leader in the newly created Royal Muses. academy. - A trip to Italy to get acquainted with new operas and recruit singers; visiting Florence, Milan, Venice, Rome, etc. - Return to London.
1730-33. - A new upsurge of G.'s creativity - A trip to Oxford to the festival of his works.
1736. - Conducts 15 concertos from his compositions.
1737. - The collapse of the opera house, led by G. - Mental depression, serious illness of the composer (paralysis).
1738. - G.'s concertos for archichord or organ are published.
1741.-XI. A trip to Dublin (Ireland) for performances with concerts.
1742. - 13 IV. First performance of the oratorio "Messiah" in Dublin. - Return to London (in August).
1744. - G. rents Royal t-r in London.
1745. - Due to financial difficulties, G. closes the tr. - Mental depression and serious illness G. - Performance of the "Hymn of the Volunteers".
1746. - Execution of the "Oratorio in case", in which G. called on the British to fight the invasion of the Stuart army.
1747. - Performance of the oratorio "Judas Maccabee" in honor of the victory over the army of the Stuarts. - G. becomes nat. country hero. - Acquaintance with KV Gluck, who arrived in England; performance with him with the performance of his works.
1751. - The last trip to Holland and Germany. - Loss of vision.
1752. - Unsuccessful eye operation. - Complete blindness.
1754. - With the help of Smits, G. reworks and supplements previously created works. - Takes part in concerts, playing the organ or cembalo.
1756. - Severe depression of the composer.
1757. - Performance of the oratorio "The Triumph of Time and Truth" (separate numbers).
1759. - 30 III. G. last time directs the performance of Messiah at the Covent Garden Theatre. - 14 IV. G.'s death in London.
Musical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysha. 1973-1982 .
Main genres
Handel's creative activity was as long as it was fruitful. She brought a huge number of works of various genres. Here is the opera with its varieties (seria and pastoral), secular and spiritual. choral music, chamber vocal music, collections of instrumental pieces (harpsichord, organ, orchestra) and numerous oratorios.
Handel was a secular artist to the marrow of his bones, composing only for the theater and concert stage, this left an imprint on his composing style. When did it originate in Italy? comic opera he was about fifty years old. And the composer frankly and regretfully said that he was too old to work in a new genre. Nevertheless, the expressive techniques of the buff were subsequently reflected in his heroic oratorios.
Handel always opposed the performance of his works in the church, and the higher clergy prevented attempts during the composer's lifetime to interpret his oratorios as cult music. Even the organ, an ancient church instrument, was transferred by Handel to the concert hall, and instead of fugues and choral preludes, secular motifs of Italian violin concertos sounded on it. And in our time, many of his sublime opera arias are familiar in the form of church tunes, and his brilliant, secular oratorios imbued with a secular spirit are often perceived as a kind of Bach's passions.
Despite the commonality of stylistic features characteristic of all the music of that era, and the unity of national origins, the music of Bach and Handel differ significantly in their aesthetic orientation. Bach is associated with a philosophical and contemplative cult line in music. Handel, on the other hand, relies mainly on theatrical images and completes the "secular" culture of a number of previous generations.
The heroism of operas and the solemn decorativeness of court ballets, the lyrics of folk songs and the brilliance of mass dances, the brilliant impressiveness of concert pieces and the intimate depth of chamber music - these and many other features of secular musical culture prepared the features of Gödel's style, consonant with the advanced artistic ideals of the 20th century.
The essence of "Handelian" in music is expressed in his monumental oratorios. Handel came to them after many years of work in musical theater. In them, he embodied bold dramatic ideas that he could not implement within the framework of the modern opera seria. As a kind of refraction of the opera genre, they form a link between the old Italian opera and the realistic dramaturgy of the classics of the revolutionary era. They pave that new path in musical aesthetics that crown Gluck's lyrical tragedies, Mozart's musical dramas, Beethoven's symphonies.
Unlike Bach, Handel from a young age did not want to come to terms either with the narrowness of life in the German provinces, or with the position of church musician, to which they were acquired. major composers XVIII century. A pupil of an organist who wrote cult music in Halle in his younger years, he broke off these ties at the first opportunity and went to Hamburg, where there was the only German opera house. But the art school he went through in his youth left a deep and lasting mark in his work. All subsequent years, Handel maintained his attitude to music as the area of the most exalted spiritual manifestations. contradictions best years his creative life was associated with the desire to create ideological, serious music within the framework of an entertaining opera. This was the beginning of his conflict with the aristocratic milieu, which ended in a complete break with the genre of serious opera, to which he devoted more than thirty years.
