diff options
Diffstat (limited to '9089-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 9089-8.txt | 3564 |
1 files changed, 3564 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/9089-8.txt b/9089-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edd374e --- /dev/null +++ b/9089-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3564 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Handel + +Author: Edward J. Dent + + +Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9089] +This file was first posted on September 4, 2003 +Last Updated: May 8, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL *** + + + + +Produced by Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +HANDEL + +By Edward J. Dent + + + +{Illustration: G. F. HANDEL _from a woodcut by Eric King_} + + + +CONTENTS + +_Chapter_ I + +Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and +duel with Mattheson--_Almira_--departure for Italy. + +_Chapter_ II + +Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the +Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London: +_Rinaldo_. + +_Chapter_ III + +Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water +Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of +the Royal Academy of Music. + +_Chapter_ IV + +Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The +Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy. + +_Chapter_ V + +Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of +the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles +Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses. + +_Chapter_ VI + +Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last +operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to +Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios. + +_Chapter_ VII + +_Judas Maccabaeus_--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and +his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality. + +_Bibliography and List of Works_ + + + + +CHRONOLOGY + + 1685.... Birth at Halle. + 1702.... Entered University; organist of the Cathedral. + 1703.... Went to Hamburg. + 1705.... First opera: _Almira_ (Hamburg). + 1707.... Arrival in Italy. + 1710.... Appointment at Hanover; first visit to London. + 1711.... First London opera: _Rinaldo_. + 1712.... Second visit to London. + 1717.... Appointment to the Duke of Chandos. + 1720.... Opening of Royal Academy of Music (Opera). + 1726.... Naturalized as a British subject. + 1728.... _The Beggar's Opera_. Collapse of the Academy. + 1732.... First public oratorio: _Esther_. + 1733.... Festival at Oxford. + 1737.... Collapse of Opera; Handel bankrupt and paralysed. + 1741.... Last opera: _Deidamia_. + 1742.... _Messiah_ at Dublin. + 1751.... First signs of blindness. Last oratorio _Jeptha_. + 1759.... Death in London. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and +duel with Mattheson--Almira--departure for Italy. + + +The name of Handel suggests to most people the sound of music unsurpassed +in massiveness and dignity, and the familiar portraits of the composer +present us with a man whose external appearance was no less massive and +dignified than his music. Countless anecdotes point him out to us as a +well-known figure in the life of London during the reigns of Queen Anne +and the first two Georges. He lies buried in Westminster Abbey. One would +expect every detail of his life to be known and recorded, his every private +thought to be revealed with the pellucid clarity of his immortal strains. +It is not so; to assemble the bare facts of Handel's life is a problem +which has baffled the most laborious of his biographers, and his inward +personality is more mysterious than that of any other great musician of the +last two centuries. + +The _Memoirs of the Life of the late George Frederic Handel_, written by +the Rev. John Mainwaring in 1760, a year after his death, is the first +example of a whole book devoted to the biography of a musician. The author +had never known Handel himself; he obtained his material chiefly from +Handel's secretary, John Christopher Smith the younger. Mainwaring is our +only authority for the story of Handel's early life. Many of his statements +have been proved to be untrue, but there is undoubtedly a foundation of +truth beneath most of them, however misleading either Smith's memory or +Mainwaring's imagination may have been. The rest of our knowledge has to +be built up from scattered documents of various kinds, helped out by the +reminiscences of Dr. Burney and Sir John Hawkins. For the inner life of +Mozart and Beethoven we can turn to copious letters and other personal +writings; Handel's extant letters do not amount to more than about twenty +in all, and it is only rarely that they throw much light on the workings of +his mind. + +The family of Handel belonged originally to Breslau. The name is found +in various forms; it seems originally to have been _Händeler_ signifying +trader, but by the time the composer was born the spelling _Händel_ had +been adopted. This is the correct German form of his name; in Italy he +wrote his name _Hendel_, in order to ensure its proper pronunciation, and +in England he was known, for the same reason, as Handel. The Handels of +Breslau had for several generations been coppersmiths. Valentine Handel, +the composer's grandfather, born in 1582, migrated to Halle, where two of +his sons followed the same trade. His third son, George, born 1622, became +a barber-surgeon. At the age of twenty he married the widow of the barber +to whom he had been apprenticed; she was twelve years older than he was. In +1682 she died, and George Handel, although sixty years of age, married a +second wife within half a year. Her name was Dorothea Taust; her father, +like most of his ancestors, was a clergyman. Her age was thirty-two. Her +first child, born in 1684, died at birth; her second, born February 23, +1685, was baptised the following day with the name of George Frederic. + +The town of Halle had originally belonged to the Dukes of Saxony, but after +the Thirty Years' War it was assigned to the Elector of Brandenburg. George +Frederic Handel was therefore born a Prussian. But Duke Augustus of Saxony +was allowed to keep his court at the Moritzburg in Halle, and it was this +prince who made George Handel his personal surgeon. After Duke Augustus's +death in 1680, Halle was definitely transferred to Brandenburg, and the new +Duke, Johann Adolf, took up his residence at Weissenfels, twenty-five miles +to the south-west of Halle. At the time of George Frederic's birth, Halle +had relapsed into being a quiet provincial town. The musical life of +Germany in those days was chiefly centred in the numerous small courts, +each of which did its best to imitate the magnificence of Louis XIV at +Paris and Versailles. But the seventeenth century, although it produced +very few musicians of outstanding greatness, was a century of restless +musical activity throughout Europe, especially in the more private and +domestic branches of the art. The Reformation had made music the vehicle of +personal devotion, and the enormous output of a peculiarly intimate type of +sacred music, both in Germany and in England, shows that there must have +been a keen demand for it in Protestant home life. + +George Handel, the surgeon, seems to have hated music. There is no evidence +that either his wife or her sister, who shared their home after her +father's death in 1685, was musically gifted, but the mere fact of their +being the daughters of a Lutheran pastor makes it probable that they had +had some education in the art. We may safely guess that the composer +inherited his musical talents from the Taust family. He showed his +inclination for music at a very early age, with such insistence indeed +that his father forbade him to touch any musical instrument. There is a +well-known story of his contriving to smuggle a clavichord into a garret +without his father's knowledge in order to practise on it while the rest of +the family were asleep, but for this tale Mainwaring is our only authority. +It is very probable that old Handel was irritated by the sound of his son's +early efforts and regarded music as a waste of time; his wife may perhaps +have encouraged the child's obvious abilities, taking care that he made +music only in some part of the house where he would not disturb his father. + +At the age of seven he was sent to the Lutheran Grammar School, and he may +very likely have had some instruction in singing while there. In any case +there can be no doubt that he was taught more than the mere rudiments of +music in childhood, however severe his father's opposition may have been. +He was between seven and nine when his father took him to Weissenfels, +where he was required to attend on the Duke. It is quite probable that the +child may have been taken there several times, especially as a relative +of his was in regular service in the Duke's establishment. One day he was +allowed to play on the organ in the palace chapel; the Duke happened to +hear him, made enquiries as to who the player was, and at once urged on the +father the duty of having him properly trained for a musical career. + +Old Handel remained obstinate; he was determined that his son should have +a liberal education and become a lawyer. By his own efforts he had raised +himself to a position of some distinction and affluence; it was only +natural that he should wish his son to enter on life with better advantages +than he himself had enjoyed. He at any rate followed the advice of the Duke +so far as to place the boy under the musical tuition of Friedrich Zachow, +the organist of the Lutheran church at Halle. + +The next episode in George Frederic's career has considerably puzzled his +biographers. Mainwaring asserts that in 1698 he went to Berlin, where he +was presented to the Electress Sophia Charlotte and made the acquaintance +of Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Buononcini, two famous Italian opera +composers whom he was to encounter again, in London, many years later. But +it is known that Ariosti did not arrive in Berlin until the spring of 1697, +and Buononcini not until 1702. And as old Handel died in February 1697, his +son cannot have been in Berlin later than about the end of 1696, if it is +true (as Mainwaring says) that the Elector offered to send him to Italy, an +offer which the father firmly refused to accept for him. If, on the other +hand, Mainwaring is right in saying that young Handel went to Berlin with a +view to obtaining a musical post there, it is hardly likely that he should +have made the journey at ten years of age, and while his father was still +living. It seems much more probable that if he ever did visit Berlin it was +when he was of an age to form his own judgments as to his future career. + +Three days before his seventeenth birthday he matriculated as a law student +of the University of Halle, but music must have been the chief occupation +of his time. The composer Telemann, four years his senior, spoke of him +as being already a musician of importance at Halle when he first met him +there, probably in 1700. In March 1702 he was appointed organist at the +Cathedral, although he belonged to the Lutheran Church, whereas the +Cathedral was Calvinist; considerable scandal had been caused by the +intemperance of the Cathedral organist, one Leporin, who was finally +dismissed. That Handel should have been given the post at so early an age +points to his ability and trustworthiness of character; it also suggests +that efficient organists were rare among the Calvinist musicians. + +Mainwaring unjustly credited Zachow with Leporin's love of a cheerful +glass, and other biographers have perhaps for this reason greatly +underrated Zachow's musicianship. Zachow cannot indeed be classed as a +great composer, but he was considerably more than merely a sound average +teacher. For one thing, he possessed a large library of music. Handel was +not only made to master the arts of counterpoint and fugue, but he was also +set to study the works of other composers, and to train his sense of style +by writing music in direct imitation of them. In those days there was +no possibility of buying all sorts of music ready printed. Printing was +expensive, and generally clumsy in execution as well; most music was copied +by hand, and a musician who wished to acquire a library of music generally +did so by borrowing it and copying it. Zachow employed Handel to copy music +for him, and no doubt he copied a great deal for himself. Although the +opportunities for hearing music would not be very liberal in a town like +Halle, Handel, under Zachow, became a well-read musician as well as an +accomplished one. + +During the seventeenth century the chief contribution of Germany to the +art of music was religious, just as the German hymns were her chief +contribution to poetry. In Italy, on the other hand, sacred music was of +minor importance as compared with the development of opera. But in all +music Italy led the way, and German sacred music was constantly influenced +by the Italians, with the result that Italian dramatic methods were often +used by German composers of sacred music, not with any loss of seriousness +and dignity to its character, but rather to the intenser expression of that +deep personal religious feeling which characterised both the poetry and the +music of the Protestant nations. + +Zachow was well acquainted with the Italian masters, and his own Church +music shows a vivid dramatic sense; it is easy to see how much Handel +learned from him. But although Church cantatas and organ music may have +sufficed for the majority of the innumerable worthy German musicians of +those days, the form of music which excited the curiosity and interest of +the livelier spirits was certainly opera. By 1700, opera had established +itself all over Italy, supported mainly by the great princes, but at Venice +maintained on a commercial basis by the citizens themselves since 1637. The +first attempt at a German opera was made by Heinrich Schütz, at Torgau, +ten years earlier. Vienna introduced Italian opera in 1631, and, generally +speaking, the Catholic princes of Germany, who one after another followed +the example of Vienna, preferred opera in Italian. Protestant Germany +inclined more to opera in its own language, though towards the end of the +century Italian gradually gained the upper hand at the more important +courts. Native German opera owed its origin partly to the visit of the +English comedians early in the century, and partly to the musical plays +acted by school-boys; from the English "jigs" came the use of short popular +songs, and from the school plays the tendency of the early German operas to +be of a more or less sacred or edifying character. + +Handel's friend, the composer Telemann, tells us that it was not unusual +for students from the University of Leipzig to go to Berlin to hear the +Italian opera, which had been established by the Electress Sophia Charlotte +in 1700, and this suggests that Handel's visit to Berlin may have +taken place in 1703 rather than in his childhood. But he certainly had +opportunities for seeing operas nearer home. There had been many German +operas performed at Halle itself during the twenty years before Handel's +birth, and Duke Johann Adolf opened an opera-house at Weissenfels in 1685, +in which Philipp Krieger produced German operas regularly for the next +thirty years. There was thus every reason for young Handel's growing +ambitious to become a composer for the stage, although we have no evidence +of his having ever attempted dramatic composition until he left Halle in +1703. + +The most important of all the north German opera-houses was that of +Hamburg, where the opera did not depend on the patronage of a court, +but was organised, as at Venice, as a public entertainment. Hamburg had +attempted German opera as early as 1648, and it is interesting to note that +the English composer William Brade was one of those who provided the music; +but the real history of the Hamburg opera may be said to begin with the +performance of Theile's _Adam and Eve_ in the newly built theatre in the +Goose-Market in 1678. When Handel arrived in Hamburg in the summer of 1703 +the biblical operas had long come to an end, and the theatre was under the +management of Reinhold Keiser. + +Keiser was a musician of remarkable genius. His father was a disreputable +organist, and his mother a young lady of noble family who had been hastily +married at the age of sixteen. Born near Weissenfels in 1674, he had begun +his operatic career at Brunswick at the age of eighteen; three years later +he took over the direction of the opera at Hamburg, where he produced a +large number of operas composed by himself. As a composer, Keiser had a +singular fluency of melody in a style that hovers between those of Germany +and Italy; had he been a man of more solid character he might have +accomplished greater things. But he had inherited from his parents a love +of pleasure and debauchery; extravagant in his private life, he was no less +extravagant in his theatrical management, and was ready to provide his +audiences with anything in the way of startling sensation. One of his most +famous operas was on the subject of Störtebeker, a notorious highwayman +(1704), in which murders were represented with the most disgusting realism. + +Hamburg was the Venice of the north and, like Venice, a city of pleasure; +but its pleasures were often of a coarse and licentious description. Life +in Hamburg was probably not much unlike that of Restoration London; but +though Keiser may well be set beside Purcell, Hamburg had no dramatists to +compare with Congreve, hardly even with Shadwell. Jeremy Collier, however, +was far outdone in vituperation by the puritan clergy who, not altogether +without reason, castigated the immorality of the Hamburg stage. + +Handel seems to have arrived in Hamburg in early summer of 1703, for we +first hear of him there on July 2, when he met Johann Mattheson in the +church of St. Mary Magdalen. It seems to have been a chance acquaintance, +to judge from Mattheson's account; it stuck in Mattheson's memory for many +years and he remembered especially the pastry-cook's boy who blew the organ +for Handel and himself. Mattheson was four years older than Handel; he was +one of those precociously gifted, versatile, attractive, and rather vain +young men who are endowed with so many talents that they never achieve +distinction in any branch of art. He is remembered now only by the literary +work of his later life, in which he shows himself as a voluminous pedant +and an embittered critic. He made friends with Handel on the spot, and took +him under his own protection, providing him with almost daily free meals +at his father's house. He evidently regarded him as a very simple and +provincial young musician, a notable organist indeed, and a master of such +learned devices as counterpoint and fugue, but a dull composer, turning out +endless arias and cantatas with no sense of the fashionable Italian taste. + +It was Mattheson, by his own account, who introduced Handel to the musical +life of Hamburg. The opera was closed for the summer, and Keiser's +celebrated winter concerts, at which the wealthy society of Hamburg +listened to the most famous singers and regaled themselves with tokay, had +not yet begun; but there was no lack of social distractions, in which music +no doubt played its part. In August the two friends made a journey to +Lubeck, to compete for the post of organist at the Marienkirche in +succession to Dietrich Buxtehude, who was nearly seventy and ready to +retire. But both Buxtehude and the town council insisted that the new +organist should marry his predecessor's daughter, in order to save the town +the necessity of providing for her; she was considerably older than the +two youthful candidates, and they both withdrew in haste. Late in life +Mattheson married the daughter of an English clergyman; Handel remained a +bachelor to the end of his days. + +It was no doubt through Mattheson that Handel, in the autumn, entered the +opera band as a humble second violinist. He seems to have been of a very +retiring and quiet disposition, although of a dry humour. Opera management +at Hamburg was no less precarious than it was in London; Keiser could +not afford the Italian singers patronised by the German princes, and his +performances had often to be helped out by amateurs of all classes. On one +occasion the harpsichord-player failed him; Handel took his place at +short notice, and his musicianship was at once recognised. Unfortunately +Mattheson, whose chronology is always rather uncertain, does not tell us +when this occurred. In addition to his duties in the orchestra, Handel +earned a living by teaching private pupils, and through Mattheson he was +engaged by Mr. John Wyche, the English Envoy, as music-master to his small +son Cyril. + +Early in 1704 Mattheson went to Holland, where he had some success in +organising concerts at Amsterdam, and was offered the post of organist at +Haarlem. He seems to have had some idea of seeking his fortune in England; +he spoke English well, and may have had useful connexions in England +through Mr. John Wyche. But in March Handel wrote to him that the Hamburg +opera could not get on without him, and to Hamburg he returned. It soon +must have become clear to him that Handel was rapidly outgrowing any need +of his condescending patronage. A _Passion according to St. John_, the +words of which had been written by Postel, an opera-poet turned pietist, +had been set to music by Handel, and performed on Good Friday with marked +success. Mattheson arrived too late to hear it, but it is significant that +twenty years later he published a scathing criticism of it, although it is +a work of little importance in relation to Handel's complete career, and +can seldom have been performed. A Passion oratorio by Keiser was produced +at the same time, it may well have been that Handel's work, youthful and +conventional as it is, was enough to arouse the jealousy of both Keiser and +Mattheson. + +Shortly after Easter, Keiser began the composition of a new opera, +_Almira_, on a libretto by the local poet Feustking, but for some reason or +other he found it necessary to call in Handel's assistance, and eventually +left the whole work to Handel to compose. It was to be produced in the +autumn. Handel seems to have consulted Mattheson over every detail of the +opera; there exists a complete score in Mattheson's handwriting, with +corrections