and was succeeded by his son, George II., for whose coronation festival
Handel had composed four great anthems. The text of one of these is as
follows: "Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet annointed Solomon king.
And all the people rejoiced and said: God save the King, long live the
King, may the King live forever! Amen, Alleluja." It soon became very
popular and was called, for brevity, the anthem, "God save the King."
From this arose the idea that Handel was the composer of the English
national hymn, the first strophe of which ends with these words and
which, for this reason, was also named from them. The idea is erroneous;
the poet and composer of the hymn was the Englishman, Henry Carey, who
wrote it in 1743. For the space of a year and a half, from the first of
June, 1728, to the second of December, 1729, there was no Italian opera,
but the public amused itself with the so-called "Beggar's Opera" of John
Gay, a coarse, popular vaudeville, the musical charm of which consists
in the interwoven national airs. Here was a reaction against foreign
influence which plainly showed the desire of the English to impress upon
their music the stamp of nationality, even though this was no longer
possible. Within the next twelve years more than a hundred vaudevilles
in the style of the Beggar's Opera were produced, a part of which spread
over to Germany and contributed in no small degree to the development of
the "_Singspiel_," which was to be moulded by Mozart and Weber into the
national German opera. During the interval above mentioned Handel was not
in England. He first went with Steffani to Italy, where he passed the
winter. A new Italian opera enterprise was already planned, which was to
be independently conducted by Heidegger and Handel, and its financial
soundness to be assured by means of subscriptions. In pursuance of this
plan Handel engaged singers in Italy, took up his abode for the summer
of 1729 in Halle (where Bach attempted for the second time to make his
personal acquaintance), and opened his theatre on the second of December
with "Lotario," an opera of his own composition, furnishing in all six
similar works during the four years' continuance of the enterprise.
The arrogance of the Italian singers and the political opposition of
all those who were angry because Handel enjoyed the favor of the royal
court, finally rendered the situation unendurable. When the directors
were obliged to suspend their performances, the same opposing faction,
who were contending against the foreigner in the person of Handel, called
into existence a rival Italian opera, for which they tried to collect
the most celebrated performers in Europe. Among the singers was Cuzzoni;
among the composers the husband of Faustina Bordoni, Johann Adolph Hasse,
who had occupied the position of chapel-master in Dresden since 1731.
When Hasse was invited to London, he is said to have asked if Handel was
dead, so improbable did it seem to him that there was a place for him,
great composer though he was, where his powerful compatriot was working.
Nor was the latter inclined to abandon the field to his opponents. Driven
by them from the Haymarket Theatre, he repaired to Covent Garden and
there resumed his operatic representations on the thirtieth of October,
1733. But, though he summoned all his energies and wrote no less than
nine new operas, he could not win for himself an enduring success in this
sphere of activity. Not only were all his earlier savings now swallowed
up, but debts were contracted, and in 1737 he was obliged to close the
theatre. The opposite party, however, derived no advantage from his
failure; their own undertaking was abandoned only eleven days later.
Handel had made superhuman exertions to hold his own during the last
few years; his strength now collapsed. A stroke of paralysis lamed one
of his hands--indications of insanity appeared. Yielding to the urgent
entreaties of his friends, he went to the hot baths at Aix-la-Chapelle,
the effect of which was so favorable that he came away after a few
months, completely cured. Returning to London, he found that Heidegger
had formed from the ruins of the two opera companies a new one, with
which he was giving performances at the Haymarket. Handel now wrote,
partly for this company, partly at the solicitation of outsiders, six
more operas, the last of which "Deidamia," was completed in 1741 and
seemed the dying echo of a life-period which had ended for him four years
ago.
[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL.
Reproduced from a proof before letters of Houbraken's portrait of Handel,
engraved on copper.
After Hudson's portrait this may be regarded as most excellent.]
