George Frideric Handel was born in Germany in 1685 to Georg and Dorothea Handel. His father was a surgeon-barber who didn’t want Handel to study music. He wanted him to study law. Handel’s mother helped him smuggle a clavichord into the attic so he could practice in secret. Finally, his father was persuaded by a duke to enroll Handle in formal music training. He did begin the University of Halle, Germany studying law, out of respect for his father, but eventually devoted himself entirely to music.
Handel moved to London in 1712, was paid a salary by Queen Anne and became the musical director of the Royal Academy of Music. His London address, 25 Brook Street, which is now preserved as a museum, a permanent monument to his life and music.
Even though he is now acclaimed as a well-respected composer from London, he met with many setbacks during his time there. Operas are expensive to produce and fickle singers were difficult to manage. There are lots of stories about his run ins with other composers and with singers and actors who got sideways with each other.
Add to this, hard to please audiences. According to Kavanaugh’s book, the Church of England attacked him for writing biblical dramas like Esther and Israel in Egypt to be performed in secular theaters. Rival opera companies competed for ticket holders. Enemies of Handel would rip down his advertisements.
By 1741 he was swimming in debt and facing debtor’s prison. Just when Handel was thinking his musical career was over, two things happened that set him on a new trajectory.
First, he received an entire text of Scripture in the form of a libretto from his friend, Charles Jennens. All of the Scripture was about the birth of Christ (Part I), the death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension of Christ (Part II), and (Part III) the promise of redemption, the final victory over sin and death with the acclamation of Christ. This text was sort of Jennens answer to those who would doubt or flat out reject the divinity of Jesus and His relationship and interest in humanity. The story goes that Handel did not have to make any additions or corrections to Jennens text.
Next, Handel received a commission from a Dublin organization to compose a work for charity. With all the rejection he had been receiving in London, I imagine Dublin would have been a nice change of pace.
According to Kavanaugh’s book, Handel began writing on August 22 of 1741 and had the music for Part I completed in six days. Part II was done in nine days and Part III took another six days. With two days to wrap up the orchestration, the totality of Messiah was completed in 22 days – all 260 pages. I don’t think I could copy 260 pages of music in 22 days, much less compose it!
According to Sir Newman Flower, a Handel biographer, “Considering the immensity of the work and the short time involved, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of music composition.”
Handel worked on this music day and night taking little time to eat, sleep, or manage his personal hygiene. During this time, he is quoted as saying, “Whether I was in my body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not. God knows.”
Messiah premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742. (276 years ago) It opened as a benefit concert and raised 400 pounds (equivalent to over $84,000 today) which was used to 142 men from debtor’s prison, the very fate that Handel himself was facing when he received these commissions.
The next year, Handel staged Messiah to be performed in London. There was still controversy with the Church of England but when the King of England attended the performance, they lost some of their pull with the people.
Why do we stand during the Hallelujah Chorus? Legend has is that during the first London performance of Handel’s Messiah, King George II stood up as soon as the Hallelujah chorus began. Him being a king, everyone else stood too, a tradition that continues to this day.
Even after those first two monumental showcases of Handel’s masterpiece, he continued to conduct it throughout his life. Annually, Handle would host benefit concerts for the Foundling Hospital in London, a home for abandoned and orphaned children. The concerts would always include the “Messiah”.
There is so much more to this story that Patrick Kavanaugh shares in this chapter of his book, “The Spiritual Lives of Great Composers”. He also writes about Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, just to name a few. I have no affiliation with this book and don’t earn anything for promoting it but I think it would be a wonderful Christmas gift for any music lover in your life.
There is a statue in Westminster Abbey of Handel holding the manuscript of the beginning of Part III of the Messiah. The first words on the document are “I know that my Redeemer liveth..”
What a wonderful testimony of Handel’s life and a great reminder in these times when people would have us believe there is no absolute truth. I, too, know that my Redeemer liveth!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
Thanks for listening!
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