Features of the style of the opera genreHandel's operatic work is represented by the genre of serious opera. He was not a reformer of the opera seria. What he sought was a search for a direction that later led in the second half of the 18th century to Gluck's operas. Nevertheless, in a genre that already largely does not meet modern demands, he managed to embody lofty ideals. Before revealing the ethical idea in the folk epics of oratorios, he honed his style in operas.
The problem of musical theater was central to Handel. With irresistible force he was drawn to the opera. Meanwhile, both in Germany and in England, in those years, the opera did not have a nationwide democratic character. For Germany, the era of the birth of the national theater has not yet arrived. In this country, musical drama was cultivated exclusively in princely circles and was a typical example of "gilded" court art. The Hamburg Opera - the only kind of folk musical theater in Germany - fell apart before it had time to form. Neither the brilliant talent of the Kaiser, nor the genius of Handel could save her from this fate. Handel, who gave this theater a lot of creative energy, was doomed to fail in his search for a national operatic style even before the material failure of such a “fantastic” enterprise for Germany as the city public theater became obvious.
But if for Germany the heyday of folk musical theater was ahead, then for England this moment was missed. Interesting and original ways of development national opera, outlined in the work of Henry Purcell, were irretrievably lost. And Handel faced an unexpected and difficult situation. England attracted him with its democratic way of life, the possibility of live communication with a wide audience. But, unlike in Italy and France, the English public was immune to the art of opera. There was no national musical theater in England, and the genre of grand theatrical opera, in which Handel was able to prove himself a brilliant master, met only the tastes of the aristocracy. But in this environment, the composer's attempts to go beyond the scope of the opera - seria did not meet with sympathy. In Thackeray's novel "The Virginians" there is a characteristic touch in describing the life of high society: the "golden youth" considered it a sign of good form to boycott Handel's opera productions, defiantly preferring the lightweight works of his rivals to them.
With relentless perseverance, Handel continued to seek his style in operatic dramaturgy. He saturated his works with heroic traits, strove for psychological truthfulness, for enriching the primitive mechanical composition of Italian opera, rightly called "an album of arias." But the aesthetics of this highly conventional genre fettered its creative possibilities. Destroying the established style of mythological opera and thus causing dissatisfaction with the aristocratic audience, Handel, at the same time, could not go beyond it. While Handel's individual arias achieved immortal glory, none of his many operas crossed over into the next century.
The resounding success of the Beggar's Opera led to the collapse of the theatrical enterprise headed by Handel, and he learned a lesson from the situation. The composer realized that the sympathies of democratic circles gravitated towards realistic art, that the pomp and abstraction of the Italian opera seria was identified for them with the dying aesthetics of the nobility.
And he drew attention to the beauty and expressiveness of English folklore, to which a wide audience was so susceptible, not appreciating his brilliant arias.
Nevertheless, the path indicated by the Beggar's Opera was unacceptable for Handel. The "lightness of genre" that defines the appearance of this English "ballad opera" was deeply alien to him. The dramaturgy of this opera was based on the piquant surface of the entertainment theater of the Restoration era. In the musical design there was not a trace of the high culture of the national music school XVII century. It has been reduced to the most elementary level. Despite the widespread use of musical folklore, the "ballad opera" never rose to the level that England has reached in the field of literature, painting and dramatic theater. That is why Handel began to look for another way to express his artistic ideas.
Features of the style of the oratorio genreThe Beggar's Opera prompted Handel to search for mass art, but he solved the problem of truth in music in a completely different way. His guiding star was not contemporary light-genre drama, but the high monumental art of England during its artistic heyday. He moved away from the theater and created new genre, over which the spirit of Shakespeare, Milton, Purcell soared - grandiose dramatic "poems" imbued with the ideas of civil heroism.
Work on the oratorio meant for Handel a way out of a creative impasse and an ideological and artistic crisis. At the same time, the oratorio, closely adjoining the opera in type, provided the maximum opportunities for using all the forms and techniques of operatic writing. It was in the oratorio genre that Handel created works worthy of his genius, truly great works, it is they that determine the essence of his style.
The oratorio, which the composer turned to in the 1930s and 1940s, was not a new genre for him. His first oratorio works date back to the time of his stay in Hamburg and Italy. But it is precisely the oratorios of recent years that can be regarded as the artistic completion of Handel's creative path. The Italian opera brought the composer mastery of the vocal style and various types of solo singing. Passions, English anthemes helped to develop the technique of choral writing; instrumental works contributed to the ability to use the colorful and expressive means of the orchestra. Thus, the richest experience preceded the creation of oratorios - the best creations of Handel.