and additions by Handel. Mattheson spent the summer enjoying a +country holiday in Mecklenburg; Handel probably went on with his opera, +at Hamburg. In October, just as the opera season was reopening, Mattheson +contrived to get himself engaged by Sir Cyril Wych as tutor to his son; +he also took over the boy's musical education, hinting that Handel +was dismissed for neglect of his duties. In view of Handel's strictly +honourable character it is difficult to believe that he was guilty of +neglect, and we may naturally suppose him to have resented the loss of a +lucrative appointment. + +The first opera of the autumn was not Handel's _Almira_, but an opera by +Mattheson, called _Cleopatra_. Mattheson, always eager to exhibit his +versatility, sang the part of Antony himself, and, not content with that, +came into the orchestra as soon as Antony had died on the stage and kept +himself in view of the audience by conducting at the harpsichord. For +several performances Handel made no objection and gave up his seat to +Mattheson when the moment came, but on December 5, for some reason or +other, he refused, to the surprise and indignation of the composer. German +musicians in those days were a quarrelsome crew; at the court of Stuttgart +the musicians were so much given to knocking each other on the head with +their instruments, even in the august presence of His Serene Highness, that +there was hardly one left undamaged. It was only to be expected that the +friends of Handel and Mattheson should egg them on to fight a duel in the +street; luckily Mattheson's sword broke on a button of Handel's coat, and +the duel ended. On December 30 a town councillor effected a reconciliation; +the rivals dined together at Mattheson's house and went on to the rehearsal +of _Almira_, which was brought out on January 8, 1705, with Mattheson as +the principal tenor. + +_Almira_, the libretto of which was partly in German and partly in Italian, +ran continuously for about twenty performances until February 25, when it +was succeeded by _Nero_, another opera which Handel had hastily composed +for the occasion. _Nero_, in which Mattheson sang the title part, was a +failure. The music is lost, but the libretto survives, and that is enough +to account for the collapse. The opera had three performances only. In the +very same season Keiser re-set _Nero_ to music himself, and brought it +out under the title of _Octavia_; shortly afterwards he did the same with +_Almira_, which was performed in August of the same year. Although Keiser's +operas were no more successful than Handel's, and his extravagance and +mismanagement forced him to leave Hamburg for three years in order to avoid +imprisonment, it is evident that he had made Handel's position in the +theatre impossible. Handel withdrew into private life and devoted himself +to earning a living by teaching. Mattheson says that Handel remained in +Hamburg until 1709, and that he still worked in the theatre, but the first +of these statements is certainly untrue, and the second probably so. +Mattheson himself left the theatre after the failure of Handel's _Nero_, +and his friendship with Handel seems to have come to an end. About Handel's +subsequent life in Hamburg we know nothing, until the theatre was taken +over by one Saurbrey in the autumn of 1706. Saurbrey commissioned an opera +from Handel, but, owing to the confusion in which Keiser had left the +affairs of the theatre, it could not be brought out until January 1708, +when it was found to be so long that it had to be divided into two operas, +_Florindo_ and _Daphne_, both of which were put on the stage successively. +By that time Handel had left Hamburg for Italy; he evidently took little +interest in the production of these works, neither of which has survived. + +It was during the run of _Almira_, says Mainwaring, that Handel made the +acquaintance of Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici, son of the Grand Duke Cosmo +III of Tuscany. Mainwaring's date is wrong, for it is known that Gian +Gastone at that time was in Bohemia with his wife, a German princess, to +whom he had been married against his will. But it is also known that he was +in Hamburg for a few months during the winter of 1703-04, and, if he met +Handel at that time, the rest of Mainwaring's story becomes much more +credible than subsequent biographers have been willing to admit. According +to Mainwaring, Handel became almost an intimate friend of the Prince; they +often discussed music together, and the Prince lamented that Handel was +unacquainted with the music and musical life of Italy. "Handel confessed +that he could see nothing in Italian music which answered the high +character His Highness had given it. On the contrary, he thought it so very +indifferent, that the singers, he said, must be angels to recommend it." +Gian Gastone urged him to come to Italy and hear for himself, intimating +"that if he chose to return with him, no conveniences should be wanting." +Handel declined the invitation, but resolved to go to Italy as soon as he +could do so "on his own bottom." + +Gian Gastone was a spendthrift and a profligate; his moral reputation was +of the worst, and he was chronically in debt. That, however, would not make +it unthinkable that after a glass of wine he should invite Handel to come +to Italy with him, but Handel may well have known enough about the Prince +even then to reply to the proposal with tactful evasiveness. From what +Mattheson says of Handel on his first arrival in Hamburg, it is quite +likely that he was contemptuous of Italian opera music, and it is equally +likely that after the success of _Almira_ his views on Italian opera +underwent a change. It is obvious that Hamburg had no further chances to +offer him, and the attraction of Italy was at that time so vivid to +all young German musicians that not one of them would have refused an +opportunity of making the journey. + +The date of Handel's departure from Hamburg is unknown, nor have we the +slightest information as to his whereabouts until we hear of him at Rome in +January 1707. Chrysander's statement that he spent Christmas 1706 with his +mother at Halle is manifestly untrue. Mattheson says that he travelled to +Rome with a Herr von Binitz, but nothing is known of this gentleman. His +most natural route into Italy would be by the Brenner, the historic road of +all German pilgrims. + +Handel may well have been glad to leave Hamburg, but Hamburg did not forget +him. He is mentioned in a theatrical manifesto of 1708 as being already +"beloved and celebrated in Italy"; Barthold Feind, one of the Hamburg +librettists, who in 1715 translated Handel's _Rinaldo_, called him "the +incomparable Handel, the Orpheus of our time"; and from 1715 to 1734 almost +all of Handel's London operas were represented on the Hamburg stage. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the +Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London: +_Rinaldo_. + + +Handel spent three years in Italy. The known facts about his life there are +singularly few, and his biographers have often had to draw copiously on +their imagination. They may perhaps be forgiven for doing so, since they +rightly sought to emphasise the fact that these three years were the most +formative period of Handel's personality as a composer. Handel came to +Italy as a German; he left Italy an Italian, as far as his music was +concerned, and, despite all other influences, Italian was the foundation of +his musical language until the end of his life. + +On January 14, 1707, a Roman chronicler noted the arrival of "a Saxon, an +excellent player on the harpsichord and a composer of music, who has to-day +displayed his ability in playing the organ in the church of St. John +[Lateran] to the amazement of everyone." This can hardly refer to anyone +else than Handel, who throughout his sojourn in Italy was always known as +"the Saxon" (_il Sassone_). We owe the discovery of this important document +to Mr. Newman Flower. The next date known to us is that of April 11--on the +manuscript of Handel's _Dixit Dominus_, composed in Rome. + +Most biographers have, however, assumed that Handel's first halt in Italy +would have been made at Florence, in view of the fact that Gian Gastone de' +Medici is known to have been at Florence from June 1705 to November 1706. +The eldest son of the Grand Duke, Prince Ferdinand, was an enthusiastic +patron of music, who employed the best musicians of the day to perform +operas in his magnificent country palace at Pratolino, some twelve miles +north of Florence. It has been suggested that Handel's first Italian opera, +_Rodrigo_, was composed for Ferdinand and performed early in 1707, but, in +view of Mr. Flower's discovery, this seems unlikely. Mr. Flower suggests, +indeed, that Ferdinand did not take much interest in Handel, otherwise he +would not have allowed him to go to Rome so soon. This is not impossible, +for we know that Ferdinand found the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti too +serious for his taste, and he may well have thought even less of Handel's +music, which (as we can see from the score of _Rodrigo_) was still very +German in style. + +Rome could offer Handel no opportunities either for composing operas or +even for hearing them. Pope Clement X had permitted the opening of a public +opera-house (the Teatro Tordinona) in 1671, but it was closed five years +later by Innocent XI, who made every effort he could to suppress opera both +in public and in private. Innocent XII, who became Pope in 1691, seems to +have been, at first, less intolerant, for the theatre was rebuilt, and a +few performances were given; but in 1697 he ordered its destruction on +grounds of public morality. Except for a few performances of opera in +private in 1701 and 1702 no operas were produced in Rome until 1709. + +Deprived of opera, the Romans devoted themselves to oratorio--which in +musical style was much the same thing--and to chamber music. The most +generous patron of music in Rome was the young Cardinal Ottoboni, who had +been raised to the purple in his early twenties, in 1690. He had indeed +composed an opera himself, which was performed in 1692, but he was more +competent as a poet than as a musician; in 1690 Alessandro Scarlatti had +set a libretto of his, _La Statira_. + +Handel was no doubt recommended to him by Ferdinand de' Medici, and at the +Cardinal's weekly musical parties he soon came into contact with Domenico +Scarlatti, as well as with Corelli and Pasquini. Alessandro Scarlatti had +left Naples, probably for political reasons, in 1702, and at the end of +1703 Ottoboni had secured him a subordinate post at the church of Santa +Maria Maggiore, at the same time appointing him his private director of +music. Domenico was a young man of Handel's own age--"a young eagle" as +his father called him--brilliantly gifted, and (to judge from Thomas +Roseingrave's impression of him) possessed of a singular personal +fascination. "Handel," says Mainwaring, "used often to speak of this person +with great satisfaction; and indeed there was reason for it; for besides +his great talents as an artist, he had the sweetest temper, and the +genteelest behaviour." We may indeed regard his friendship with Handel +as safely authenticated. It is just possible that Handel may have met +Alessandro Scarlatti at Pratolino in the previous autumn, as his opera _Il +Gran Tamerlano_ was produced there in September; he may well have met him +between January and April of 1707. From April to September Alessandro +Scarlatti was in Urbino. + +Handel's movements now become very difficult to follow. It seems probable +that his opera _Rodrigo_ was performed at Florence in the autumn of 1707; +Mainwaring says that it was composed for Ferdinand de' Medici, but there is +no record of any performance at Pratolino. As Handel is said to have been +presented to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover at Venice, he must have been +there in October or November, as the Prince is known to have spent only +those two months in that city. Whether Handel remained at Venice over +Christmas, or whether he returned to Rome, is uncertain. Domenico Scarlatti +is said to have identified him at Venice at a masquerade by his playing of +the harpsichord. It would be most natural to suppose then that Handel +and the two Scarlattis were in Venice together for the production of +Alessandro's two operas, _Mitridate Eupatore_ and _Il Trionfo della +Libertà_, both of which were brought out at Venice in 1707, but, as it is +not known whether this took place at the beginning or at the end of the +year, there is not sufficient evidence to support such a conjecture. + +During March and April 1708, Handel was the guest of Prince Ruspoli in +Rome; this has been definitely ascertained by Mr. Flower. Prince Ruspoli +was another great Roman patron of music, and Scarlatti frequently composed +works for him; his _Annunciation Oratorio_ was performed under his auspices +on March 25. On Easter Sunday, April 8, Handel made a triumphal appearance +with _La Resurrezione_, which was given on a sumptuous scale, at Ruspoli's +expense, in the Palazzo Bonelli, which he was occupying at the time. +Corelli led the orchestra. + +After _La Resurrezione_, Handel seems to have returned to the patronage +of Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose palace he produced a _serenata_ (i.e. an +allegorical cantata) called _Il Trionfa del Tempo e del Disinganno_, which +he remodelled fifty years afterwards as _The Triumph of Time and Truth_. +The libretto was by Cardinal Pamphilij. It was the overture to this work +which caused so much difficulty to Corelli. Handel, irritated at his lack +of understanding, snatched the violin from his hand and played the passage +himself, to show how it should be executed; Corelli, gentlest of souls, +took no offence, although thirty-two years his senior and the greatest +violinist living, but merely observed, "My dear Saxon, this music is in the +French style, of which I have no knowledge." + +It has been assumed by many biographers that Handel attended the meetings +of the Arcadian Academy, and since Prince Ruspoli was a great, benefactor +to the Academy, this is extremely probable, although there is no evidence +for it. Handel was not a member of the Academy, and various reasons for +this have been suggested, such as that he was a foreigner and also too +young to be admitted. It is more probable that his admission to that +exclusive society was never even contemplated; musicians were generally +engaged professionally for the concerts of the Italian academies, but very +seldom admitted to the honour of membership. Corelli, Pasquini and +Alessandro Scarlatti were all admitted together in 1705; they were the +three senior and most distinguished composers of the time, and as no other +musicians were then members, it may be assumed that these elections +constituted an exceptional honour. + + +Mainwaring relates that Cardinal Pamphili; on one occasion wrote a poem in +honour of Handel and desired him to set it to music himself; in this poem +"he was compared to Orpheus, and exalted above the rank of mortals." Later +biographers, being unable to trace any music of Handel to this poem, +assumed that Handel was too modest to sing his own praises; but he was not, +for the original manuscript of the cantata was found by the present writer +in the University Library at Münster in Westphalia. As Mainwaring informs +us, Handel is compared by the poet (whose name is not given) to Orpheus and +indeed exalted above him. "Orpheus," says the Cardinal, "could move rocks +and trees, but he could not make them sing; therefore thou art greater than +Orpheus, for thou compellest my aged Muse to song." The style of both words +and music suggests that the whole cantata was thrown off, as Mainwaring +suggests, on the spur of the moment, and this improvisation may well +have taken place at one of the Arcadians' garden parties, for there is a +well-known account of a similar improvisation by the poet Zappi and the +composer Alessandro Scarlatti. + +Handel was by this time fully accepted as one of the leading musicians in +Italy, for in June he composed a pastoral, _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_, for +the marriage of the Duke of Alvito at Naples on July 19. It was in July +1708 that the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, Count Daun, was succeeded by +Cardinal Grimani, who, towards the end of the year, persuaded Alessandro +Scarlatti to return to the service of the royal chapel. As a good friend to +Scarlatti, the Cardinal was sure to interest himself in Handel, and it was +probably through him that Handel was commissioned to write an opera for +Venice, as the Grimani were a great Venetian family and owned the principal +opera-house there. How long Handel stayed at Naples we do not know; all +that Mainwaring tells us is that he was taken up by a Spanish princess, +but, as Naples had belonged to Spain for a hundred and fifty years, Spanish +princesses can have been no rarities there, and it is impossible to +identify this lady. + +From July 1708 until December 1709 we lose sight of Handel entirely. On +December 26, the first night of the carnival season, his opera _Agrippina_ +was produced at Venice. The libretto was by Cardinal Grimani, who had +already written other dramas for music, all produced, like Handel's, at the +Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. Venice was the first city which +had undertaken opera on a commercial basis, open to the public on payment, +whereas in other places it depended for many years on the munificence of +princes and nobles. At Venice there existed not one theatre, but several, +devoted to opera, each called after the name of the parish in which it was +situated, and, of these, the theatre of St. John Chrysostom, built by the +Grimani family and still standing (though much remodelled) under the name +of Teatro Malibran, was the largest and most important. The Inquisition +took a more tolerant view of opera than the Pope; a Venetian preacher +admonished actors and singers to remember that they "were abominated of +God, but tolerated by the Government by desire of those who took delight in +their iniquities." + +_Agrippina_ aroused an extraordinary enthusiasm. "The theatre, at almost +every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of _viva il taro +Sassone!_ and other expressions of approbation too extravagant to be +mentioned" (Mainwaring). The title part was sung by Margherita Durastanti, +and another singer who appeared in the opera was Boschi, the famous bass; +both of them were to sing for Handel in London later on. It is fairly +certain that Boschi must have sung the part of Polyphemus in Handel's +Italian _Aci e Galatea_ at Naples, for it bears a striking resemblance to +other songs written for Boschi, whose voice was of exceptional range. The +opera ran for twenty-seven nights. + +After this unprecedented triumph it seems surprising that Handel did not +remain in Italy, where he had so many friends who could ensure his success. +It is probable that by the time _Agrippina_ was performed, if not indeed +long before, he had been promised the post of Kapellmeister to the court of +Hanover. The actual appointment is dated June 16, 1710. But no sooner was +Handel appointed than he at once obtained leave of absence, and went on, +first to Düsseldorf, and then to London. It was probably the Elector's +intention that he should spend some time in foreign travel before taking up +regular duty. + +The three years which Handel spent in Italy at the most impressionable +period of his life fixed the characteristics of his style as a composer, +and we may well suppose that they exercised a decisive influence on his +personality and character. His youth had been spent in the respectable +middle-class environment of his home at Halle; then came the three years at +Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the artistic stimulus of +Keiser's opera-house, inevitably sordid and provincial. Italy introduced +him to an entirely different atmosphere--to a life of dignity and serenity +in which a classical culture, both literary and artistic, was the matured +fruit of wealth, leisure, and good breeding. That exquisite life found its +highest musical expression in Alessandro Scarlatti, who at that period was +incontestably the greatest of living musicians. On his style Handel formed +his own, and it is interesting to note that of all Scarlatti's operas the +one which most strikingly foreshadows the genius of Handel is _Mitridate_, +which Handel may possibly have seen at Venice in the winter of 1707-08. +The musical library of Handel's English friend Charles Jennens contained a +large collection of Scarlatti's manuscripts, and there can be little doubt +that it was Handel who brought them with him from Italy. + +In Venice, Handel had made the acquaintance of Prince Ernest of Hanover, +younger brother of the Elector Georg Ludwig who was eventually to become +King of England as George I. With Prince Ernest was Baron Kielmansegge, who +for many years afterwards remained a firm supporter of Handel, and another +Venetian acquaintance was the Duke of Manchester, English Ambassador to the +Republic of Venice. Through Prince Ernest, and Kielmansegge, Handel was +recommended to the court of Hanover; the Duke of Manchester gave him a +pressing invitation to England. Music in Hanover was under the direction of +an Italian, Agostino Steffani, who was not only a musician but priest and +diplomatist as well. Born at Castelfranco in 1654, he was taken as a boy +to Munich, where he studied music, and, in 1680 entered the priesthood; he +produced several operas there, and about 1689 became Kapellmeister to the +court of Hanover. Here he was employed on important diplomatic business; +Pope Innocent XI made him titular Bishop of Spiga in the West Indies, +and in 1698 he was Ambassador at Brussels. In 1709 he became the Pope's +representative for North Germany, and it was doubtless owing to his heavy +ecclesiastical duties that he resigned his musical post in favour of +Handel, although Hanover remained his chief place of residence until his +death in 1728. He was in Rome in 1708 and 1709, and it has been suggested +that he made Handel's acquaintance there, but this hardly seems consistent +with Handel's own statement, recorded by Hawkins in his _History of Music_: +"When I first arrived at Hanover I was a young man under twenty; I was +acquainted with the merits of Steffani and he had