George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German who made his career in Italy and became the defining composer of English music. Born in Halle in 1685, weeks before Bach and in the same country, he was forbidden a musical instrument by a father who wanted him to be a lawyer, and is said to have practised on a clavichord smuggled into the attic. He worked in Hamburg's opera orchestra and then spent 1706 to 1710 in Italy, where he mastered the Italian style completely, wrote Rodrigo and Agrippina, and became famous. He was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover in 1710, took leave to visit London, and effectively did not return — an awkward position when the elector became George I in 1714, though the two were reconciled. He established Italian opera in London and ran it as a business. The Royal Academy of Music produced Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda and Tamerlano, and collapsed when audiences tired of the form and of the fees demanded by star castrati; The Beggar's Opera satirised it into unprofitability. He then reinvented himself. English oratorio used the same musical resources without staging, costumes or foreign singers, and was cheaper and more respectable. Messiah was written in twenty-four days in 1741 and first performed in Dublin in April 1742 for charity; Israel in Egypt, Saul, Samson and Jephtha followed. He wrote the Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks for royal occasions, and Zadok the Priest for the coronation of 1727, performed at every one since. He went blind from about 1751, continued to play organ concertos from memory, and died in 1759.

• Lived: 1685 CE – 1759 CE
• Nationality: German
• Roles: composer