The selection of subjects in the oratorios took place in full accordance with humane ethical and aesthetic convictions, with those responsible tasks that Handel assigned to art. It was the civil content of Gödel's oratorios that determined their legendary biblical plots. For nearly two centuries, the content of the Old Council has been part of the daily life of the English people. The people consciously opposed Biblical poetry to the pretentious Latin verses of court poets or the crude production of the "frivolous" restoration era. In the eyes of contemporaries, Handel's appeal to biblical themes was perceived as a victory of the people over the aristocratic, of the national over the courtly-cosmopolitan, of the serious over the entertaining. Choosing for his oratorios and emphasizing in them the heroic images of biblical legends, Handel came to a hitherto unknown form of mass musical art. He was the first to embody in music the idea of the greatness of the people's struggle, the first to make the hero of a musical and dramatic work not an individual, but the whole people. The theme of sublime love, which dominated contemporary opera, gave way to images of the people fighting for their freedom.
Usage biblical stories as plots for secular music not only expanded the range of these plots, but also presented new requirements and a new social meaning. In the oratorio, it was possible to go beyond the limits of love-lyrical intrigue, standard love vicissitudes, generally accepted in modern opera seria. Biblical stories did not allow frivolity, entertainment and distortion in the interpretation, and legends known to everyone from childhood made it possible to bring the content of oratorios closer to understanding by the general public.
Instead of a string of mythological characters incomprehensible to a democratic audience, Handel introduced into his oratorios the legendary "heroic" images - Samson, Maccabee, Saul, Jephthaus - familiar to every Englishman from childhood. The leaders of the struggling people, they personified the freedom-loving ideals of mankind. High civic pathos is intertwined in Handel with the theme of glorifying the beauty of life. In the "luxurious" sunny tones of his oratorios there is not a trace of Puritan asceticism. These huge multicolor canvases are permeated with the spirit of the Renaissance. It seems that all the richness and poetry of the secular art of many generations was embodied in the music of Handel's oratorios.
The epic-heroic nature of the images predetermined the forms and means of their musical embodiment. Handel mastered the skill of an opera composer to a high degree, and he made all the conquests of opera music the property of an oratorio. But, unlike the opera seria, with its reliance on solo singing, the choir turned out to be the core of the oratorio as a form of conveying the thoughts and feelings of the people. It is the choirs that give Handel's oratorios a majestic, monumental appearance, contributing, as Tchaikovsky wrote, "the overwhelming effect of strength and power." Making the choir the main carrier artistic idea, he gave it an unknown early sound.
For centuries, it was polyphonic singing that played the role of the most accessible and widespread form of music-making in all European countries. Handel summarized in his oratorios the traditions of the choral culture of an entire era. But at the same time, he enriched this sphere with the achievements of the new "opera age" and thereby significantly expanded its expressive possibilities.
Mastering the virtuoso technique of choral writing, Handel achieved a variety of sound effects. Freely and flexibly, he uses choirs in the most contrasting situations: when expressing sorrow and joy, heroic enthusiasm, anger and indignation, when depicting a bright pastoral, rural idyll. Then he brings it to a transparent pianissimo; sometimes Handel wrote choirs in a rich chordal-harmonic warehouse, combining voices into a compact dense mass; the rich possibilities of polyphony serve as a means of enhancing movement and effectiveness. Polyphonic and chordal episodes follow alternately, or both principles are combined
But over all this genre diversity reigns a deep understanding of the unique expressive features of the polyphonic choir. The richest mixture of timbre colors is subject to the dynamics of polyphonic development. The splendor and beauty of sounding do not weaken the intensity of musical thought. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, during the performance of some Gödel choirs, the audience, as one person, rose from their seats, driven by internal excitement. Only the finales of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Solemn Mass surpass the colossal power of Gödel's choral climaxes.
According to Tchaikovsky, "Handel was an inimitable master of the teaching of controlling voices. Without in the least forcing choral vocal means, never going beyond the natural limits of voice registers, he extracted from the choir such excellent mass effects that other composers have never achieved. "
The choirs in Gödel's oratorios are always an active force that directs musical and dramatic development. Therefore, the compositional and dramatic tasks of the choir are exceptionally important and varied. In oratorios, where the main character is the people, the importance of the choir increases especially. This can be seen in the example of the choral epic "Israel in Egypt".