That the full greatness of a man is only revealed when misfortune
overtakes him was to be demonstrated by Handel at this trying time. His
latest operas he wrote for the sake of the money. One of them, "_Serse_"
(Xerxes), which was completed in the year 1738, marks what was very
nearly the saddest time in his life. In order to redeem his word of honor
and save himself from a debtor's prison, he worked with immoderate energy
and yet with meagre material results. When he now found himself in the
most pressing need, his friends advised him to give a benefit concert,
a thing which Handel had never wished to engage in; on the contrary, he
had often expressed himself with harshness against that sort of begging.
All the more bitter was it for him that he must after all resort to it
at last. On the twenty-eighth of March, 1738, in the week before Easter,
the concert took place at the Haymarket Theatre. No oratorio was given
by Handel on this occasion, but only a number of Italian and English
songs, to which he added an organ concerto of his own composition. The
interest excited was far beyond all expectation--the house so crowded
that places had to be provided on the stage itself for five hundred
illustrious auditors, and the receipts from the concert were estimated
at eight hundred pounds. But, while Handel was thus struggling with all
his might for his own existence, he had always time and strength to
spare for his suffering fellow men. The brilliant successes attained by
musicians within the last twenty years had allured many persons into
the paths of art, who expected to acquire therein honor and riches, yet
were not endowed by nature with the necessary gifts. They had therefore
soon suffered shipwreck and fallen into poverty. Two English musicians,
Festing and Greene, devised the plan of forming an aid society for
indigent musical artists. Handel immediately entered into the project
and rendered invaluable assistance to the society by performing for its
benefit, on the twentieth of March, 1739, his "Alexander's Feast" and a
newly composed organ concerto, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1740, "Acis
and Galatea," and on the fourteenth of March, 1741, a series of minor
compositions. And here let it be said that the inhabitants of London,
even if they had shown themselves for a time somewhat indifferent to his
music, still continued faithful in their veneration for the man. In 1738,
Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, determined to erect in them
a statue of Handel, and the universal applause which this act excited
proved that it was an expression of the sentiment of the people.
The life of Handel may be resolved into three parts. The first extends
to the year 1720, and is preparatory in character. The second ends
in 1737, and belongs especially to the opera. The third and last is
devoted almost exclusively to the oratorio. Since the earliest English
oratorios which he wrote at Cannons, Handel had been long inactive
in this sphere of music. It may be said of the coronation anthems of
the year 1727 that they resemble the oratorio in style, but the first
really new oratorios were produced in 1733. This species of musical
composition was still almost unknown to the greater part of the London
public, for the performances given at Cannons did not reach a wide circle
of listeners. Bernard Gates, however, the director of the boy chorus
belonging to the royal chapel, had taken part in the first rendering
of "Esther," and the recollection of the work had never left him. He
brought it out before a company of invited guests and thereby incited
Handel to produce it publicly himself in May of the succeeding year. A
performance of "Acis and Galatea," under his own leadership, followed a
month later. It is worthy of note that the different singing societies
which occupied themselves at this time with the two oratorios of Handel,
attempted to put them on the stage with costumes and action, after the
manner of the opera. People evidently did not yet know how to deal with
this new departure in the musical line, and in Italy it was not at all
unusual to produce certain oratorios in theatrical fashion, as "_agioni
sacre_." Handel, meantime, disapproved of the custom and only allowed
the singers to be placed upon a stage, which was suitably decorated.
The two oratorios now composed as a result of the new impulse given
to his activity, were "Deborah" and "Athaliah," and the former was
first performed at the Haymarket on the seventeenth of March. But the
subscription tickets of the opera-goers were not good on this day and,
as the price of admission was fixed at one guinea, the house remained
empty. At this time, too, Handel's opponents tried to draw him into the
field of politics and to bring him into discredit through the accusation
that he had allied himself with Minister Walpole for the purpose of
draining the resources of the people in every possible way. That such
ridiculous assertions could gain credence only for the moment, shows
very plainly the high estimation in which Handel was then held by the
London public. On the twenty-seventh of March, and on two subsequent
occasions, "Deborah" was repeated, and now, for the first time received
proper recognition as a work of art. The other oratorio, "Athaliah,"
had also its vicissitudes. The hostility to the house of Hanover which
prevailed in many circles of English society had been shared up to
this time by the University of Oxford, and the rector of the same, Dr.