heard of me. I understood +somewhat of music, and could play pretty well on the organ; he received me +with great kindness, and took an early opportunity to introduce me to the +Princess Sophia and the Elector's son, giving them to understand that I +was what he was pleased to call a virtuoso in music; he obliged me with +instructions for my conduct and behaviour during my residence at Hanover; +and being called from the city to attend to matters of a public concern, +he left me in possession of that favour and patronage which himself had +enjoyed for a series of years." These statements of Handel seem, in fact, +to point to his having visited Hanover before he went to Italy, possibly +before he went to Hamburg, or, more probably, during the course of his +Hamburg period, in which case one might conclude that the Electress Sophia +had defrayed the cost of Handel's Italian journey. Even if Handel made +a mistake as to his age, he clearly implies that his first meeting with +Steffani took place in Hanover. + +At Düsseldorf, Handel was sure of a warm welcome, for the Elector Johann +Wilhelm was a close friend of Steffani, and his wife was a sister of +Ferdinand and Gian Gastone de' Medici; he was a man of extravagant tastes, +and his opera-house was maintained on the most magnificent scale. But +Handel did not stay there long; England was a greater attraction, and he +arrived in London for the first time in the autumn of 1710. + +Nothing is known of Handel's early days in London, but it may be safely +assumed that he was provided with letters of introduction to persons +of influence. We meet him first in the company of Heidegger, a Swiss +adventurer who achieved notoriety through his incredible ugliness, and from +1709 onwards was concerned in the management of the opera at the Queen's +Theatre in the Haymarket. Through Heidegger, Handel was introduced to Mary +Granville, then a little girl of ten, whom he delighted by his performance +on her own spinet. Her uncle, Sir John Stanley, asked her if she thought +she should ever play as well as Mr. Handel. "If I did not think I should," +she cried, "I would burn my instrument!" Mary Granville, who, seven years +later, married a Mr. Pendarves, and in 1743 became the wife of Dr. Delany, +was for many years one of Handel's most faithful friends and supporters. + +In the reign of Queen Anne the musical life of London was developing in a +new fashion as compared with what it was in the last twenty years of the +previous century. The type of English opera which Purcell and Dryden +had created came to an end with Purcell's death in 1695. Italian music, +especially when sung by Italian singers, was gradually becoming more and +more popular with London concert-audiences, and in 1705 Thomas Clayton +produced at Drury Lane an opera called _Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus_. Clayton +had visited Italy, and had brought back with him a collection of Italian +songs; he got Peter Motteux to translate for him an old Italian opera +libretto, and adapted these songs to it. How much of _Arsinoe_ was +Clayton's own work is not known; Burney speaks of the opera with nothing +but contempt. Yet it seems to have had some fair success, and was even +revived the following year; but Clayton's _Rosamond_, to a libretto by +Addison, did not survive three performances. It was followed by a series of +Italian operas composed by Buononcini, Scarlatti, and others; at first the +operas were in English, and sung by English singers, but gradually Italian +was introduced, as at Hamburg, and in 1710 an opera called _Almahide_, the +music of which Burney ascribes conjecturally to Buononcini, was given in +Italian with an entirely Italian company. The victory of the Italians was +due mainly to the marvellous singing and acting of Nicola Grimaldi, known +as Nicolini, who first appeared in London in Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and +Demetrius_. Nicolini was not the first _castrato_ who had been heard in +England; the famous Siface had been brought over by Queen Mary of Modena in +1687. But Nicolini was the first who appeared on the English stage, and +it was he who paved the way for Senesino, Farinelli, and the rest, and +established that annual season of Italian opera which is not yet extinct. + +At the time when Handel arrived in London the opera company had migrated +from Drury Lane to Vanbrugh's new theatre in the Haymarket, where it was +under the management of Aaron Hill, an enterprising young man of Handel's +own age who was ready to pursue any sort of career that chance might offer +him, whether in literature, music, or business adventure. We may safely +hazard a guess that it was Boschi who persuaded Hill to invite Handel to +compose an opera for the Queen's Theatre, as Boschi had already sung, in +November 1710, in _Hydaspes_, an opera by Francesco Mancini, in which +Nicolini delighted his audience in a fight with a lion. Hill sketched a +plot based on Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, and an Italian libretto was +hastily provided by Giacomo Rossi, Handel composing the music at the same +time, and often overtaking the poet. The music, in fact, was completed in +a fortnight, and the opera of _Rinaldo_ was first produced on the stage on +February 24, 1711. To judge from Burney's account of the preceding weeks +of the season, coupled with this astonishingly rapid collaboration, it is +probable that Hill was in a difficult situation, from which only a new and +strikingly successful opera could save him. _Rinaldo_ achieved the desired +success; it did more, it established Handel's reputation in England as a +dramatic composer, and set London a new standard in Italian opera. The +previous Italian operas had been works of little distinction, and some of +them had even been _pasticcio_ operas, as they were called, put together +from songs by various composers. Even Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and Demetrius_ +paled beside the new opera of Handel, for it had been written as far back +as 1694, and was in a style which Scarlatti himself had long abandoned. + +_Rinaldo_ had fifteen performances in the course of the season. It provoked +bitter attacks from Addison in the _Spectator_ and from Steele in the +_Tatler_, but everybody knew that Addison's vanity was wounded by the +grotesque failure of _Rosamond_, and that Steele had interests in the +playhouse. It was useless at that particular moment to champion the cause +of English opera, for England happened to possess not a single composer who +was equal to the task of writing one. + +The opera season came to an end in June, and Handel left London for +Germany. He did not go straight back to Hanover, but stayed at Düsseldorf +again, where the Elector was evidently desirous of keeping him as long as +possible, for the Elector himself wrote more than once to Hanover to make +excuses for Handel's prolonged absence from his official duties. Handel may +well have felt that Hanover was a dull place as compared with London. There +was no opera, and his chief function was to compose Italian chamber duets +for the Princess Caroline of Ansbach; afterwards Queen of England. But +he may well have taken pleasure in her service, for she was an excellent +musician and no mean singer. In November 1711 Handel paid a visit to Halle, +in order to stand godfather to his niece, Johanna Friderica Michaelsen, the +daughter of his surviving sister, who eventually inherited the bulk of his +fortune. Some biographers have stated that Handel had already revisited his +birthplace in 1710 before going to London. Mainwaring is their authority +for this, but Mainwaring habitually confused dates and more probably +referred to the visit of 1711, for which we have the certain evidence of +Friderica Michaelsen's baptismal register. It is clear that the alleged +visit of 1710 was suggested merely by a desire to make the most of Handel's +affection for his mother, which Mainwaring had already emphasised. +Mainwaring, however, went beyond the truth in saying that she had become +blind; she did eventually lose her sight, but not until some twenty years +later. + +Handel appears to have remained at Hanover until the autumn of 1712, when +he obtained permission to go to London again "on condition that he engaged +to return within a reasonable time" (Mainwaring). What period was to be +considered reasonable we do not know. Handel had certainly been planning +this London visit for some time, as he was corresponding with friends in +England, and was also taking some trouble to improve his knowledge of the +English language. It is not surprising that he hankered after London, for +London offered him a society which bore more resemblance to the world which +he had known at Rome. The tradition of Italian culture had for generations +been more firmly implanted in England than anywhere in Germany, except +perhaps in Vienna, and, since those three years in Italy, Handel's musical +outlook had become completely Italian, as his music shows. The few attempts +which he made at German Church music present a curious contrast of style; +one could hardly believe them to be the work of that Handel whom we have +adopted as our own. German music at that date was provincial; Italian music +was the music of the great world, because it was the music of the theatre. +It was to the theatre that Handel looked forward, and London had what even +Rome had not--an opera, and an Italian opera. The success of _Rinaldo_ +had shown him that London was the place where he might launch out into a +triumphal career as a composer for the stage. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water +Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of +the Royal Academy of Music. + + +For the greater part of the nineteenth century the Handelian type of opera +was the laughingstock of musical critics; they wondered how any audiences +could have endured to sit through it, and why the fashionable society of +London should have neglected native music for what Dr. Johnson defined as +"an exotic and irrational entertainment." The modern reader's impression +of an Italian opera of Handel's days is a story about some ancient or +mediaeval hero whose very name is often to most people unknown; if he +happens to be someone as famous as Julius Caesar, the familiar episodes +of his life are sacrificed to some imaginary and complicated intrigue +presented in the form of long and elaborate songs, thinly accompanied, and +separated by stretches of dreary recitative. But in those days persons of +culture, in England as well as in Italy, were perhaps more interested in +ancient history and in the history of the later Roman Empire than they are +now; it is significant that Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ made its appearance +just when the fashion for operas on subjects which might have been taken +from its pages was coming to an end. + +The conventional treatment of those subjects, which makes all the operas +seem exactly alike, was the result of a certain literary reform which had +tended to standardise opera libretti under the influence of Racine, and +it was really a movement towards dignity and dramatic unity after +the monstrous confusion of the earlier Venetian operas. As to the +conventionality of the music, and its forms of air and recitative, it can +only be said that all serious Italian music was written in these forms; it +was simply the normal musical style of the period, and must have been as +natural to its own audiences as the style of Puccini or Richard Strauss at +the present day. Handelian opera has often been described as a concert +in costume, and Dr. Burney, writing as late as 1789, both admits this +description and defends it. + +"An opera, at the worst, is still better than a concert merely for the ear, +or a pantomime entertainment for the eye. Supposing the articulation to be +wholly unintelligible, we have an excellent union of melody and harmony, +vocal as well as instrumental, for the ear. And, according to Sir Richard +Steele's account of Nicolini's action, 'it was so significant, that a deaf +man might go along with him in the sense of the part he acted.' + +"No one will dispute but that understanding Italian would render our +entertainment at an opera more rational and more complete; but without that +advantage, let it be remembered by the lovers of Music, that an opera is +the _completest concert_ to which they can go; with this advantage over +those in still life, that to the most perfect singing, and effects of a +powerful and well-disciplined band, are frequently added excellent acting, +splendid scenes and decorations, with such dancing as a playhouse, from its +inferior prices, is seldom able to furnish." + +Orchestral concerts in those days did not exist; concerts of any kind were +rare, and the best were to be heard in that historic room over Thomas +Britton's small coal shop, in Clerkenwell, where Handel himself sometimes +played on a chamber-organ for the genuine musical enthusiasts of London +society. It was no wonder that Italian opera became fashionable. Italian +singers have always been unrivalled in popular favour, and in Handel's days +they were not only something new to England, but were the exponents of a +vocal art which admittedly has never been surpassed. The theatre was new +and sumptuous; society was wealthy and at the same time exclusive; at the +opera the great world met together as in a sort of club. People went to +talk and to be seen as well as to see and hear; they do so in certain +opera-houses still. And the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket possessed the +greatest opera-composer living, a greater even than Scarlatti himself. + +It was a period when there was still a considerable tradition of +musicianship among the amateurs of English society. Old Countess Granville, +known to her younger relatives as "the Dragon," who had lived all through +the age of Locke and Purcell, wrote, at the age of eighty, to her cousin +Mrs. Pendarves--Handel's child friend Mary Granville--in 1734: "There is, +I think, no accomplishment so great for a lady as music, for it tunes +the mind." There were plenty of people in the great houses capable +of appreciating the merits of Handel, or at any rate of constituting +themselves his enemies. + +Handel must have arrived in England at least as early as the beginning of +October 1712, for the manuscript of _Il Pastor Fido_, the first new opera +which he produced, is dated, at the end, "Londres, ce 24 Octobre." The +opera-house was now under the management of Owen MacSwiney, who seems to +have been both incompetent and unreliable. _Il Pastor Fido_ did not attract +the public, and was withdrawn after six performances, but Handel soon had +another opera ready to take its place. _Teseo_ was finished on December +19, and brought out on January 10, 1713; it was a romantic-heroic opera, +closely modelled on _Rinaldo_, with an abundance of scenic effects. After +the second performance MacSwiney disappeared, leaving the singers unpaid as +well as the scene-painters and costume-makers. The company carried on the +season undeterred, and the management was taken over by Heidegger. Handel's +opera was performed twelve times--on the last night for the composer's +benefit; between the acts he gave a performance himself on the harpsichord. + +For the moment, however, the operatic situation was not encouraging, and +Handel turned his thoughts in other directions. He had stayed first at +the London house of a Mr. Andrews of Barn Elms in Surrey, but he soon +transferred himself to the house of Lord Burlington in Piccadilly. Lord +Burlington was only seventeen years of age, but he and his mother made +Burlington House an artistic and literary centre comparable with the +palaces of Cardinal Ottoboni and Prince Ruspoli at Rome. As the libretto of +_Teseo_ is dedicated to him, he must have taken Handel under his patronage +soon after his arrival in England, but the precise date at which Handel +went to live with him is uncertain. According to Hawkins, he stayed at +Burlington House for three years, meeting Pope, Gay, and Dr. Arbuthnot, as +well as many other "men of the first eminence for genius." But Gay does not +seem to have met Lord Burlington until 1715, and Pope mentions him first +in 1718. It is thought that Handel's little opera, _Silla_, may have been +written for a private performance at Burlington House in 1714, and the +dedication of _Amadigi_, Handel's next opera (1715), indicates that the +music was composed within his patron's own walls. + +One of Handel's favourite haunts in London was St. Paul's Cathedral, where +Brind the organist often persuaded him to play the organ after evening +service, to the great delight of the congregation. He appears to have +made Brind's acquaintance first through young Maurice Greene, then aged +seventeen, who had been a chorister of St. Paul's, and, after his voice +broke in 1710, was articled to Brind as a pupil. After service was over, +Handel, Greene, and some of the members of the choir would repair to +the Queen's Arms Tavern close by for an evening of music and musical +conversation. + +This friendly association with St. Paul's was no doubt of great value to +Handel in his next musical undertakings--the _Birthday Ode_ for Queen +Anne, and the _Te Deum_ which celebrated the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. +The Queen's patronage may very likely have been obtained for him by Lady +Burlington, as she was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber. These two +works are important landmarks in Handel's career, as they were his first +compositions to English words, and his first compositions for English +ceremonial occasions. They marked him out as the natural successor to +Purcell, and it is evident that in each case he took Purcell's similar +composition as his model. Up till now he had been a foreigner engaged to +provide Italian opera for the amusement of fashionable society; with the +_Birthday Ode_ he became a court musician to the Queen of England, and with +the _Te Deum_ his music entered St. Paul's. + +The practical result of the _Ode_ was a pension of £200 a year conferred +on him by Queen Anne. It is clear that he now regarded England as his +permanent home, regardless of the fact that he was officially the servant +of the Elector of Hanover and had undertaken to return thither "within a +reasonable time." But on August 1, 1714, the Queen died, and the Elector +was proclaimed King of England. When George I came over to his new country, +Handel did not dare to show himself at court, and all efforts on the part +of his friends to effect a reconciliation with the King were in vain. The +King went to see his new opera, _Amadigi_, which came out late in the +season of 1715, but refused to pardon him, until Handel's old Venetian +acquaintance, Baron Kielmansegge, now Master of the Horse, devised an +ingenious expedient for surprising the King into clemency. + +One of the favourite amusements of London society was to make up a +water-party on the Thames, with a band of musicians in attendance. Mrs. +Pendarves describes a party of this kind in July 1722; they rowed up to +Richmond, where they had supper, and "were entertained all the time by very +good music [for wind instruments] in another barge." Baron Kielmansegge +arranged that the King should go for an excursion of this kind, and that, +without his knowledge, Handel should conduct appropriate music of his own +in a barge that followed the King's. As the Baron was often in charge of +the music for such occasions, this can have been a matter of no great +difficulty; in any case it achieved the desired result. The King was +enchanted with the music, and restored Handel to favour. As Mainwaring +tells this story just before speaking of _Amadigi_, it has generally been +assumed that this episode took place in the summer of 1715, but more +recently it has been ascribed to 1717, on the strength of a long account of +a royal water-party, with music by Handel, given in the _Daily Courant_, +a newspaper of the period. This account was copied by the Envoy of +Brandenburg at the court of St. James's and despatched by him to Berlin; +the discovery of this document has led certain writers to cast doubt on +Mainwaring's story. Streatfeild is probably right in suggesting that +Mainwaring's story refers to an earlier water-party, and that Handel +contributed music frequently for such occasions. He also points out that +the celebrated _Water Music_ was not published until 1740, and that it may +quite well have been collected from various aquatic programmes. + +Hawkins relates the story of the _Water Music_, evidently copying from +Mainwaring; but Hawkins had known Handel personally, and had been supplied +by him with certain reminiscences, one of which was unknown to Mainwaring. +According to this anecdote, recorded by Hawkins, the reconciliation with +George I was due to the violinist Geminiani, who had composed a set of +sonatas dedicated to Baron Kielmansegge; Geminiani was a notoriously +difficult player to accompany, and insisted on Handel, and no other, taking +the harpsichord when he went to play the sonatas to the King. + +Mr. Flower, in his life of Handel, refuses all credit to Mainwaring's +well-known tale, and takes the view that the King never had any quarrel +with Handel at all. In any case it seems certain that he confirmed the +pension granted to him by Queen Anne, and added a further £200 a year of +his own. A few years later, Handel received yet another £200 a year--from +Caroline of Ansbach, now Princess of Wales, for teaching her daughters the +harpsichord, so that he enjoyed a settled income of £600 a year for the +rest of his life. + +_Amadigi_, produced May 25, 1715, did not have many performances, as the +season ended on July 9, but it attracted considerable attention, partly +because that old favourite, Nicolini, sang in it again, and also on account +of its elaborate staging. "There is more enchantment and machinery in this +opera," says Dr. Burney, "than I have ever found to be announced in any +other musical drama performed in England." + +During the following season, which did not begin until February 1716, both +_Rinaldo_ and _Amadigi_ were revived, but Handel produced no new opera. The +King seems to have wished to see Nicolini in his older parts; _Pyrrhus and +Demetrius_ was revived, as well as other operas of the days before Handel's +first arrival in England. In July, at the end of the season, George I +returned to Hanover, where he remained until the end