In "Samson" the parties of individual heroes and people, that is, arias, duets and choirs, are distributed evenly and are complemented by one another. If in the oratorio "Samson" the choir conveys only the feelings or state of the warring peoples, then in "Judas Maccabee" the choir plays a more active role, taking a direct part in the dramatic events.
Before Handel, secular music did not know such a huge scale and expressive power of the influence of the choir. In his choral parts one can hear solemn, bright dramatic images polyphonic anthems and "odes" of Purcell. And along with this - a deep concentration of German vocal and instrumental genres, leading to the passions of Schutz. The polished, graceful ensembles of French decorative opera are reflected in the transparent structure of many of Gödel's choral scenes. Italian opera music also has a huge influence on them. Their magnificent melody, virtuoso brilliance and even "recitativeness" are borrowed directly from the musical theater. In the intonational warehouse of Handel's choral scenes, turns of modern English folklore are often heard.
Strengthening dramatic expressiveness Handel subordinated other elements musical writing: solo singing, instrumental sound and composition.
The drama and its development in the oratorio are known only through musical means. In the words of Romain Rolland, in oratorios "music serves as its own decoration." As if making up for the lack of decorative decoration and theatrical performance of the action, new functions are given to the orchestra; describe with sounds what is happening, the environment in which events take place
In contrast to his contemporary false heroic opera, built on a meager alternation of virtuoso arias and dry recitatives, Handel drew into his oratorios all the variety of modern musical genres. With the greatest freedom, he used in the oratorios the most vital and interesting features of the music of different countries and different styles. Freed from the dramaturgical conventions and decorative excesses of the seria, he relied extensively on those remarkable achievements that made the opera the leading musical genre of the era. Expressive melody, brilliant vocal technique, complete forms formed the basis of the new ariose style created by Handel.
All the variety of types and types of arias that has developed in the work of various opera schools, Handel transfers to the oratorio.
These are large arias of a heroic nature, dramatic and mournful arias, close to operatic lamento, brilliant and virtuosic, in which the voice freely competes with the solo instrument, arias with a pastoral-light coloring. Finally, song constructions like arietta. There is also a new kind of solo singing presented to Handel - an aria with a choir. The predominant da capo aria does not exclude many other forms: here there is a free development of material without repetition, and a two-part aria with a contrasting juxtaposition of two musical images.
In Handel, the aria is inseparable from the compositional whole, it is an important part of the general line of musical and dramatic development. Using the outer contours of opera arias in oratorios, Handel gives an individual character to the content of each solo number; subordinating the operatic forms of solo singing to a specific artistic conception, he avoids the schematism of seria operas.
The embossed, laconic, extremely intonation-saturated arias of Handel amaze, according to A. N. Serov, "with their ingenious calculation for the most dramatic strings of the human voice." The composer achieved a remarkable variety of melodic characteristics for his time. Tragic grandeur is heard, for example, in the free monologue of the blinded Samson, the "dance" aria of Delilah seducing him is full of graceful feminine charm. And the aria of the enemy mocking Samson is already being invaded by the rude intonations of the buffa comedy characters. Light Mozart's lyrics, severe heroism of Gluck and Beethoven, Haydn's pastoral idyll were accumulated by Handel in his many-sided vocal images.
He opened a new instrumental sphere in his oratorios. The instrumental beginning in Handel's oratorios as a whole is expressed for the "pre-symphonic" era with unprecedented clarity. In this one can see connections not only with Purcell, but also with German musical traditions. But it is additionally enriched with features characteristic of his own massive program suites ("Music on the Water" and "Music of the Fireworks"). The expressive and pictorial power of his orchestral parts is sometimes amazing. Thus, in the oratorio "Israel in Egypt" sound-pictures accompanying the outline of the epic narration (humming midges, galloping frogs, etc.) seem to reach a visible reality. The stunning scene of the destruction of the temple in "Samson", the confusion and horror of the enemies buried under it, are expressed to a greater extent by instrumental means. The idea of the whole oratorio is embodied in an independent orchestral episode - a major funeral march. Along with the funeral procession in "Saul", this instrumental picture is half a century ahead of the "era of marching", which began with the mass genres of revolutionary France.