Holmes, wishing to promote more friendly relations, took advantage of
the annual commencement exercises of the institution for this purpose.
Handel, the favorite of the royal court, was invited to add lustre to
the celebration through his art; he was also included in the number
of eminent men who were to be invested with the title of Doctor at the
same time. This honor would have been declined by the musician on his
own personal account, but as an artist he accepted, using the title
rarely. The "Athaliah," written wholly in the interest of the occasion,
was performed in Oxford on the 10th of July. Singers and instrumental
performers were brought from London by Handel, and the festival, in the
course of which "Esther" and "Acis and Galatea," as well as the "Utrecht
Te Deum" and the "Jubilate" were given, was a brilliant success. The
next oratorio was "Alexander's Feast," or the "Power of Music." It was
finished in January, 1736, and brought out for the first time on the
19th of February. In writing this work, Handel had in mind the popular
custom of celebrating the day of St. Cecilia by means of the art of which
she was the patron. It was Purcell who inaugurated musical performances
of this festive character on St. Cecilia's day, and among the poets who
glorified it, Dryden stands pre-eminent with his two Cecilian odes. It
was the greater of these which Handel took for the foundation of his
work, employing the arrangement of Newburgh Hamilton. The impression
produced by the very first performance was extraordinary, and the work
was repeated four times in the same season, meeting with the speediest
and most widespread success of any of Handel's oratorios, although it
falls within the period when his best energies were devoted to operatic
works. With the production of "Saul," in 1738, commences the long,
uninterrupted series of oratorios in which Handel, who, instead of
becoming embittered by the hard experiences of his life, was only roused
by them to a more complete expression, poured out the fulness of his
genius. Immediately after the "Saul" ensued the creation, in something
less than a month, of his gigantic work: "Israel in Egypt." As now known,
this consists of only two parts; but as it came from the composer's
hands on the first of November, 1738, it was in three divisions. For the
lament over the death of Joseph with which it opened, Handel had used
the funeral anthem written after the death of the noble Queen Caroline
in 1737. He was probably reluctant to allow this beautiful work, which,
in its original form, was only available for the occasion which called
it forth, to sink into oblivion. At the same time we see that he himself
must have considered the style of his anthems as very closely related
to that of his oratorios. It was owing to a misunderstanding that, after
the death of Handel, the second and third parts of the "Israel" were
made to stand for the whole work, while the funeral anthem was printed
by itself. But neither on its first performance (April 4, 1739) nor on
its repetition in 1756, did "Israel in Egypt" make an impression on the
public. The reason for this lies in the fact that the solo portions of
the work are entirely subordinate to the chorus, which here maintains its
supremacy as in no other of Handel's oratorios and rises to the highest
conceivable degree of grandeur.
[Illustration: _For Dᴿ. ARNOLD'S Edition of HANDEL'S Works_
From the Statue in Vauxhall Gardens.
Engraved by Bartolozzi after a drawing by Rebecca.]