of the year. Handel +accompanied him, but seems to have had freedom to travel, for he visited +Hamburg, where he avoided meeting his old friend Mattheson, though he +corresponded with him from a safe distance. He also went to Halle, where +his mother was still living; Zachow, however, was dead, and had left his +widow in straitened circumstances, with an idle and intemperate son. Handel +helped the widow, and continued to send her money in later years, but he +eventually came to the conclusion that it was useless to do anything for +the son. From Halle he went on to Ansbach, no doubt on some commission +from the Princess of Wales. At Ansbach he found an old friend from the +University of Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt, who was established in a +woollen business. Although Schmidt was married and had a family, he was +persuaded by Handel to leave these behind at Ansbach and to travel with +him to London, where he spent the rest of his life as Handel's faithful +secretary and copyist. His son came over later on, and, after Handel had +provided for his education, assisted his father in looking after Handel +during his old age. + +During these six months in Germany, Handel reverted for a moment to German +music; he set what is known as the _Brockes Passion_, a sacred cantata +in verse by the Hamburg poet Brockes, which had already been set once +by Keiser. Later on it was set to music again by two of Handel's former +friends, first by Telemann, and then by Mattheson. Little is known about +the composition of this work; Handel apparently had a copy made after his +return to England and sent this to Mattheson, and it was performed at +Hamburg in 1717. Handel does not seem to have had it performed in England; +he used up the music afterwards for other works. Chrysander attributed to +1716 a set of nine German songs with violin _obbligato_ to semi-sacred +words by Brockes; but there is some difficulty about accepting this date, +for, although eight of the poems had already been printed by Brockes, there +is one which is found only in the second edition of the book, printed in +1724. + +The King came back to London in January 1717, and it is supposed that +Handel came with him. The opera was on the verge of collapse. _Rinaldo_ and +_Amadigi_ were once more revived for Nicolini, but Handel contributed no +new work, and, after the season came to an end in July, there was no more +Italian opera in London until 1720. It was during this period that Handel +became musical director to the Duke of Chandos, for whom he composed works +of a character new both to England and to himself. + +James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, had built himself an Italian palace +at Canons, near Edgware, in which he must have outdone even the magnificent +Lord Burlington in sumptuousness and ostentation. Like a German princeling, +he kept his choir and his band of musicians, though there seems to be no +evidence that he was himself genuinely musical. The chapel of the house, a +florid Italian baroque building with frescoes in the appropriate style by +Italian painters, was opened in 1720, and the anthem for the occasion +was no doubt one of Handel's. It is not known what music of Handel's was +performed at the Duke's private concerts, but for the services of the +chapel he composed the famous _Chandos Te Deum_ and the twelve _Chandos +Anthems_. Here again Purcell was his model, but the style was Handel's +own, a style indeed so appropriate to the formal stateliness of the Duke's +establishment that these works have never become part of the ordinary +cathedral repertory. It was to Purcell, and to some extent to Scarlatti +too, that Handel owed the general plan of the anthems with their orchestral +accompaniments, but even Purcell's anthems with orchestra had by that time +been found too elaborate for general use. + +To the Chandos period belongs also a work which is still one of Handel's +most popular compositions, the English _Acis and Galatea_, to words by John +Gay. It was not a revision of the _serenata_ which he wrote at Naples, but +an entirely new work. More important as a landmark in Handel's development +is the masque of _Esther_, originally called _Haman and Mordecai_. About +the early history of these works little is known; both were intended to be +acted on the stage, and they were very probably performed in this way at +Canons. The words of _Esther_ were adapted from Racine's play of the same +name, and it has been suggested that Pope was the author. + +Handel's residence at Canons gave rise to two legends about him which +are still so often repeated that their absurdity must be mentioned here, +although they have been known for many years to be baseless. One is +perpetuated by an inscription on the organ in the church at Whitchurch, +to the effect that Handel composed the oratorio of _Esther_ on this +instrument. Handel was never organist at Whitchurch; the church existed in +his day, but it was an entirely separate building from the private chapel +of the Duke of Chandos which was pulled down with the house. The organ of +that chapel is now at Gosport. It need hardly be said that in any case it +was not Handel's practice to compose his works on an organ. The other, and +even more popular, legend is that of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It was +during the Canons period that Handel published his _Suites de Pièces pour +le Clavecin_ (1720) which had probably been composed for the daughters +of the Princess of Wales, and one of these suites contains the air and +variations known by that familiar title. But the air was never called by +this name before 1820; about that time a young music-seller at Bath, who +had previously been a blacksmith's apprentice, earned the nickname of "the +harmonious blacksmith" because he was always singing that particular tune. +Somehow the name got transferred from the singer to the song, and in 1835 +the story of Handel's having been inspired to compose the tune after +hearing a blacksmith at Edgware produce musical notes from his anvil was +first put into print in a letter to _The Times_. Not long afterwards an +imaginary blacksmith of Edgware was invented, and his alleged anvil sold by +auction. + +Whether the air is Handel's own composition at all is a matter of +uncertainty; there would be nothing in the least unusual about any composer +taking another man's air as a theme for variations, and it has been +suggested, with some plausibility, that the tune is that of an old French +song. + +On August 8, 1718, Handel's sister Dorothea Sophia died of consumption +at Halle. She was not more than thirty years of age; the other sister, +Johanna, had died in 1709. The sermon preached at Dorothea's funeral on +August 11, 1718, has been preserved, and tells us that one of her favourite +texts from the Bible, which she was often in the habit of quoting, was, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." Chrysander suggested, and we may well +believe, that the setting of these words in _Messiah_, given to a female +voice, owed its inspiration to the memory of Dorothea Sophia. Handel was +evidently much attached to her. To attend her funeral was impossible, and +it was some months before Handel could visit Halle again; but on February +20, 1719, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, thanking him for all the +kindness which he had shown to his sister, and promising to come to Halle +as soon as his engagements permitted. + +Handel's inability to leave London before February 1719 was due to the fact +that a new scheme for the promotion of opera in London was on foot. The +first idea was probably suggested in the circle of the Duke of Chandos +towards the end of 1718. It was the moment of the South Sea Bubble, and +speculation had become the universal fashion. To revive the Italian opera a +company was formed among members of the nobility; a capital of £50,000 was +raised in shares of £100 each, and the King himself contributed £1,000. +The new venture was called the Royal Academy of Music, in imitation of +the _Académie Royale de Musique_, under which name the Paris opera was +officially known. The French designation was obviously suggested by the +Italian "academies," or literary and musical societies of the period; the +expression _accademia di musica_ is still occasionally used in Italy to +signify a concert. The directors engaged Nicolo Haym and Paolo Rolli as +poets to provide libretti; for the music they naturally secured Handel, but +also invited Buononcini over from Rome, and Attilio Ariosti from Berlin. +Handel was sent at once to Dresden to select singers; on February 21 he is +stated to have left London for that purpose, but it is possible that he may +actually have started later, for in his letter to his brother-in-law, dated +February 20, he says, "I beg you will not judge of my desire to see you by +the delay of my departure, for to my great regret I find myself detained +here by important business on which I may say my fortune depends, and it +has dragged on longer than I expected.... I hope I shall be at the end of +it in a month from now." + +Handel's exact itinerary is difficult to establish. We know that he went to +Düsseldorf, where he engaged the singer Baldassari, but whether this was on +the outward journey or later in the year is uncertain. From the letter to +Michaelsen we should imagine that he went to Halle as soon as possible; +the only authentic document which gives us any date is a letter from Count +Flemming, a court functionary at Dresden, to Melusine von Schulenburg, +daughter of George I's mistress the Duchess of Kendal, who in 1733 married +Lord Chesterfield. Melusine was a pupil of Handel in London. The letter +is dated from Dresden, October 6, 1719; the Count seems to have been much +offended by Handel's behaviour, and suggests that he was "a little mad" +(_un peu fol_). Count Flemming was evidently vain of his own musicianship, +and this made him feel all the more hurt at Handel's obstinate refusal to +accept his invitations. The Electoral Prince of Saxony was married about +this time to an Austrian Archduchess, and the Elector had invited several +of the most famous Italian singers, headed by the composer Lotti, to +Dresden to grace the occasion, hoping to make contracts with them for the +winter season. Handel's object in Dresden was to tempt these celebrities to +London by the offer of English guineas, so that he was naturally obliged to +be extremely discreet in his relations with the officials of the court. + +He certainly played the harpsichord at court, for in the following February +(1720) a sum of 100 ducats was paid to him; this however cannot indicate +that he was actually in Dresden at that date, and may easily have been +a delayed payment for earlier services. Handel's negotiations with the +singers were only moderately successful, for he was unable to secure anyone +except Signora Durastanti for the opening of the London opera, even though +that was delayed until April 1720. The others remained at Dresden, but it +is probable that Handel's offers had not been without their attractions, +for the Italian singers at Dresden gave so much trouble to the management +that the Elector suddenly dismissed the whole crew in February 1720; none +of them, however, appeared in London before the autumn season. + +Handel's visit to Halle this year is of peculiar interest because of +the attempt made by J. S. Bach to become acquainted with him. Forkel's +biography of Bach (1802) is the only authority for this story. Bach in 1719 +was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen; hearing that Handel was +in the neighbourhood, he went over to Halle, a distance of about twenty +miles, but found that Handel had already departed for London. The exact +date of Handel's return is not known, but as there was a meeting of the +shareholders of the opera on November 6, 1719, he may have been in England +by that time. He was not himself one of the actual directors of the +company; the only professional member of the board was Heidegger. Burney +suggests that the affairs of the company were none too prosperous even +before the season began; and it is strange that so long a delay took place +between the first initiation of the scheme in the winter of 1718 and the +first rise of the curtain on April 2, 1720. Handel, at any rate, must have +felt his own position to be secure, for it was about this time that he took +the house at what was then 57 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, where +he resided for the rest of his life. His name appears first in 1725 among +the ratepayers of the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, but not long +ago a lead cistern was found in the house, bearing his initials and +the date 1721. On what terms he took the house is not known; it is not +mentioned in his will. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The +Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy. + + +The opening performance of the Royal Academy of Music was undistinguished; +it is hard to understand why the noble directors should have begun their +season with _Numitor_, an opera by Porta, a Venetian composer, who is +described in the book of words as "Servant to His Grace the Duke of +Wharton." The Duke of Wharton was not one of the directors. The company, +moreover, was more English than Italian; it included Baldassari, +Durastanti, and a second woman called Galerati, together with Anastasia +Robinson, who afterwards became Countess of Peterborough, Mrs. Turner +Robinson, wife of the organist of Westminster Abbey, Mrs. Dennis, and Mr. +Gordon. _Numitor_ ran for five performances; on April 27 it was succeeded +by Handel's new opera _Radamisto_, in which the same singers took part, +except that Mrs. Dennis did not appear, and Mr. La Garde sang the part of +Farasmane. It is interesting to note that two of the male parts were taken +by women--Radamisto (Durastanti) and Tigrane (Galerati). This looks as if +the management had found it impossible to secure a sufficient number of +Italian _castrati_, who probably demanded exorbitant fees. + +_Radamisto_ fared little better than _Numitor_; an enormous crowd came to +the first night, and many were turned away, but the opera was not performed +more than ten times in the season. It was probably above the heads of the +audience, for it is one of Handel's finest works for the stage and a great +advance on any of his previous operas. The only other opera performed was +_Narciso_, by Domenico Scarlatti, which was even less successful than the +others. Chrysander seems to suggest that Scarlatti came to London with the +idea of being a rival to Handel, but it is much more likely that Handel +himself persuaded the Academy to invite the friend of his youth. + +The season ended on June 25. _Radamisto_ was printed, and was published by +Handel himself at his own house. + +A really serious rival to Handel appeared in the autumn. Lord Burlington +had made the acquaintance in Rome of Giovanni Buononcini, and had heard his +opera _Astarto_. Perhaps he had had enough of Handel after three years of +his close company in Burlington House; in any case he probably thought +himself a better judge of music than Handel. He secured Buononcini for +the Academy, and the season opened on November 19 with _Astarto_. The +dedication to the Earl of Burlington is signed by Paolo Rolli, and no other +author's name is mentioned; but the libretto was really by Apostolo Zeno +(1708). _Astarto_ had ten performances before Christmas, and twenty +afterwards; _Radamisto_ was revived again, but Buononcini established +himself firmly in the favour of a large party. Although Burney speaks very +disparagingly of the music, it is not in the least surprising that the +opera attracted the public. In the first place, it had the advantage of +a magnificent cast of singers--Senesino, Boschi, Berenstadt, Berselli, +Durastanti, Salvai, and Galerati, and this sudden blaze of vocal splendour +would in itself have made the success of any opera, especially of one which +opened the season. Besides, Buononcini's music was pleasing and, after a +far longer stage experience than Handel's, he naturally wrote what singers +enjoyed singing. It must further be added that Buononcini himself was a +striking personality; he had produced operas at Berlin and Vienna, as well +as in various Italian cities, and was a man of the world, accustomed to the +society of courts. Besides, Buononcini was a stranger and a novelty; Handel +was becoming an established institution--indeed, he was well on the way to +becoming an English composer. + +The same singers, with the addition of Anastasia Robinson, appeared in the +season of 1721-22. A curious experiment was tried in _Muzio Scevola_, +of which the first act was composed by Filippo Mattei, the second by +Buononcini and the third by Handel, each act having an overture and +concluding chorus. Some biographers have supposed that this was intended to +be a trial of strength, and that the contest resulted in the acknowledged +triumph of Handel; but Burney is probably right in saying that the +collaboration was merely a device to save time in getting the opera ready, +and Burney further points out that Buononcini's position remained as strong +as ever. It was in fact due to Buononcinci's next two operas, and not to +Handel's, that the Academy was able to declare a dividend of seven per +cent. + +Handel's _Floridante_ (December 9, 1721) had a moderate success only, and +against Handel's one opera (except for a few performances of _Radamisto_ at +the very beginning of the season) Buononcini had three works to his credit. +The following season brought Handel better fortune, and a decline in the +popularity of Buononcini. In November and December, _Muzio Sceaola_ and +_Floridante_ were revived; on January 12, Handel produced a new opera, +_Ottone_, with a new singer, Francesca Cuzzoni, who eclipsed all the other +women singers completely, until after some years she herself was driven +into eclipse by her historic rival Faustina Bordoni. + +_Ottone_ contains one number at least which is familiar to everyone who +knows the name of Handel--the gavotte at the end of the overture. This +spirited piece of music won popularity at the outset, and even to-day it +is probably the best known melody of Handel, after the "Harmonious +Blacksmith." But the real success of _Ottone_ was made by Cuzzoni. + +How Cuzzoni came to be engaged at the opera is not clear. Handel cannot +possibly have ever heard her sing; it has been suggested that she was +engaged by Heidegger. She was about twenty-two, and had made her first +appearance at Venice in 1719, after which she sang in various Italian +theatres. She had a voice of extraordinary range, beauty, and agility; she +was equally accomplished both in florid music and in airs of a sustained +and pathetic character, and she was never known to sing out of tune. In +appearance she was anything but attractive: she was short, squat, and +excessively plain-featured. She was uneducated and ill-mannered, impulsive +and quarrelsome. Her arrival in London was delayed for some reason, so +the management sent Sandoni, the second harpsichord-player, to meet +her, probably at Dover. On the way to London they were married; Sandoni +doubtless had an eye to the money which she was to earn. + +Her first air in _Ottone_, "Falsa imagine," fixed her reputation as an +expressive and pathetic singer (Burney); she had at first refused to sing +it, on which Handel remarked to her, "Madame, je sais que vous êtes une +véritable diablesse, mais je vous ferai savoir, moi, que je suis Béelzebub, +le chef des diables," seized her round and waist, and threatened to throw +her out of the window. Handel had similar trouble with Gordon, the English +singer who came in for a small part in _Flavio_, which was given on May 14. +Gordon found fault with Handel's method of accompanying, and threatened to +jump on the harpsichord. + +"Oh," replied Handel, "let me know when you will do that, and I will +advertise it; for I am sure more people will come to see you jump than to +hear you sing." + +Two more operas by Buononcini were given, but his relations with the +Academy were not very cordial. He had been taken up by the Marlborough +family, and was commissioned to compose the funeral anthem for the burial +of the great Duke in June 1722. On May 16, 1723, Mrs. Pendarves informed +her sister that the young Duchess had settled £500 a year for life on +Buononcini, "provided he will _not_ compose any more for the ungrateful +Academy, who do not deserve he should entertain them, since they don't know +how to value his works as they ought." The contract, however, seems not to +have been carried out by the composer. Mrs. Pendarves evidently took the +news from the day's issue of a weekly journal, adding only the name of the +Duchess, which the paper had suppressed. What the paper tells us is that +the Academy had not engaged Buononcini for the coming season. + +Senesino and Cuzzoni had made life impossible for the other singers. +Durastanti retired to the Continent; Anastasia Robinson left the stage, and +married her old admirer Lord Peterborough. Senesino and Cuzzoni, however, +were indispensable to the success of the opera, and probably the ridiculous +affectations of the one and the abominable manners of the other were not +without their attraction to a public which could enjoy all the pleasure of +gossiping about them without having to put up with them at close quarters. + +The season of 1723 began in November with Buononcini's _Farnace_ and +Handel's _Ottone_; in January 1724 a new opera, _Vespasiano_, by Attilio +Ariosti, was given, and ran for nine successive nights. Ariosti was never +a very troublesome rival to Handel; he was a man of amiable character, and +apparently quite content to remain aloof from the party politics of the +opera-house. On February 14, Handel produced his _Giulio Cesare_, one of +his finest dramatic works; it has been revived with considerable success +in recent years, partly owing to the fact that modern audiences are more +familiar with the episode of Caesar and Cleopatra than with the subjects of +Handel's other operas. _Giulio Cesare_ had the advantage of a strong cast; +Senesino sang the title part, with Berenstadt and Boschi to support him, +and the women included Cuzzoni, as well as Durastanti and Mrs. Robinson, +who had not yet quitted the opera company. + +Another masterpiece of Handel's, _Tamerlano_, inaugurated the autumn season +of 1724 in October; in December appeared