Handel transferred to his instrumental "frescoes" the principle of contrasting juxtapositions, masterfully developed in the French opera of the 17th century. "Architectural-ensemble" techniques, which were used for purely decorative purposes in court performances, were put at the service of dramatic expressiveness in Handel's oratorios. An example is the chiaroscuro effect in "Messiah", when the polyphonic F-minor choir with its transparent quiet sound depicts people wandering in the darkness, and then is replaced by fanfare operatic intonations of the major choir, glorifying the light. Or in "Samson", where the mournful scene of mourning for the dead hero is unexpectedly framed by solemn, jubilant music, personifying the victory of the people. The emotional impact of these contrasting "intrusions" is worthy of comparison with Beethoven's dazzling music.
Beauty, clarity and intelligibility of the artistic idea gave Handel's oratorios - for all their professional complexity- truly massive. With the advent of "Samson", "Messiah", "Israel in Egypt", "Judas Maccabee" in the life of the composer there was an amazing turning point. The English public, which hitherto treated Handel's work with cold indifference or subjected him to satirical ridicule, greeted him with oratorios with unbridled delight and proclaimed him a national composer.
Features of the style of the instrumental genre.
Handel's instrumental music is interesting for its multi-genre, lively spontaneity and fullness of feelings. The main property of the style of Gödel instrumental music is a vital, purposeful energy, shaded lyrical images high nobility. Like Bach, this master of genius instrumental writing has its say in any genre. Strict polyphonic forms, dance suites, variations for salon harpsichord, concertos for orchestra, sonatas for strings, music for organ - all this is part of Handel's instrumental legacy.
An abundance of song melodies and dance rhythms in Handel's instrumental pieces he discovers their closeness to everyday folk art. More than once, the specificity of musical images determined the program content of a particular play. The composer himself more than once substituted words for instrumental fugues, separate parts of sonatas or concertos and then turned them into pages of vocal or operatic music. Even more often, the arias of their operas and oratorios were arranged for various compositions of instrumental ensembles and individual instruments.
Handel's instrumental creativity reflects not only the inner experiences of the artist himself, but also the phenomena of the outside world, among them there are often works inspired by nature. Others are related to vocal and dramatic works. Creating instrumental works, the composer did not set himself any special creative tasks. For oboe, harpsichord, organ or orchestra, he wrote in the manner, forms and genres generally accepted for his time. However, Handel is very far from subordinating to established patterns, for example, in a suite.
Handel's instrumental work is usually divided into three groups. The first one is for keyboard instruments, harpsichord and organ. The second group - chamber music for solo instruments accompanied by cembalos and small ensembles, the so-called sonatas and trio sonatas.
Clavier and organ music owes its existence to a large extent to the artistic activity of Handel.; performances, improvisations on the harpsichord and organ had a direct impact on the formation of style, on the nature of musical images, on the methods of development in the works of this genre. Clavier creativity represented by a large number of small dance pieces. But the main fund of the composer's clavier music consists of three collections of suites. The first collection of eight suites was published in 1720 under the direction of Handel himself, carefully prepared and corrected by the author. All other publications were carried out not only without participation, but often without the desire of Handel himself.
In interpreting the suite, Handel focuses on cyclicality, that is, the organization of diverse material and individual pieces into a single integral composition. For this reason, he often departs from the traditional scheme of the suite, changes the order of the dances, or even completely replaces them with non-dance pieces. Sometimes he acted in a completely original way, ending the cycle not with a final gigue, but with an aria with variations, or after a quick gigue he would put on a solemn passacaglia. Handel composes the suites, applying with equal skill the principle of figurative contrast and unification of pieces by varying the general melodic and rhythmic turns. All this was done in order to correspond to the idea and content of the suite.
The third group consists of orchestral compositions: the famous concerto grossi (concert for orchestra), "Music on the Water", "Firework Music", symphonies and overtures from his own operas and oratorios.
In the cyclic concerto grossi composition, as in the suites, the number of parts is arbitrary, ranging from three to six. In contrast to Bach's concertos, where the principle of contrast is strictly observed, in Handel one can find successive fast or slow pieces. In orchestral pieces, Handel, as well as in clavier and organ pieces, relied on genre themes, widely used images and musical elements of everyday art.
Most clearly, innovation was manifested in the creation of new program works performed in the open air, in which the main role belonged to wind instruments. "Music on the Water" is a whole series of miniature plays. Victoriously sonorous fanfares alternate with pensive cantilenas, with a graceful movement of the dance, a cheerful roll call of trumpets and horns sets off typically Gödel's thoughtful pathos. Festive, sparkling music, permeated with common everyday intonations and vivid pictorial associations, is a rare form of mass instrumental art that anticipated the music of the French Revolution period. They have undeniable features of the new folk - mass genres, which will serve as the most important decoration of folk festivals.