The contrast with the composer's operas, which are made up almost
entirely of solo numbers was too decided, and moreover there was at
this time in London a marked and deplorable falling off of musical
interest. After years of immoderate indulgence, there followed a period
of weariness and indifference. Handel, indeed, set to music in 1739
Dryden's lesser "Ode to St. Cecilia," and in 1740 Milton's beautiful poem
"_L'allegro ed il pensieroso_,"[3] thus showing how he identified himself
with the intellectual life of the English and the creations of their most
eminent men. But his efforts seemed no longer to bear fruit, and he was
already considering the project of leaving England forever, when offers
made to him from Dublin opened favorable prospects in a new quarter. He
was requested to give a performance in that city, for the benefit of
some of its benevolent institutions, and in return the best vocal and
instrumental talent of the place would be at his disposal for such other
concerts as he might give. The work composed by Handel for the desired
performance was the "Messiah." The text had been drawn from the Bible by
Charles Jennings (not by Handel himself, as has been falsely stated),
and the music was completed on the 14th of September, 1741. On the 18th
of November Handel arrived in Dublin, and on the 13th of April, 1742,
was produced for the first time the work in which the lofty aim of the
composer became perfectly clear. The new order of art created by him, the
oratorio as he conceived it, was now first comprehended by the world, and
began at once to enter into the life of the English people as an exponent
of the highest ideal good which had been vouchsafed them in their
generation. Many of Handel's other works were brought out in Dublin,
and he enjoyed there a period of unalloyed happiness, after the trials
of the past few years. When he returned to London in 1742, he found that
here also the tide had turned in his favor. The seed sown by him through
a quarter of a century was finally beginning to germinate. His music had
gradually cultivated the taste of the nation and he could henceforth
count upon a sure understanding of whatever he might create. From this
time Handel's authority in England was uncontested and his popularity
boundless. He stood forth before the eyes of the people as the embodied
essence of all music. It now became his habit to perform the "Messiah"
every year for the benefit of a foundling's home, and he employed the
resources of his art most freely and nobly in every direction in aid of
all charitable institutions. What he had already once attempted in 1735
in the Lenten season, when no operas could be performed, but had not been
able to carry out, became now a regularly organized arrangement. Twelve
concerts were given annually, in which he produced his own vocal works
and in addition delighted the audiences by his performances upon the
organ. In 1743 he began the series of concerts with his "Samson," which
was composed immediately after the "Messiah," and won scarcely less favor
than the latter. Of his later oratorios, "Judas Maccabæus" alone enjoyed
an equally great and lasting success. But the remaining thirteen, which
occupied the inexhaustible energies of the man until within two years of
his death, were listened to with sympathetic interest. They are: "Semele"
(1743), "Joseph" (also 1743), "Belshazzar" (1744), "Heracles" (1744),
Occasional Oratorios (1746), "Joshua" (1747), "Alexander Balus" (1747),
"Solomon" (1748), "Susannah" (1748), "Theodora" (1749), "The Choice of
Hercules" (1750), "Jephthah" (1751), "The Triumph of Time and Truth"
(1757). The last-named work is that final arrangement of the Italian
oratorio, which has been already mentioned. When Handel brought it out
again in 1737, much changed and amplified, he still retained the Italian
text, and it was now, for the first time, incorporated with the series of
his English oratorios. It is an allegorical drama: Beauty and Pleasure
stand upon one side, Time and Counsel on the other. Which of the two
pairs shall finally win the day, is to be shown. Deceit places herself
near the first, and tries to blind their eyes to the transitoriness of
all delights and the earnestness of life. But in the end, following the
warnings of Time and Counsel, Beauty and Pleasure turn after all to
Truth. The deep significance of Handel's closing his long career with
the same work which stands at its entrance, is readily perceived. Well
might it seem to him an image of his own life. He too had formed intimate
acquaintance with the beauty and pleasure of the world, but he could
truly say in the evening of his life that they had not succeeded in
averting his gaze from the serious and eternal things which "are not of
this world."
[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL.
Engraved by Deblois from a portrait by Mad. Clement, evidently based upon
the Hudson portrait.]