Ariosti's _Artaserse_, in January +_Giulio Cesare_ held the stage till the production of another Handel opera, +_Rodelinda_, which came out on February 13, and ran for thirteen nights. +Two more operas, by Ariosti and Leonardo Vinci of Naples, completed the +season, but it was evidently Handel who scored the greatest triumphs, +unless the honours should more properly go to Cuzzoni, as Rodelinda, and +her brown silk gown trimmed with silver. All the old ladies, says Burney, +were scandalised with its vulgarity and indecorum, "but the young adopted +it as a fashion so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth +and beauty." + +Cuzzoni created a further sensation in the summer by giving birth to a +daughter. Mrs. Pendarves made much fun of the event. "It is a mighty +mortification it was not a son. Sons and heirs ought to be out of fashion +when such scrubs shall pretend to be dissatisfied at having a daughter; +'tis pity, indeed, that the noble name and family of the Sandonis should be +extinct! The minute she was brought to bed she sang' La speranza,' a song +in _Otho_." + +Revivals of _Rodelinda_ and _Ottone_ took place in the following season, +and, in March 1726, Handel produced _Scipio_, in which the famous march was +heard for the first time on the rise of the curtain. + + +But Cuzzoni's throne was soon to be sharply contested. Ever since 1723 the +directors of the opera had been trying to secure Faustina Bordoni, and at +last, with a promise of £2,500 for the season (Cuzzoni received £2,000), +they succeeded. Faustina was born of a patrician family at Venice in 1700; +she had been brought up under the protection of Alessandro Marcello, +brother of the well-known composer, and had made her debut at Venice at the +age of sixteen. She sang mostly at Venice for several years, and in 1718 +she appeared there in Pollaroli's _Ariodante_, along with Cuzzoni herself. +She sang at Munich in 1723, and in the summer of 1725 she went to Vienna, +where she stayed six months, enjoying an extraordinary success. Nearly +forty years afterwards the Empress Maria Theresa recalled with pride how +she herself, at the age of seven, had sung in an opera with Faustina. At +the end of March 1726 she left Vienna for London, where she made her first +appearance, on May 5, in Handel's new opera _Alessandro_, which had been +designed especially to show off both Faustina and Cuzzoni in parts of +exactly equal importance and difficulty. The immediate result was to divide +London society into two parties: young Lady Burlington and her friends +supported Faustina; Cuzzoni's admirers were led by Lady Pembroke. Lady +Walpole succeeded in getting both to sing at her house; neither would sing +in the presence of the other, but the hostess tactfully managed to draw +first one and then the other out of the music-room while her rival +enchanted the guests. Mrs. Pendarves also contrived to be on good terms +with both. She heard Cuzzoni in November privately, or perhaps at a +rehearsal, and writes, "my senses were ravished with harmony." The opera +was expected to begin about the middle of December, "but I think Faustina +and Madame Sandoni [i.e. Cuzzoni] are not perfectly agreed about their +parts." The opening, however, was delayed by the absence of Senesino, who +had gone to Italy and did not return until fairly late in December. + +It was probably owing to this fact that opera in English was offered at the +theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Marcantonio Buononcini's _Camilla_, +first given in London in 1706, was revived by a mainly English cast of +singers. Mrs. Pendarves went to see it, and her criticisms are significant +for the taste of the time. "I can't say I was much pleased with it, I liked +it for old acquaintance sake, but there is not many of the songs better +than ballads." + +Faustina--"the most agreeable creature in the world in company"--dined with +Mrs. Pendarves for a small musical party on January 26. On the previous day +there was the first rehearsal of Handel's _Admeto_. It was the moment, says +Burney, of Handel's greatest prosperity and English patronage. _Admeto_ +exhibited conspicuously what Dr. Burney called Handel's "science "; it was +evidently considered to be complicated in style, though at the same time +both pathetic and passionate. "Music," says Burney, "was no longer regarded +as a mere soother of affliction, or incitement to hilarity; it could now +paint the passions in all their various attitudes; and those tones which +said nothing intelligible to the heart began to be thought as; insipid as +those of 'sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.'" These words of Burney make +one realise that Handel's London operas must have affected their audiences +almost in the way in which the operas of Wagner startled the audiences of +the nineteenth century. Handel himself, like Wagner, was steadily +developing his own dramatic powers, and it is important to bear in mind +that it was only those marvellous singers of Handel's day, such as +Senesino, Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Boschi, who could inspire him to the +creation of such music as they only were competent to interpret. + +_Admeto_ was received with respect, and although the partisans of the +"rival queens" were noisy in their applause, no actual disturbance took +place until Admeto was followed by Buononcini's _Astyanax_ on May 6. On the +first night of the new opera each side did its best to drown the opposite +party's favourite with a chorus of catcalls. The behaviour of the audience +became more and more disgraceful as the opera was repeated, until on the +last night (June 6), when the Princess of Wales was present, Cuzzoni and +Faustina delighted the sporting instincts of the nobility and gentry of +England by indulging in a free fight on the stage. + +Five days later George I died suddenly at Osnabruck. George II was crowned +on October 11, to the music of Handel's Coronation Anthems. The opera +season reopened a month later. Apparently the quarrel between Cuzzoni and +Faustina had been patched up; probably neither of them wanted to lose their +English contracts. They appeared together in Handel's _Riccardo Primo_, and +again in _Siroe_ (February 5, 1728), as well as in _Tolomeo_ (April 30), +but the battle seems to have been won by Cuzzoni, who obtained the more +important parts. We hear of no more disturbances; the fact was that the +audiences were too thin to be noisy. + +Mrs. Pendarves, always a devoted supporter of Handel, was pessimistic from +the beginning of the season. "I doubt operas will not survive longer than +this winter," she wrote on November 25; "they are now at their last gasp; +the subscription is expired and nobody will renew it. The directors are +always squabbling, and they have so many divisions among themselves that I +wonder they have not broke up before; Senesino goes away next winter, and I +believe Faustina, so you see harmony is almost out of fashion."_Admeto_ was +revived on June 1, 1728; this was Faustina's last appearance, and the last +night of the Royal Academy of Music. The opera was announced for June 11, +but Faustina declared herself indisposed. The opera was shut up and the +company disbanded. Faustina went with Senesino to Paris, and thence to +Venice, where Cuzzoni also made her appearance, and continued in the local +dialect the campaign of slander against Faustina's alleged immoralities. + +There were many reasons for the collapse of the opera. It had been carried +on with reckless extravagance, and the noble directors were in all +probability not very expert men of business. The scandalous behaviour of +all concerned in _Astyanax_ may well have caused a falling-off in the +subscriptions. Mrs. Pendarves, who was a lady of unimpeachable conduct, +continued to go to the opera, but she was a serious lover of music and +a personal friend of Handel. The failure of the Academy is generally +attributed to the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, which had been brought +out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 29, 1728, and at once took London +by storm. A letter of Mrs. Pendarves, dated January 19, but evidently +continued later, tells us that she went to a rehearsal of _Siroe_: "I like +it extremely, but the taste of the town is so depraved, that nothing will +be approved of but the burlesque. The _Beggar's Opera_ entirely triumphs +over the Italian one." Even Mrs. Pendarves could not help enjoying it, once +she had seen it. + +It is probable that Handel himself had contributed to the downfall of the +Academy. Out of the 487 performances given between 1720 and 1728, Handel's +works obtained 245, Buononcini's 108, and Ariosti's 55. The great singers +had drawn the public to listen to Handel's operas, but it is clear from +many contemporary allusions that Handel's music was too severe to be an +attraction in itself, except to cultivated musicians like Mrs. Pendarves. +The same accusations were made against Handel that were made in later years +against Mozart and Wagner--that his operas were noisy and overloaded with +learned accompaniments. The Italian opera was killed, not so much by the +fact that _The Beggar's Opera_ made its conventions ridiculous (for its +conventions could at that time have been ridiculous only to quite unmusical +people), as by the incontestable attraction of the new work itself. It was +witty and outspoken, with abundance of topical satire; its music consisted +of the tunes that everybody knew, and it presented the public with the +irresistible fascinations of Lavinia Fenton, who was soon to become the +Duchess of Bolton. + +Handel may well have resented the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, but +the collapse of the Academy was in reality no great disaster for his own +interests. In the first place, he had done very well out of it from a +financial point of view; the noble directors might have lost their +money, but he had been only their paid servant, in which capacity he had +accumulated enough to invest no less than £10,000 of his own in the next +operatic venture. He obviously realised the strength of the position which +he had built up for himself both as a composer and as a man of business. +The most important result of the Academy's career had been to provide +Handel with the opportunity of consolidating his own style as a composer +of musical drama. Like all the court composers of his age he had provided +whatever his patrons required--chamber music, water music, minuets for +court balls, Church music for royal ceremonial; but the music on which his +own heart was set was that of the theatre. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of +the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles +Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses. + + +Handel had by this time definitely decided to make England his home; on +February 13, 1726, he had been naturalised as an English subject. He had +every reason to regard England as the best place in which to live. He +enjoyed the protection of the German court; George II and Queen Caroline +gave him indeed a good deal more encouragement than George I. The +appointments of composer to the Chapel Royal and composer to the court were +purely honorary, but they strengthened his position. As to the opera-house, +he must by now have felt that he was its unquestioned autocrat, and he +could not help being aware that he was without a rival in Europe as far as +the stage was concerned, for old Scarlatti had gone to his grave, and the +younger generation had produced no composer of such outstanding eminence. +And in England music was generously rewarded from a material point of view; +high fees were paid, not only to singers, but to teachers as well, and +England was also one of the few countries where music-printing was a +flourishing business. A good proportion of Handel's savings must have come +from the sale of his published compositions; among Handel's contemporaries +no other composer in Europe had so many of his works printed during his +lifetime. English society seemed always ready to subscribe for a new +musical work, and neither in Paris nor in Amsterdam was music so admirably +engraved as in London. + +Encouraged by the Princess Royal, Handel went into partnership with +Heidegger, who had also made his own profits out of the opera, as well as +out of his notorious masquerades; they leased the King's Theatre for a +period of five years. The first thing to do was to secure new singers, and +for this purpose Handel went to Italy, probably in the autumn of 1728. +Heidegger had already tried to bring back Senesino and the two "costly +canary-birds," as Colley Cibber called them, but they had had enough of +London, and probably of Handel too. Little is known of the details of this +Italian journey; it has been said that Handel travelled with Steffani, +but this is impossible, as Steffani died at Frankfurt early in the year. +Mainwaring tells us that, at Rome, Cardinal Colonna invited him to his +palace, but that Handel, hearing that the Pretender was staying there, +prudently declined the invitation. In engaging singers he seems to have +been perhaps more prudent than was desirable, for his new company did not +contain any very distinguished names. In place of Senesino he obtained the +_castrato_ Bernacchi; his new first woman was Signora Strada del Po', who +was a fine singer, but so unattractive in appearance that London nicknamed +her "The Pig." It is interesting to note that he also engaged a tenor, +Annibale Fabri, although in those; days tenors were considered only fit for +old men's parts of minor importance, and at Naples were generally given the +parts of comic old women. Fabri's wife and another woman were announced +as good actresses of male parts. "Fabri has a tenor voice," wrote Mrs. +Pendarves, "sweet, clear and firm, but not strong enough, I doubt, for the +stage. He sings like a gentleman, without making faces, and his manner is +particularly agreeable." Perhaps Handel's friendship with Mrs. Pendarves +had given him a sure insight into the taste of English gentlewomen. + +In the summer of 1729 Handel paid a visit to his mother at Halle; she was +then blind and half paralysed. Bach sent his son Friedemann over from +Leipzig to beg Handel to come and see him, as he was himself too ill to +make the journey, but Handel not unnaturally declined. Towards the end of +June he passed through Hanover, and also went to Hamburg, where he engaged +a German bass Riemschneider. + +The opera season began on December 2, with Handel's _Lothario_, but it +had only a moderate success. After a few revivals of _Giulio Cesare_, he +brought out a second new opera, _Partenope_, on February 24. Despite its +many beauties, it was even less successful than _Lothario_. Handel's +audience did not go to the theatre to listen to his music; they went to +hear the singers, and Bernacchi, who was no longer a young man, was a poor +substitute for Senesino. Strada was the only member of the company who +interested the audience. For the next season something better had to be +found, and through Francis Colman, the English Envoy at Florence, Senesino +was persuaded to accept 1,400 guineas instead of the 2,000 that he had +received before. He opened the season of 1730 on November 3, with his +former rôle of Scipio. For the moment Handel remained in the background; +the next opera was a _pasticcio_, that is, an opera made up of favourite +songs from various operas stuck into any convenient libretto. On February 2 +there came out the new opera of Handel, _Poro_, which turned the tide once +more in the composer's favour. Later on, _Rinaldo_ and _Rodelinda_ were +revived, but the season came to an early end on May 29. For the following +winter some changes were made in the cast. Senesino and Strada were +of course indispensable, and the most important new acquisition was +Montagnana, the bass, for whom Handel was to write some of his most +celebrated songs. + +After revivals of _Tamerlano_ and _Admeto_, Handel brought out _Ezio_ on +January 15, 1732; it had only five performances. _Sosarme_ (February 19) +had ten; it is remembered now by the exquisite song, "Rendi 'l sereno al +ciglio," which was sung by Strada. The remainder of the season presented +nothing of any special interest until on the last night Handel offered his +subscribers a new type of entertainment in the shape of _Acis and Galatea_. + +On Handel's birthday, February 23, Bernard Gates, the master of the +children of the Chapel Royal, arranged a private performance of _Esther_, +which had been neglected since its first performance at Canons some twelve +years before. Among the boys who sang and acted in the "masque" were Beard, +who afterwards became Handel's favourite tenor, and Randall, eventually +Professor of Music in Cambridge, who took the part of Esther. The +performance was repeated twice before a paying public at the Crown and +Anchor Tavern, where concerts were often held, and on April 20 a rival +organisation advertised a further performance of Esther at the concert-room +in Villiers Street. On this occasion it was described as "an oratorio or +sacred drama," and was evidently sung without action. Princess Anne wished +to see it on the stage of the opera-house but the Bishop of London forbade +a dramatic performance. As the bishop's ban was ultimately the cause of +Handel's turning his attention to oratorio in preference to opera, it has +sometimes been suggested that Handel might have created a new type of +national English opera on biblical subjects if only his lordship had not +interfered. In justice to the bishop it has to be pointed out that his +objection seems to have been raised, not against the dramatic presentation +of Bible stories (for he did not discountenance Gates' performances by the +choristers at the Crown and Anchor), but against their presentation in +a regular theatre by professional opera singers. Such prejudice may be +difficult to understand at the present day, but even well into the middle +of the nineteenth century persons of severe morality regarded the theatre +and all who belonged thereto with stern disapproval, and the notorious +scandals associated with Cuzzoni and Faustina, to say nothing of Heidegger, +were not likely to have washed out the memory of Jeremy Collier's +denunciations. + +"The sacred story of _Esther_, an oratorio in English," was accordingly +announced for May 2, with the information that "there will be no acting +on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the +audience; the Musick [i.e. the orchestra] to be disposed after the manner +of the coronation service." Within a fortnight, Thomas Arne, father of the +composer, advertised a performance of _Acis and Galatea_ at the Little +Theatre in the Haymarket "with all the choruses, scenes, machines, and +other decorations, being the first time it was performed in a theatrical +way." The laws of the time gave no protection to musical and dramatic +copyright. Handel could only reply by giving a performance of the work +himself; his one advantage was that as composer he could remodel the score +and make several new additions to it. But he did not have the work acted; +it was sung in costume with a background of appropriate scenery. Even in +this form it obtained four performances; Senesino and Strada took part in +it, singing in English. + +Such a setting may appear strange to modern readers, but, even if it was +a new idea for England at the time, it was a fairly well established +tradition on the Continent, and Handel may very likely have seen a similar +entertainment in Italy. The subscribers to the opera would see little in +it that was incongruous. They were accustomed to see singers in all operas +wearing dresses that differed very little from their own, and scenery which +recalled their own Italianate gardens and palaces; Handelian opera, in any +case, left little scope for what most people now call acting. At the same +time we may be pretty sure that concert singers, especially Italians, +allowed themselves far more liberty of spontaneous expressive movement than +Victorian oratorio singers holding their music-books in front of them by +traditional convention. + +Four more performances of _Acis and Galatea_ were given at the opera-house +in December 1732; Handel evidently saw that it would be a sure attraction. +_Alessandro_ and _Tolomeo_ were revived, and on January 23 he produced a +new opera, _Orlando_, which had ten performances, with six more later in +the season. _Orlando_ is one of Handel's most original operas; he seems +always to have derived a peculiar inspiration from the poems of Tasso and +Ariosto, as in the case of _Rinaldo_. _Orlando_ is a thoroughly romantic +opera--Chrysander even compares it with those of Weber--full of episodes of +madness and magic; it is so far removed from the ordinary conventions of +its time that we can well imagine it to have startled both its audiences +and its singers. + +The affairs of the opera-house were going badly, and it is probable that +there were considerable dissension within its walls. It is certain that +relations between Handel and Senesino were becoming more and more strained; +_Orlando_ was the last opera of Handel's in which he sang. It seems fairly +certain also that Heidegger was none too loyal as a partner. Heidegger was +in a strong position, for he was the actual owner of the stock of scenery +and other appurtenances taken over from the original Academy. He seems to +have lent the theatre to Buononcini for some performances of _Griselda_, +and, when the lease came to an end, it was Heidegger who left Handel in the +lurch and allowed a rival organisation to secure it. + +There was, too, a further reason for the general hostility against Handel. +Encouraged by the success of _Acis and Galatea_, he had composed a new +oratorio, _Deborah_, which was performed at the opera-house on March 17, +by the King's command. For this work prices were doubled; tickets were a +guinea each, and admission to the gallery half a guinea, instead of five +shillings. At the second performance the normal prices were charged. The +raising of prices for an extraordinary performance might well seem nothing +unreasonable; but the event came exactly at the moment of the popular +outcry against Walpole's Excise Bill, and the satirists of the day seized +the opportunity of comparing Handel with Walpole. + +Handel was now nearly fifty years of age. In the days of _Rinaldo_ he had +been a young man of twenty-five, making friends with those of his own age +or younger, a new attraction with all the fascination of genius and youth. +In the course of a generation he had become an established institution. He +had made a success; he had amassed a fortune; he had secured to himself the +unshaken confidence of the court; but he had inevitably made enemies. The +native musicians were very naturally jealous of the foreigner, and the +numerous foreign musicians in London jealous of one who made more money out +of the extravagant English than they did themselves. The Italian singers +found him tyrannical, and society very probably resented his rough manners. +Society had engaged him to provide music for their entertainment, and he +took up the unheard-of attitude of expecting society to pay its guineas +for whatever music he chose to write. England, one might almost say, had +spoiled him, for it was only in England that "The Great Bear," as he was +sometimes called, could go his own way--a musician behaving with the +complete disregard of public opinion which was considered the exclusive +privilege of the English nobility. In any other country he would have +been forced either to pander to the taste of a court or to relapse into +obscurity. It was not until after the French Revolution that a Beethoven +could display the independence of Handel in the aristocratic environment of +Vienna. + +The English nobility, having set Handel this example, claimed their own +rights, and organised a rival opera-house at Lincoln's Inn Fields. They had +no difficulty in seducing, first Senesino, then Montagnana, and finally +Heidegger. Only Strada remained faithful to Handel. Buononcini having lost +their favour, they engaged as composer the Neapolitan Nicolo Porpora, +famous then as a great trainer of singers, and still more famous in later +years as the teacher of Haydn. If Handel had the King and Queen on his +side, the nobility could count on the support of Frederick Prince of Wales, +who was immensely popular throughout the country and was on the worst +possible terms with his royal parents. The Opera of the Nobility, as the +new syndicate was called, was making its plans in good time, directly after +the end of Handel's season. + +In July 1733, Handel was invited to Oxford for a series of performances +of his works, and it was proposed to confer on him the honorary degree of +Doctor of Music. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Holmes, was a loyal Hanoverian, +and hoped by honouring Handel to do something to counteract the Jacobite +reputation of the University. _Esther_ and _Deborah_ were performed, as +well as the Utrecht _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_, and the Coronation Anthems; +Handel further provided a new oratorio, _Athaliah_. The degree he refused +to accept, for what reason has never been explained. Various suggestions +have been offered. The Abbé Prevost, who was in England at the time, says +that he refused the degree out of modesty; later biographers have differed +in their views as to whether modesty was one of Handel's characteristics. +Others have supposed that he refused to pay the fee of £100 that was +demanded, but it is inconceivable that a fee should have been demanded +for an honorary degree, although it would naturally have been paid by +candidates who took the degree in the normal way. The concerts were +attended by large audiences, many music lovers coming over from Eton and +Cambridge, although there was considerable resentment at the price of +admission--five shillings, a small amount compared with Handel's London +charges. This "Handel Festival" at Oxford is significant, for it shows +that in the space of no more than a year oratorio had begun to make a wide +appeal, even outside London, although it was a form of composition that was +new to English audiences. _Esther_, considered as a masque to be acted, +might be said to continue the English traditions of the previous century, +but there was no precedent in England for anything like _Esther_ in concert +form. The only English works which offered anything remotely like oratorio +were the odes of Purcell and Blow for the musicians' festivals on St. +Cecilia's Day, apart from the greater services and anthems of Purcell, +which were composed, not for entertainment, but for liturgical use. + +After the Oxford concerts, Handel and Schmidt went to Italy to look for +singers. They heard Farinelli, the most famous _castrato_ of the century, +but did not engage him; perhaps his demands were too high. The _castrato_ +whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at any +rate a singularly artistic singer. Durastanti came back, and, in place of +Montagnana, Handel contented himself with Waltz, a German, who is often +described as having been Handel's cook. Burney, at any rate, recorded that +he was said to have filled this office, but Burney remembered him chiefly +as a popular comic singer. He had sung Polyphemus in Arne's pirated +performance of _Acis and Galatea_, and owing to the defection of +Montagnana, took his place in _Athaliah_ at Oxford. He had "a coarse figure +and a still coarser voice" (Burney). + +Handel opened his season on October 30, 1733. He had already finished the +composition of a new opera, _Ariadne_, but it was not brought out until +January 26, 1734. The reason, no doubt, was that an opera on the same +subject by Porpora was produced by the Opera of the Nobility on December +29. Handel would no doubt have heard that it was in rehearsal, and +have postponed his own production until he could see how Porpora's was +succeeding. The two operas obtained the same number of performances, but +Handel's theatre was seldom full, and many opera-goers were dissatisfied at +his giving them oratorios, such as _Deborah_ and _Acis_, on opera nights; +these, however, seem to have been commanded by the King, and that in itself +would make them all the more unpopular. + +In March the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange, and Handel +was commissioned to write a wedding anthem. He also provided a secular +entertainment in the shape of _Parnaso in festa_, described as a +_serenata_. It was not unlike a masque; Apollo and the Muses appeared in +costume on Mount Parnassus, but apparently there was no acting. The music +was adapted from _Athaliah_, which, so far, had only been heard at Oxford. +Oratorio was also attempted by Handel's rival; Mrs. Pendarves heard a work +of his at Lincoln's Inn Fields in March. "It is a fine solemn piece of +music," she wrote, "but I confess I think the subject too solemn for a +theatre. To have words of piety made use of only to introduce good music, +is reversing what it ought to be, and most of the people that hear the +oratorio make no reflection on the meaning of the words, though God is +addressed in the most solemn manner." Needless to say, it was "not equal +to Mr. Handel's oratorio of Esther or Deborah." Mrs. Pendarves was at this +time a near neighbour of Handel's in Lower Brook Street; one of her letters +describes a small musical party (her musical parties were always small) a +month later. Apparently there were not more than ten guests, including Lord +Shaftesbury, who begged another guest to bring him, and was admitted as +being "a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel"; the only professional musicians +present were Handel and Strada. "I never was so well entertained at an +opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humour in the world, and played lessons +and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sung from seven o' the clock +till eleven." In such company Handel could evidently be more agreeable than +on the stage at rehearsals, and it is interesting to note that the amateurs +had no timidity about singing before Strada, and that Handel was willing to +accompany all of them alike. + +In July 1734, Handel's lease of the King's Theatre came to an end, and he +found the theatre let at once by some means to his rivals, the Opera of the +Nobility. He therefore entered into an arrangement with Rich for the use of +his new theatre in Covent Garden, but his autumn season actually opened at +Lincoln's Inn Fields on October 5. The probable reason for this was that +the Princess Anne was spending the summer in England and wished to hear +some of Handel's operas. She was a remarkably gifted musician, and Handel +considered her to be the best of his pupils; she not only sang and played +the harpsichord well, but was thoroughly grounded in the theoretical side +of music and quite capable of composing a fugue, according to a Dutch +musician who became acquainted with her after her marriage. She came to +England on July 2 for a long stay, and at once persuaded Handel to give +three additional performances of _Il Pastor Fido_, which he had revived +that season. _Pastor Fido_ and _Ariadne_ were given again for her in +October; probably Covent Garden was not quite ready for performances. +Princess Anne left England on October 21, and her last words at parting +were to beg Lord Hervey to do all he could to help Handel. + +The chief attraction to the public at Covent Garden was probably not Handel +but Mlle Sallé, a French dancer who had been engaged by Rich. The first +performance at the new theatre was a ballet, _Terpsichore_, in order that +she might inaugurate the season. _Terpsichore_, which includes songs and a +chorus, served as prologue to _Il Pastor Fido_. The next opera was _Oreste, +a pasticcio_ made up by Handel himself from his own works; on January 8, +1735, he produced his Ariodante, an opera over which he had spent the +unusually long time of ten weeks. The score was begun on August 12 and +finished on October 24. The story is taken from Ariosto, and, as with +Orlando, Handel found that it afforded opportunities for his peculiar vein +of romanticism. On April 16 he followed it up with Alcina, again on a +subject from Ariosto, and one of even more romantic character. Ariosto's +enchantress Alcina was the model for Tasso's better-known Armida, who +provided both Lulli and Gluck with one of their most dramatic heroines, and +Burney says, with some justice, that Handel's Alcina gave birth to all the +Armidas and Rinaldos of modern times. Both Ariodante and Alcina contained a +large amount of ballet music, and the dances in Alcina, intermingled +with choruses in the French manner, are among Handel's most attractive +compositions. + +Mrs. Pendarves, after the rehearsal of Alcina, described Handel as himself +"a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments," but he could not +prevail against the enchantments of Farinelli, who had been engaged by the +rival opera company. There could be no competing against a combination that +included along with him Senesino, Cuzzoni, and Montagnana. The one powerful +counter-attraction that Handel could offer was oratorio on Wednesdays and +Fridays in Lent, when operas were not allowed to be given. Porpora's David, +which the rival management put on, had no chance against Esther, Deborah, +and Athaliah. Alcina carried the Opera on to the end of the season, the +well-known air "Verdi prati," which Carestini had at first refused to +sing, being encored at every performance. Handel's alleged angry retort to +Carestini in comical broken English has been often quoted from Burney; but +Schoelcher very sensibly observed that Handel was pretty certain to have +conversed with Carestini in Italian. + +The newspapers informed the world in May that Handel was going to spend the +summer in Germany. His health had been seriously undermined, and it +may well have been possible that he had talked of taking a cure at +Aix-la-Chapelle; but on this occasion he went no farther than Tunbridge +Wells. It was probably in the earlier part of 1735 that he made the +acquaintance of Charles Jennens, a young man who was eventually to play a +great part in his life, for on July 28 he wrote to Jennens to say that he +was just starting for Tunbridge. + +The letter is so short that it may be quoted here in full, for it gives us +a great deal of interesting information. + + London, + _July 28, 1735_. + Sir, + + I received your very agreeable letter with + the enclosed Oratorio. I am just going to Tunbridge; + yet what I could read of it in haste, + gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I shall + have more leisure time there to read it with all + the attention it deserves. + + There is no certainty of any Scheme for + next Season, but it is probable that something + or other may be done, of which I shall take + the liberty to give you notice, being extremely + obliged to you for the generous concern you + show upon this account. + + The Opera of Alcina is a writing out, and + shall be sent according to your direction. It is + always a great pleasure to me if I have an + opportunity to show the sincere respect with + which I have the honour to be, + + Sir, + &c., &c., + + GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL. + +Jennens was a conspicuous figure in the London society of his day. At the +time of this correspondence he was thirty-five, and unmarried; he +had inherited vast wealth in his youth and spent it freely. He was +ostentatious, even for an age when extravagance was fashionable; but +although he was conceited and on occasions foolish, he was certainly +possessed of considerable intellectual gifts, and the things which +interested him most in life were literature, music, and the fine arts. The +letter shows us that he must have admired _Alcina_ sufficiently to ask +the composer for a copy of the score. He also seized the opportunity of +offering him a libretto for a new oratorio. He had a very good opinion of +himself as a poet, and it is possible that he foresaw the importance of the +new type of semi-dramatic entertainment which Handel was creating. There +were plenty of Italian poetasters, even in London itself, who could put +together a conventional opera-book, but English oratorio was still in the +making, and it was not so easy to find a literary framework for it. + +In any case, it was evident that Italian opera was a precarious enterprise. +In October the papers again gave out that Handel was going to give +oratorios and concerts at Covent Garden; no operas were announced, and for +the time being Handel appeared to have abandoned opera altogether. He made +no move until Lent 1736, and then brought out _Alexander's Feast_ (February +19), which he had set to music in the previous two months. Those ever +popular favourites _Esther_ and _Acis and Galatea_ followed it, and, as in +the foregoing season, Handel played organ concertos between the acts of +these works. It is evident that as Handel could not secure the great +Italian singers for his oratorios he felt obliged to offer his public some +other display of virtuosity, and his own performance on the organ seems to +have been considered a very powerful attraction. + +The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha +(April 27, 1736) provided him with unexpected opportunities for coming +before the public. It seems to have been at the desire of the Princess +herself that he undertook a short Italian opera season of eight +performances, which eventually was extended to ten. _Atalanta_, Handel's +new opera for this season, in which the chief singer was Gizziello, +then making his first appearance in England, was composed especially to +celebrate the royal nuptials, and seems to have finally converted the +Prince of Wales to the music of Handel. He now became a regular supporter +of Handel's theatre, with the result that the King promptly withdrew his +patronage, as he refused to be seen in the same house as the Prince. +Encouraged by this sign of princely favour, Handel reopened Covent Garden +in November with a revival of _Alcina_, followed by _Atalanta_. Three more +new operas were ready, or nearly so; Handel seems to have prepared himself +for the winter in better time than usual. But neither _Arminio_ (January +12, 1737), nor _Giustino_ (February 16), nor even _Berenice_, with its +famous minuet (May 18), could save Handel from ruin. The rival opera-house +was in no better case. Handel was obliged to close Covent Garden on June 1, +and the Haymarket followed suit ten days later. Opera at both houses had +been killed, mainly by the folly of party strife. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last +operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to +Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios. + + +The collapse of the Opera left Handel not only bankrupt, but with seriously +endangered health. In April 1737 it had been announced that he was +"indisposed with the rheumatism," from which he made a slight temporary +recovery; but before the season was over it became clear that he was +suffering from paralysis. "His right arm was become useless to him," says +Mainwaring, "and how greatly his senses were disordered at intervals, for a +long time, appeared from an hundred instances, which are better forgotten +than recorded." With some difficulty his medical advisers persuaded him to +go to the sulphur bath of Aix-la-Chapelle, where, according to Mainwaring, +he submitted to prolonged and drastic treatment. His cure was considered +remarkably rapid, and the nuns (presumably nursing sisters) who heard him +play the organ within a few hours of leaving his bath ascribed it to a +miracle. "Such a conclusion," observes our clerical biographer, "in such +persons was natural enough." + +It has been asserted that during his stay at Aix, Handel composed a cantata +for the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Elbing, a town in +East Prussia between Danzig and Königsberg. A German researcher about 1869 +appears to have discovered documents at Elbing mentioning the cantata, +with the name of the poet and that of a local singer, Jean du Grain, who +composed the recitatives; Handel "of London" was said to have composed the +choruses. No trace of the music has survived, and there seems to be no +evidence whatever to connect this work with Handel's visit to Aix. Nor is +it possible to suggest any reason why the authorities of this remote place +should have applied to Handel for a composition. + +According to Mainwaring, Handel stayed six weeks at Aix; the London papers +announced his return on November 7, 1737. The management of the Opera +had now been taken over by Heidegger, but the death of Queen Caroline on +November 20 caused all theatres to be closed from that date until the end +of December. It was announced in the papers that the Opera would reopen +on January 10 with a new oratorio by Handel, called _Saul_, but this +performance did not take place, and the theatre actually reopened on +January 7 with his new opera _Faramondo_. This opera was the first work +that Handel had undertaken after his return to London, but its composition +was interrupted by that of the Funeral Anthem for the Queen. Although she +died on November 20, Handel did not receive the King's command to write the +anthem until December 7, as George II was strangely undecided in making +arrangements for the funeral. It was finally fixed for December 17, and +a special organ was hurriedly built for it in Henry VII's chapel at +Westminster Abbey. Handel's anthem was performed by 80 singers and 100 +instrumentalists. Queen Caroline had been one of his most faithful friends, +and his gratitude and affection for her found utterance in music which +Burney placed "at the head of all his works for expression, harmony and +pleasing effects." + +It was at ten at night on Christmas Eve that Handel finished the score of +_Faramondo_; on Boxing Day he began the composition of _Serse_. _Faramondo_ +had only six performances, and _Serse_ did not appear on the stage until +April 15, when it ran for five nights only. It is remembered now, if at +all, by the fact that the first song in it is the so-called "celebrated +Largo," but the opera as a whole is of curious interest. "He was neither +in health, prosperity, or spirits," says Burney, "when it was composed; +appearances remain in his foul score [i.e. rough copy] of a mind +disturbed, if not diseased. There are more passages, and even whole pages, +cancelled in this score, than in any one of all his former operas." +_Serse_, it must be explained, is a comic opera, and the only comic opera +that Handel ever wrote. What induced him to attempt this style it is +difficult to conceive. It is of course true that the failure of Handel's +earlier operas was largely due to the success of _The Beggar's +Opera_ (1728), and of other comic entertainments which succeeded +it--_Hurlothrumbo_ (1729), _Pasquin_ (1736) and _The Dragon of Wantley_ +(1737). A new type of comic opera had arisen in Italy too, and comic +_intermezzi_ were first seen in Italian grand opera in London in January +1737, although it was not until 1748 that a real company of Italian +comic-opera singers came over to England. But what is more important to +notice is that the whole style of Italian opera was changing during the +second quarter of the century. Handel had continued to develop his own +style, based on the grand manner of old Scarlatti, but Handel's operas were +practically unknown outside London and Hamburg; in Italy, Scarlatti's style +had already become old-fashioned before his death in 1725, and opera was +moving on towards the lighter and flimsier manner of Galuppi, who first +came to London in this year of _Serse_, 1738. + +In choosing the libretto of _Serse_, Handel seems to have been making a +desperate attempt to keep up with the taste of the day. Humour he had +in plenty; one has only to recall _Acis and Galatea_. But the humour of +_Serse_, diverting as it is to the modern historical student, is neither +the musical nor the dramatic humour of 1737; the plot bears no resemblance +whatever to the Neapolitan comic operas of Vinci and Pergolesi, but rather +recalls the very early operas, based on Spanish comedies, composed by +Alessandro Scarlatti in the 1680's. _Serse_ was revived a few years ago +in Germany, considerably cut about and reduced to one act, in which +arrangement it had some success; but we can well understand its complete +failure on its first London production. + +The only satisfaction which Handel received in that unfortunate season of +1738 was the proceeds of his benefit concert at the Haymarket on March 28, +organised for him by his friends, apparently rather against his own wish. +According to Burney the net receipts were £800; Mainwaring puts the figure +at £1,500. Even if we accept Burney's estimate, the sum is remarkable, +and particularly so in view of the known hostility of a large