Composer G. Handel is one of the outstanding people of the Enlightenment. It was thanks to him that such genres as opera and oratorio appeared in music. We can say that this man was a musical visionary, because he anticipated the emergence of operatic drama and civil pathos, ideas inherent in Gluck and Beethoven. The composer Handel was an extremely interesting and stubborn man.
Nationality
It so happened that two countries can claim the title of Handel's homeland at once. By birth and blood affiliation, he is German. Born and raised in Germany, where he began his career. But England appeared in his life suddenly and remained there forever. It was there that his view of music was formed, new genres and directions appeared. England became the place where the composer Handel took place, where he became famous and popular.
Childhood and youth
The future composer was born in Halle in the family of a doctor. The boy began to show up early and his father sent him to study with the best musician in the city. The mentor was able to instill in Handel a good musical taste, to achieve a pure technique of performance and introduced to all musical styles and genres of that time. The composer Handel, whose biography is somewhat similar to the life story of Mozart, by the age of 11 was an excellent writer and performer, known throughout Germany.
Fulfilling last will his father, Handel trained as a lawyer at the university, but did not give up music. Constantly honing his playing skills, he leaves for Hamburg in search of inspiration. The opera house (one of the first in the country) attracts the musician. Handel, an opera composer, worked there as a violinist and harpsichordist. But even such an occupation did not prevent him from taking the best of the time spent within the walls of the theater. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy of the head of the opera leads to its closure.
travel time
Leaving Germany, the composer Handel moves to Italy, his plans include visiting Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples. There he again acquires knowledge, absorbs, like a sponge, the experience of the masters of the old school. He succeeds with such brilliance that in a few months his first Italian opera is published, which receives well-deserved recognition from the public. Shortly thereafter, the composer began to receive private orders from rich and eminent Italians.
England
Having first appeared on Misty Island in 1710 at the invitation of friends, the composer Handel, whose work will be inextricably linked in this country, finally crosses the English Channel only by 1716. Ten years later he took English citizenship. Here he was able to quickly captivate the audience with the mere manner of his acting, and the operas were a resounding success. A new, fresh wave, which was brought by Handel, a composer from the continent, completely alien to the British in spirit, stirred up the bored listeners, and returned their interest in music.
British style features
Composing music in England, Handel goes far beyond the traditional Italian opera. His works amaze with the drama, depth, and brightness of the characters. It helped raise musical creativity on new level, to carry out such necessary reforms in the approach to writing works. The composer Handel even falls out of favor with the public for a while because of his too outstanding abilities. In England, reforms are coming in all areas, the self-consciousness of the people is growing, hence the negative attitude towards everything foreign.
Even after the disturbing events and disgrace, Handel's authority in the bohemian environment did not decrease. The order of King George II helped to strengthen it even more. Without stopping attempts to revive the opera, the composer travels to Italy for new artists. But the long, exhausting and partly political struggle for a new genre ends in defeat. This undermines Handel's health, and he spends almost 8 months in bed. Having written two more operas, he finishes work on this genre in general.
Spiritual music
In 1738, two oratorios, later recognized as brilliant, were presented to the high society. But the composer does not stop there, but continues to write church music. In a short period of time, at the peak of inspiration and fame, Handel writes four more amazing oratorios one after another. However, the aristocracy is trying to "throw" him off his creative pedestal. And for a while they succeed. The writer is severely depressed. But the impending war with Scotland changes the mood in the country, and the British once again exalt Handel among other composers. His works, written in honor of the victory of England, became the hymns of a new era and final stage great creative journey.
End of life
In 1751, blindness puts Handel back in a hospital bed. It is already, unfortunately, irreversible, and this makes the composer fall into despair. A few years ago, everyone loved and revered, now he was left behind these celebrations alone with difficulties. But, despite this, he continues to stubbornly play his works in public. According to the composer's wish, after his death he was buried in Westminster.
All composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially Beethoven, had a special reverence for the creative genius of Handel. Even three centuries later, in our modern age, Handel's strong and deep music resonates with listeners. It makes you take a fresh look at old stories, acquires a different meaning, closer to contemporaries. Every year, holidays and festivals dedicated to this are held in Germany and England. They attract a huge number of both professional musicians and just tourists from different parts of the world. And this means that his work is not forgotten, it will glorify the memory of its creator long years perhaps even centuries. And the spirit of Handel will invisibly and incorporeally support the creators of operas and oratorios, like a guardian angel.