Between the oratorios just mentioned fall a few other less important
works, among which the "Te Deum" for the victory at Dettingen in 1743
deserves special mention. The last of his oratorios written down wholly
in his own hand was "Jephthah," and this he could only accomplish with
difficulty. For when he had arrived at the closing chorus of the second
part, he was attacked with a disease of the eyes, from which, however, he
so far recovered as to be able to complete the work by degrees. But he
was engaged upon this oratorio from the 21st of January to the 30th of
August, whereas three or four weeks were usually sufficient for a task
of this sort. The oculist Taylor, whose want of skill was manifested so
clearly in the case of Sebastian Bach, treated Handel also, and performed
an operation; but here again the experiment was unsuccessful and total
blindness was the result. With Bach this condition lasted only a few
months, while Handel was obliged to support the affliction through all
the last years of his life. In spite of this, he continued his musical
performances under the direction of his pupil, John Christian Smith, and
even in his blindness, regularly played an organ solo between the second
and third parts of an oratorio. He chose for the purpose one or another
of his organ concertos, but when obliged to play without instrumental
accompaniment, did not confine himself to the music as written, trusting
instead to his great gift for improvisation and joining in with the other
performers at a given signal. It was an impressive sight for the audience
when the blind old man was conducted to the organ bench and then, after
he had enchanted them through his wonderful playing, was led forward to
make his bow. During the singing of the oratorio, he was accustomed to
sit still near the organ, and on the performance of "Samson," when the
blind hero of the piece reached the aria: "Total eclipse! no sun, no
moon," tears were often seen to flow from the sightless eyes. Even as
late as 1759 he still gave his oratorio concerts. But before the series
was ended, on the 6th of April, he fell ill, never to recover. On the
14th of April, at eight o'clock in the morning, he died. It was the
Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. He was buried in Westminster
Abbey, where stands the monument erected to his memory.
Of his not inconsiderable property, he bequeathed about £20,000 to his
relatives in Germany. He went through life unmarried, and posterity has
not learned whether the prospect of founding a family of his own ever
opened itself before him. In figure he was tall and robust; his movements
were clumsy, but his features were animated and dignified. He was easily
moved to anger, but a certain element of humor served to break the force
of his stormy outbreaks. The broken English in which he spoke had often
a comical effect, especially in moments of excitement. Burney relates
that he had a natural turn for wit and the gift of treating the most
commonplace matters in an interesting manner. His ordinary expression
was somewhat stern, (that he seldom laughed in his younger days is also
related by Mattheson) but when he smiled it was like a sunbeam piercing
a dark cloud. Unyielding determination, strong independence, sincere
devoutness, a high sense of honor, fidelity and a noble philanthropy,
which was always ready to offer help, were among the most marked traits
of this man, whose greatness did not consist in his art alone.
* * * * *
In Handel and Bach the inborn talent for music of the German people finds
a fuller expression than at any earlier or later period, nor have other
nations furnished an instance so phenomenal. The reason lies partly in
the fact that the two men, equally endowed by nature, differed from each
other as widely as possible, and accordingly exercised their powers in
the most opposite domains of art. Precisely in these two departments
of music from which Bach held himself entirely aloof, the opera and
the oratorio, Handel labored with untiring and exclusive energy. Organ
and piano playing, to be sure, formed for him the starting-point of
his development, but while Bach went on through his whole life in the
path marked out from the beginning, Handel left it at the early age of
eighteen and entered upon a wholly different career. Of Bach it can be
said that he was an instrumental composer, and remained such to the
end of his life. The medium through which Handel wished to express
himself was that of song. Instruments which can be associated with the
voice and form a setting for it he considered, and therefore treated as
subordinate. And even where he allows them to work independently--in
his piano compositions, in his concertos and sonatas of the most-varied
arrangement--there is awakened in the hearer the feeling that he is
being amused by a sweet, beautiful, thought-inspiring play, but still a
_play_, in the truest meaning of the word. Handel first becomes entirely
serious in his cantatas, operas and oratorios, and for this reason it
is difficult to provide a place for him in the history of instrumental
music. He stands by himself and not in the ranks.
[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL.
From an accurate cast of the head and shoulders of Roubillac's statue of
Handel, in Westminster-Abbey.]
[Illustration: HANDEL AS A MONSTROUS "HARMONIOUS BOAR."
This caricature is said to have been drawn by the scene-painter at the
theatre, in spiteful retaliation for some reprimand received from the
composer.]