section +of society towards the composer. It can only be supposed that Handel's +physical and mental collapse had been grave enough to awaken a wide-spread +sense of pity for his misfortunes. Another mark of popular appreciation +was the erection of a statue of Handel, executed by Roubiliac, at Vauxhall +Gardens, in recognition of the pleasure which his music had afforded to the +frequenters of that famous resort. This piece of "laudable idolatry," as +Burney calls it, was thus described by a contemporary journalist: "Mr. +Handel is represented in a loose robe, sweeping the lyre, and listening to +its sounds; which a little boy sculptured at his feet seems to be writing +down on the back of a violon-cello. The whole composition is in an elegant +taste." Commissioned by an impresario who had made a fortune out of the use +of Handel's music, it now appropriately adorns the vestibule of Messrs. +Novello's music-shop in Wardour Street. + +Charles Jennens, writing to his cousin Lord Guernsey on September 19, 1738, +remarks that "Mr. Handel's head is more full of maggots than ever." Towards +the end of July he had begun the composition of _Saul_, for which Jennens +had provided the libretto three years before. It is evident that Handel +intended to startle his audiences with his new oratorio scheme. He had +ordered a new organ for the theatre at a cost of £500, constructed so that +he might have a better command of his performers, and he had also acquired +another instrument, which Jennens calls a "Tubalcain"--in other words a set +of bells played from a keyboard--which he intended to use in the scene in +which the Israelites welcome David after his victory over the Philistines. +It is curious that Handel should have dramatised the insanity of Saul just +after he had himself recovered from mental derangement. + +No sooner was _Saul_ finished (September 27) than Handel, four days later, +began the composition of _Israel in Egypt_. _Saul_ was first performed on +January 16, 1739, and enjoyed a moderate success, but _Israel_ (April 4) +was a failure, even after it had been shortened and made more attractive by +the insertion of Italian opera songs. + +_Israel in Egypt_ is the most conspicuous example of a strange and almost +unaccountable habit which from about this period began to show itself in +Handel's methods of composition--the incorporation of large quantities +of music by other composers. Samuel Wesley was the first person to draw +attention to this practice of Handel's, though only in a private letter of +1808. In 1831 Dr. Crotch, in his professorial lectures at Oxford, named no +less than twenty-nine composers whom Handel had "quoted or copied." The +researches of Chrysander, Dr. Max Seiffert, Ebenezer Prout, and Sedley +Taylor eventually proved beyond dispute that not only _Israel_, but several +other works of Handel were largely made up from the music of other men. + +Chrysander maintained that Handel began appropriating other men's ideas +as early as 1707, for not only _Rodrigo_ and _Agrippina_, but also _La +Resurrezione_ and the _Laudate pueri_ show obvious reminiscences of +Keiser's opera _Octavia_ (Hamburg, 1705). These were probably subconscious, +like Handel's reminiscences of Scarlatti and others at this period; they +need not be taken any more seriously than Schubert's frequent reminiscences +of Beethoven. But in _Atalanta_ (1736) and _Giustino_ (1737), Prout +discovered quotations and adaptations several bars long from a _Passion_ by +Graun, which is known to have been composed not many years before. Further +fragments of this _Passion_ were identified by Prout in _Alexander's Feast_ +and the _Wedding Anthem_ (1736); _Saul_, like _Israel_, incorporates +several movements from a _Te Deum_ by Urio (_fl_. 1660). From this date +onwards until the end of his career Handel systematically drew upon the +works of other musicians. + +There has been much controversy over this question, and many attempts have +been made to explain away Handel's "borrowings" so as to leave no moral +stain on his character, which indeed, by all contemporary accounts, was +scrupulously upright. Sedley Taylor (1906) was certainly anxious to clear +Handel's character, but still more concerned to arrive at the exact truth, +and his method of presenting the evidence throws a new light on Handel's +procedure. He showed that in most cases Handel made frequent alterations in +the music which he utilised, almost as if Stradella (to cite one name +out of many) had been a young pupil to whom he was giving a lesson in +composition. + +A careful study of these alterations suggests a reason for Handel's action +which seems not to have occurred to any previous writer on the subject. No +one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" begin in +1736 on a small scale, and become more frequent in 1737, after which they +develop into a regular habit. It seems only natural therefore to connect +them with Handel's mental collapse; it became acute in the spring of 1737, +but it may well have been approaching in the previous year. + +There is no need to go so far as to suggest that Handel suffered from moral +insanity and was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong; but +it is quite conceivable that his paralytic stroke affected his brain in +such a way that he may sometimes have had a difficulty in starting a +composition. Biographers of Handel have more than once drawn attention to +phases in which he seems to have suffered from the inability to make a +definite decision. Indecision is a common symptom of overstrained nerves, +and anyone who has attempted musical composition or taught it to students +will understand the hesitation and uncertainty which often attends the +first writing down of a musical theme, although, once the initial idea has +been settled, the continuation and development of it may proceed without +difficulty. Any musician who studies the examples printed by Sedley Taylor +will at once exclaim that for a man of Handel's experience, to say nothing +of his fertility or indeed of his genius, it would have been far less +trouble to compose an original setting of given words than to adapt them +so laboriously to music written by someone else for a totally different +purpose. But after his attack of paralysis there may well have been +occasional moments when Handel could not make up his mind to write down an +idea of his own, but may very likely have found that when once he had an +idea ready on paper before him, whether that of another composer or an +old one of his own, he could then continue to compose, and often make +alterations in the music under his eyes which transformed it from a +commonplace into a masterpiece. + +In the autumn of 1739 Handel transferred his concerts to the smaller +theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where at first there seemed some hope of +success. On November 17 he produced his setting of Dryden's _Ode for St. +Cecilia's Day_; it was repeated several times, _Alexander's Feast_ and +_Acis and Galatea_ being added to the programmes. But a month later an +exceptionally severe frost set in; the Thames was frozen over, and for two +months it was useless to open the theatre, owing to the impossibility of +warming it adequately. In February he produced _L'Allegro_, adapted by +Charles Jennens from Milton's _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, to which +Jennens had added a third part of his own, _Il Moderato_; but the public, +whether from indifference to the work or from fear of the cold, refused to +come to it. Handel was once more on the verge of ruin, but that did not +prevent him from giving a performance of his two most popular works, _Acis_ +and _Alexander's Feast_, for the benefit of a new musical charity. + +The charity in which Handel was so keenly interested had been founded in +1738 to assist impoverished musicians and their families; it still carries +on its honourable work under the title of the Royal Society of Musicians of +Great Britain. + +The same year saw the inauguration of another charitable institution which +owed much to the continued generosity of Handel, the Foundling Hospital. +Like Hogarth, who was also a benefactor, Handel did not confine his support +to an occasional gift, but took the warmest personal interest in the place, +and eventually both he and Hogarth were made governors of it. + +The managers of the Opera had found themselves quite unable to continue +productions on the grand scale of former years. In the winter of 1739-40 +there had been an insignificant season at Covent Garden; it seems to have +been directed by the Italian composer Pescetti, who, in the following +winter, started concerts at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Mrs. +Pendarves, who during the last few years had not lived much in London, and +had thus dropped out of Handel's life, wrote in November: "The concerts +begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Carestini sings, Pescetti composes; +the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad." Dr. +Burney gives a comic account of the undertaking. "The opera, a tawdry, +expensive and meretricious lady, who had been accustomed to high keeping, +was now reduced to a very humble state. Her establishment was not only +diminished, but her servants reduced to half-pay. Pescetti seems to +have been her prime minister, Carestini her head man, the Muscovita her +favourite woman, and Andreoni a servant for all work." Concerts and +_pasticcios_ formed the main repertory, and Burney ascribes such success as +they enjoyed to the fact that the Little Theatre was a "snug retreat" in +which those who had the courage to quit their firesides during the great +frost might keep reasonably warm. + +Handel had nothing to do with this theatre, but in 1740 again rented the +theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where on November 8 he revived _Parnaso +in Festa_ "in its original oratorio manner, with the addition of scenes, +dresses and concertos on the organ and several other instruments." It had +but one performance; on the 22nd, Handel produced a new opera, or, as +Burney calls it, an _operetta_, which had no more than two performances. +This was _Imeneo_. On January 10, 1741, he brought out another new opera, +_Deidamia_, which ran for three nights. _Imeneo_ is a work of little +importance; _Deidamia_, on the other hand, contains several very beautiful +songs. But Dr. Burney, notwithstanding his admiration of it, has to admit +that much of it was old-fashioned, in the style of Handel's youth, and +sometimes "languid and antique." To Handel's admirers to-day such criticism +may seem ridiculous, but to his audiences of 1741 these reversions to an +earlier style would certainly have been most unwelcome. + +_Deidamia_ was Handel's last work for the stage; the glorious achievements +of his youth and maturity had come to a hopeless end. His own public had +unjustly neglected him, posterity consigned his operas to oblivion. + +At some period during the summer of 1741 Handel received an invitation from +the fourth Duke of Devonshire, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to go over +to Dublin and give concerts there for the benefit of the local hospitals. +It is very probable that Mrs. Pendarves may have helped to secure this +engagement for Handel. She had spent a year and a half in Ireland in +1731-32, and her letters give a lively account of society in Dublin. +Matthew Dubourg, an excellent violinist, was at the head of the Viceroy's +band, and musical entertainments were frequent, for to judge from Mrs. +Pendarves' descriptions the Irish bishops and deans lived almost as +magnificently as the cardinals in Rome. Mrs. Pendarves was naturally a very +popular guest in Dublin society; she was a remarkably fine harpsichord +player for an amateur, and was constantly in demand as a performer at +private parties. There was no one in London or Dublin who had a more +intelligent understanding of Handel's music, and her enthusiasm for his +works was unbounded. She kept constantly in touch with Dublin life when in +England, for she corresponded with Dean Swift, and, what was more important +still, she had in 1730 made the acquaintance of Dr. Delany, an Irish +clergyman, whom she was to marry in 1743. + +Handel did not leave London until the first week of November. During +the summer he had been occupied with the composition of a new oratorio, +_Messiah_, the words for which had been chosen and arranged by Jennens, +apparently with a good deal of assistance from his chaplain, the Rev. Mr. +Pooley. Whether _Messiah_ was composed with a view to production in Dublin +is not known; it was begun on August 22 and finished on September 14. A +fortnight later he had completed the first act of _Samson_. On the way to +Holyhead he stopped at Chester, where he was obliged to stay several days +on account of contrary winds which prevented his embarking. He seized +the opportunity to try over some of the choruses of _Messiah_ with local +church-singers, and Burney, who was at school at Chester, gives an amusing +account of the little rehearsal, at which Handel was roused to grotesque +fury by the inability of the bass, a printer by trade, to read "And with +His stripes" at sight. On November 18 he arrived in Dublin, and opened his +season at Neal's new music-hall in Fishamble Street on December 23 with a +performance of _L'Allegro_, interspersed with concertos. A few days later +he wrote a long letter to Jennens describing the unprecedented success +which he had enjoyed. Dublin received him with open arms, and he thoroughly +enjoyed his triumph, the more so as he felt himself to be in unusually good +health. + +A series of concerts followed, at which various oratorios and other works +were performed. On April 8, 1742, there was a rehearsal of _Messiah_, open +to those who had taken tickets for the first performance, which took place +on Tuesday, April 13. The choir was provided by the singers from the two +cathedrals, some of whom took the male solo parts as well; the female +soloists were Mrs. Cibber and Signora Avolio. Over seven hundred persons +were present, and about £400 was divided between the three charities, the +Relief of Prisoners, Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary. + +_Saul_ was performed on May 25, and a second performance of _Messiah_ took +place on June 3. Handel left Ireland on August 13. In another letter to +Jennens he says that his plans for the winter are undecided; for "this time +twelve-month" (i.e. September 1743) he intended to continue his oratorios +in Ireland. For some reason or other this second visit to Ireland never +took place. + +It was not until February 17, 1743, that Handel came before the London +public again with _Samson_, which, unlike most of his oratorios, had +an immediate success. He had by this time dropped the Italian singers +altogether, and depended mainly on Mrs. Cibber and John Beard, a tenor who +had more sense of artistic style than power of voice. Mr. Flower says that +his voice was more powerful than sweet; Horace Walpole, who heard him, said +that he had only one note in it, and Mrs. Pendarves, whose judgment was +probably more trustworthy, said that he had no voice at all. The first +London performance of _Messiah_ was given on March 23, but it had no more +than two subsequent repetitions this season. There were many reasons why it +should have fallen flat. Jennens himself was extremely dissatisfied with +it. _Israel_ had been a failure too, and it is extremely probable that +musical people, accustomed to the Italian opera, were estranged by a +setting of Bible words in prose instead of a libretto in verse laid out on +more or less dramatic lines. + +William Law's _Serious Call_ had been published in 1729; the book makes +frequent allusions to the frivolity of Italian opera, and opera-going is +picked out as one of the chief characteristics of irreligious persons. In +1739 John Wesley first began to preach in the open air; in 1742 Edward +Young's _Night Thoughts_ achieved its extraordinary popularity. These three +events were all significant of the religious movement that was taking place +among the more cultured classes in England, and this movement undoubtedly +affected Handel's oratorio concerts. The ultra-religious were shocked +at the association of sacred subjects with the theatre; those who could +combine religion with culture, like Mrs. Delany, who was now approaching +the age of piety, were Handel's most earnest supporters. It is quite +probable that the section of society which preferred its culture unmixed +with religion resented the attitude of the second party even more than that +of the first, because the second party belonged to their own social class, +and this resentment may well have contributed to the ever-increasing +hostility shown by many social leaders toward Handel. And Handel's personal +oddities were becoming rapidly more acute, partly owing to increasing age, +and still more owing to recurrences of paralysis and associated mental +derangement. He had another attack in this very year--1743. + +_Messiah_ and _Samson_ were composed at a more favourable moment, and show +little use of borrowed material, except that _Messiah_ incorporates some +of Handel's own chamber duets, the melodies of which were more suitably +illustrative of their original Italian words than of the sentences from +Scripture to which he adapted them. But his next important work, the _Te +Deum_ in celebration of the victory at Dettingen (June 27), begun in July +and performed on November 27, incorporates no less than nine movements from +the Latin _Te Deum_ by Urio already drawn upon for _Israel in Egypt_. Mrs. +Delany "was all raptures," and thought it "excessively fine." + +It is curious that, whereas the Dettingen _Te Deum_ was largely based on +borrowed material, Semele, composed in the previous month of June, should +be, as far as is at present known, entirely original. The libretto had been +written by Congreve in 1707 for an opera, and it was only natural that +its theatrical sense and its literary grace and distinction should have +inspired Handel to one of his loveliest works. Handel was never quite at +home in the English language, but in his later years he seems to have +developed a feeling for English poetry, more especially for that of +approximately his own time. But _Semele_ did not attract the opera +audience; it became increasingly clear that the opera party would have +nothing to do with Handel, and were in fact deliberately doing all they +could to bring him to ruin. Mrs. Delany and a few other great ladies +remained faithful, but they were in a small minority. It was evidently the +younger generation who were in opposition; Mrs. Delany alludes to them as +"the Goths--the fine ladies, the _petits maîtres_ and the ignoramuses," and +seemed surprised that they allowed the oratorio to be performed without +making a disturbance. Mrs. Delany was settling down to being the wife of a +dean. + +_Joseph_ (March 2, 1744) fared no better, and Handel himself "was mightily +out of humour about it" at the rehearsals. The summer was devoted to the +composition of _Belshazzar_, for which Jennens had supplied the libretto. +The collaboration was not altogether happy, for although Jennens had +considerable sense of the picturesque, and offered Handel opportunities for +what may be called spectacular music on the grand scale, his literary style +was pompous, rhetorical, and long-winded. Handel protested perpetually +against the length of the work, for the Handelian style of composition +naturally extended the prolixity of the words; Jennens greatly resented the +musician's criticism, and insisted on printing the poem in full. + +When the winter came, Handel produced nothing of importance until January +5, when he brought out _Hercules_, a secular oratorio which he had composed +in the summer during intervals when _Belshazzar_ had to be laid aside owing +to Jennens' delays. _Belshazzar_ was given on March 27. _Semele, Joseph_, +and _Saul_ were revived, but, whatever oratorio was given, the theatre was +almost empty, and the season came to a premature end on April 23. Handel +was again suffering from some form of illness, and was unable to take any +part in the performances, although he was present at them. Lady Shaftesbury +describes "the great, though unhappy, Handel, dejected, wan and dark, +sitting by, not playing on, the harpsichord," and adds that "his light had +been spent in being overplied in music's cause." Hawkins states definitely +that Handel became blind in 1751, and this date has been generally +accepted; Lady Shaftesbury's letter suggests that he was already blind, +or partially so, as early as March 1745, unless the word "light" is to be +taken as meaning the light of his reason. This interpretation, in fact, is +confirmed by a later letter of Lord Shaftesbury in October, in which he +says: "Poor Handel looks something better. I hope he will entirely recover +in due time, though he has been a good deal disordered in the head." +Another friend of Handel's, William Harris, met him in London, in August, +when he seems at first not to have recognised Harris and to have behaved +with some oddity; "he talked much of his precarious state of health, yet he +looks well enough." + +It has generally been stated that in 1745 Handel again became bankrupt, but +Barclay Squire pointed out that his name does not occur in the official +lists of bankrupts. It must be remembered that, however disastrous his +opera or oratorio seasons were, he had always his permanent pension of £600 +a year to fall back on, and Hawkins states that this pension, originally +granted by Queen Anne and George I, was punctually paid throughout his +life. + +From the end of August, London was in a panic over the Jacobite rebellion +under the Young Pretender, Charles Edward. The Opera remained closed on +account of the prejudice against the Papist Italian singers; at the other +theatres patriotism expressed itself in appropriate music. Purcell's +"Genius of England" was sung at one, Arne's recently composed "Rule, +Britannia" at another, and on November 14 a "Chorus Song, set by Mr. Handel +for the _Gentlemen Volunteers_ of the City of London," was sung by Mr. Lowe +at Drury Lane. The words suggest that the anonymous author was familiar +with the Epilogue to Purcell's _King Arthur_; Handel's music is neither in +his own style nor in Purcell's, but resembles the poorest sort of English +patriotic song of the early eighteenth century. Patriotic poetry was well +illustrated by an additional verse for "God Save the King" which was +printed in this same month: + + _From France and Pretender + Great Britain defend her, + Foes let them fall; + From foreign slavery, + Priests and their knavery, + And Popish Reverie, + God save us all._ + +On December 6 the Pretender began his retreat from Derby, and panic was +allayed. Handel seized the opportunity to compose and bring out his +_Occasional Oratorio_, about half of which was taken from _Israel in +Egypt_; it contains a well-known quotation of "Rule, Britannia," and the +point of the quotation is made clearer when we know that it was one of the +patriotic songs sung at the theatres during the period of panic. + +The Duke of Cumberland's defeat of the Pretender at Culloden on April +16, 1746, finally disposed of the Jacobites, and Handel made a further +contribution to the national rejoicings in "A Song on the Victory over the +Rebels," which was printed in the _London Magazine_ for July. The words +were by John Lockman; the first and last verses are as follows: + + _From scourging rebellion and baffling proud France, + Crown'd with laurels behold British William advance: + His triumph to grace and distinguish the day, + The sun brighter shines and all nature's gay. + + Ye warriors on whom we due honours bestow, + O think on the source whence our late evils flow; + Commanded by William, strike next at the Gaul, + And fix those in chains would Britain enthral._ + +In the same month Handel began the composition of a new oratorio in honour +of the Duke; this was _Judas Maccabaeus_, for which he had discovered a +new librettist, the Rev. Thomas Morell, formerly Fellow of King's College, +Cambridge. Morell has given a lively account of his collaboration with the +great man, whom he did not fear to criticise. Handel's retorts to him have +been reproduced as if they were outbursts of righteous indignation against +a snarling poetaster, but, in view of many other records of Handel's +rough tongue and genial humour (in which he seems often to have resembled +Brahms), we need not take them too seriously. It is quite clear that +Morell was more amused than offended, and the fact that they continued to +collaborate up to the end of Handel's career as a composer shows that they +must have remained on completely friendly terms. + +Morell, to judge from the contemporary portrait of him, must have been a +rather comic little figure with a strong sense of humour. He was a scholar, +and something of a musician too. The academic primness of his verses has +endeared him to all lovers of Handel, and to no one more than Samuel +Butler; they are always admirably suited to their purpose, neat and +scholarly, concise and direct, with never a word too many. They run easily +for a singer, and it is not improbable that Morell was acquainted with the +works of that great model of all opera-poets, Metastasio, for his words, +like Metastasio's, acquire an unexpected beauty when they are sung. + +Handel must have felt himself fully restored to health in the summer +of 1746, for _Judas_, which was written in five weeks, contains no +"borrowings," apart from a few numbers added some ten years later and +adapted from some of his early Italian opera songs. It was not performed +until April 1, 1747. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Judas Maccabaeus--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and +his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality. + + +The new oratorio met with surprising success. In the first place, Handel +had given up the subscription system, and opened the theatre to all comers. +The relief produced by the victory of Culloden had no doubt encouraged +the general public to spend more money on entertainments; the Duke of +Cumberland was a popular hero, and, through the _Occasional Oratorio_, +Handel's name had come to be associated with him. _Judas_ was naturally +patronised by the court and by the Duke himself, who had made a handsome +present to Morell in recognition of his literary laurels. And a new class +of enthusiasts appeared in the shape of the Jews, we are told, who were +attracted by the glorification of a national hero of their own. We do not +hear much of the Jewish community in London in the days of Handel, and +it cannot have been a very large one, but they appear to have been worth +Handel's consideration. It may be mentioned that Handel's early librettist +in London, Nicolo Haym, must have been a Jew, to judge from his name. +Handel, at any rate, was sufficiently impressed to ask Morell to find +another Jewish subject for his next oratorio; this was _Alexander Balus_, +produced the following year. + +The Italian opera party had this year engaged Gluck as a composer, and he +too celebrated the Duke of Cumberland's achievements with an opera, _La +Caduta dei Giganti_ (January 5), which was a complete failure. It must +have been put together in a hurry, for all of the "favourite songs" in it, +published by Walsh (and no other record of the music remains), were taken +from earlier operas of Gluck's; in any case they are poor stuff, and from +Burney's description of the singers it is no wonder that the opera had no +success. Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of +counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over +sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him +some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience, +which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again. +Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy +in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and +spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is probable +that Gluck heard _Judas_, as he was still in London in April. + +A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired +was the production of a _pasticcio_, at the Italian Opera in November 1747, +made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was not +repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera singers +came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of entertainment, +and after their success Handelian opera was buried for ever. + +_Alexander Balus_ was not one of Handel's popular works; _Joshua_ (March +23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction when +new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was +afterwards transferred to _Judas Maccabaeus_. "What the English like is +something that they can beat time to," said Handel to Gluck. He agreed with +Hawkins in not caring very much for it himself, but added, "you will live +to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine things." +_Joshua_ contains two "borrowings," one from Handel's own opera _Riccardo_, +and another from Gottlieb Muffat. + +The productions of the next year (1749) were _Susanna_ (February 10) and +_Solomon_ (March 17); it is not known who wrote their libretti, though +_Solomon_ has been tentatively ascribed to Morell. _Susanna_ was remarkably +successful, perhaps on account of its story, which has always been a +favourite with the painters of the later Renaissance. One can understand +Lady Shaftesbury's saying, "I believe it will not insinuate itself so much +into my approbation as most of Handel's performances do, as it is in +the light operatic style." _Solomon_ was a complete contrast, with its +magnificent scenes of oriental pageantry. + +The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 1748) had no doubt contributed, as +the victory of Culloden did, to make people more inclined to enjoy the +pleasures of life, with beneficial results to the organisers of music and +drama. The King ordered a grand celebration of the event to take place +on April 27, 1749, and preparations for it were begun as early as the +preceding November. The famous theatrical architect Servandoni was +commissioned to design an elaborate entertainment of fireworks on a +colossal scale to be let off in the Green Park, accompanied by the music of +Handel. The Fireworks Music was scored for fifty-six wind instruments. A +rehearsal of it (without fireworks) was held at Vauxhall Gardens a week +before, at half a crown admission, and it is said to have been attended by +a crowd of twelve thousand persons. At the actual performance the fireworks +were a disastrous failure, owing to various accidents, but Handel's music, +accompanied by the firing of ordnance, was the real event of the evening. A +month later Handel repeated the music at the Foundling Hospital, along with +selections from Solomon, and a new work, composed for the occasion, known +as the Foundling Anthem. His next act of generosity was to present the +hospital with an organ, which he inaugurated on May 1, 1750, with a +performance of Messiah. Henceforth the performance of Messiah at the +Foundling Hospital for the benefit of the institution became an annual +event, and it was this charitable association which really secured the work +its subsequent popularity. + +Handel's next oratorio, Theodora (March 16, 1750), came out at a bad +moment, for a series of earthquakes were being felt in London, with the +result that many people took refuge in the country, and those who stayed +behind were reluctant to go to the theatre. The blame for the neglect which +has always overtaken Theodora has been very unjustly laid on Morell. Handel +himself, remembering the successes of Judas and Susanna, observed to the +poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian story; and +the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one." Theodora was +always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he considered the +chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond anything in Messiah. +None the less, the theatre was half empty when Theodora was given. "Never +mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the music will sound all the +better." + +An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of Cuzzoni, +who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and Stuttgart. +An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which Giardini the +violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged her to sing +in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone. She was +arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a few years +in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in destitution at +Bologna. + +In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known of +his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with a +carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously injured, +but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of danger. Nor is +it known when he returned; we have no further news of him until in January +he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself wrote Jephtha in +1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on February 2, it is +probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with the words in +instalments. + +The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the +failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder +(Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital +in May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham, +returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished it +on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown) that +he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him that +he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the +visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his +days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical and +mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel began +to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of Handel's +eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the autograph of +Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to the process of +"borrowing"--this time from five Masses by Habermann, a composer twenty +years his junior, published in 1747. + +It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the +works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they +could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in England. +A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old friend +Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a close +friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they met +again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is +not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was +undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in +December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking +him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener, +and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's reply +suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but was most +anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure. + +Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754, +explains that Handel had set about procuring the plants when Captain +Carsten of Hamburg, by whose ship he intended to send them, told him that +Telemann was dead; but, after another voyage to Hamburg and back, Carsten +brought the news that Telemann was alive and in good health. He also +brought a list of the rare plants desired, and Handel writes to say that he +has obtained almost all of them, and will send them by Captain Carsten when +he sails for Hamburg again in December. + +It is true that there is no mention of any parcel of music in these +letters, beyond Telemann's "System of Intervals," but they suggest that +they were part of a longer correspondence. Telemann was keenly interested +in contemporary music, as his correspondence with Graun shows; he also +seems to have asked Graun to send him plants from Berlin. He is the most +likely person to have sent musical works of interest to Handel; possibly +they were sent on loan, and returned after Handel had made the extracts +which are to be seen in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. + +Jephtha was produced on February 26, 1752. Handel's oratorios had by now +become a lucrative undertaking, and it was characteristic of English +audiences that they came in crowds to see Handel playing the organ in his +blindness, and enjoy the luxury of tears when Beard sang "Total Eclipse!" +Sharp, the oculist, recommended Handel to employ as his assistant John +Stanley, who had been blind from early childhood and was a singularly +accomplished organist. Handel burst out laughing. "Mr. Sharp, have you +never read' the Scriptures? Do you not remember? If the blind lead the +blind, they both fall into the ditch." + +He underwent various operations, but derived only partial benefit from +them. During these last years he led a very retired life, but he continued +to play the organ at his oratorios, at first from memory, and later +extemporising the solos in his concertos, which were always an integral +feature of his concerts. The profits of these were enormous, and when he +died in 1759 he left investments to the extent of 20,000. Composition +naturally became a more difficult matter after blindness set in, but new +songs were added to many of the oratorios, and in 1758 he made a complete +revision of his old Italian cantata, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Morell +translated it into English, and seventeen new numbers were added. Some of +these were new, but many were adapted from other works of Handel's, chiefly +from Parnasso in Festa, and there are also borrowings from Lotti and Graun. +Two choruses by Graun had already been utilised in the revision of the +Italian version which Handel brought out in 1737. + +All this time John Christopher Schmidt, now known as Smith, had been his +indispensable factotum. Smith made fair copies of his music, and managed +his affairs for him, though Handel, almost up to the end, seems to have +discussed his investments in person with his financial adviser, Mr. Gael +Morris, in the City. Smith's son, who had come with his father to London as +a child, had been educated under Handel's direction, and in 1754 became the +first organist of the Foundling Hospital. In Handel's later years it was +the son who assisted him at the performances of the oratorios and acted as +his musical amanuensis. There is a curious story of a quarrel which took +place at Tunbridge Wells, about four years before Handel's death, between +the two old men. The cause of it is not known, but it is stated to have +been quite trivial; old Smith left Handel abruptly, and Handel vowed he +would never see him again. The son attempted to heal the breach and even +went so far as to say that he would refuse to assist Handel at his concerts +any more unless Handel restored to his father the legacy which after the +quarrel he had intended to leave to the son; young Smith foresaw that he +himself would be accused of having deliberately alienated the affections of +Handel from his father in order to secure the money for himself. + +Handel apparently yielded to some extent, but it is clear that he was not +reconciled to old Smith for a long time. "About three weeks before his +death," we are told, in Coxe's Anecdotes of Handel and Smith, published +soon after young Smith's death, "Handel desired Smith junior to receive the +sacrament with him. Smith asked him how he could communicate, when he was +not at peace with the world and especially when he was at enmity with +his former friend, who, though he might have offended him once, had been +faithful and affectionate to him for thirty years." Handel was much +affected by Smith's words, and the reconciliation took place. Religion had +gained a strong hold upon Handel in his years of suffering; he spoke much +to Hawkins and others of his delight in setting the Scriptures to music, +and he was a regular worshipper at St. George's, Hanover Square. + +His last appearance in public was at the performance of Messiah on April 6, +1759, but at the end of it he was seized with a fainting attack, took to +his bed, and died during the night between the 13th and 14th of April. He +was buried in Westminster Abbey on the evening of the 10th; the choirs +of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's joined the Abbey choir in singing the +burial music of Dr. Croft, and it is said that three thousand people were +present. + +Handel's will, executed June 1, 1750, left the bulk of his fortune to his +niece and goddaughter Johanna Friderica Floerken (nee Michaelsen) of Gotha; +other relatives were also left legacies. To Christopher Smith (junior) he +left 500, besides his large harpsichord, his chamber organ, his portrait +by Denner, and his manuscripts. He had at one time thought of leaving the +manuscripts to the University of Oxford, and, having already promised them +to Smith, offered him a legacy of £3,000 if he would resign all claim to +them. Smith refused, and also refused an offer of £2,000 made for them, +after Handel's death, by Frederick the Great. He kept them until 1772, when +he presented them to George III in return for a pension of £200 a year. But +he did not hand over the whole of the manuscripts to the King, and a +large collection of rough sketches and fragments was acquired by Lord +Fitzwilliam, who bequeathed them to the University of Cambridge. + +The foregoing pages will have shown how singularly few are the definite +facts about Handel's life which can be ascertained with any degree of +certainty. There are a number of portraits which give some idea of his +outward appearance, but most of them represent him as a man of middle age, +and the anecdotes of his life and habits recorded by various contemporaries +belong mostly to the same period. It is almost impossible to form any idea +of his private character and his inward personality. Biographers of +musicians often attempt to deduce their characters from their musical +works, but it need hardly be said that such a procedure is thoroughly +unreliable. + +Portraits are notoriously unsafe as guides to the interpretation of +character, but if the miniature reproduced by Mr. Flower as having been +painted in Rome is an authentic likeness of Handel as a young man and it +certainly bears some resemblance to the portrait by Denner painted about +1736 or 1737--he must have been singularly attractive in those days. It +cannot have been his musical abilities alone that won him the immediate +friendship of Telemann at Halle and Mattheson at Hamburg; and, although he +seems from his earliest days to have been ambitious and determined to make +a career for himself, his contemporaries give the impression that he was +retiring rather than self-assertive. In later life he was often described +as bearish and rough-mannered, but this cannot have been the case in his +youth, or he would never have achieved the position which he held in the +most cultured and distinguished society of Rome and Naples. His visit to +Italy must inevitably have been a wonderful education in the humanities, +otherwise he could never have been received as he was on his first visit +to London by the society which most nearly resembled that of his Italian +friends and patrons. + +Professional musicians, and especially those connected with the theatre, +were regarded in England as being more or less disreputable, unless they +held university degrees and posts of distinction. Handel moved among them +in his professional life, as was only natural, but his more intimate +friendships seem, throughout his career, to have been confined mainly +to the innermost circle of the well-bred amateurs; we must not forget, +however, that it was only persons of that class whose letters and memoirs +have come down to us. Burney and Hawkins at any rate were well acquainted +with the professional world, and their testimony tends to confirm that +Handel stood more or less aloof from it. It was only in later life that he +associated on terms of friendship with such a person as Mrs. Cibber, the +singer. In an age when all opera-houses were, with some truth, regarded as +centres of sexual promiscuity, it is indeed remarkable that not the least +evidence exists, with one solitary exception, that Handel was ever even +alleged to have had an illicit love-affair. Mr. Flower discovered a copy of +Mainwaring's biography, with marginal notes said to be in the handwriting +of George III, and there we read: "G. F. Handel was ever honest, nay +excessively polite, but like all Men of Sense would talk all, and hear +none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but his +Amours were rather of short duration, always within the pale of his own +profession." The _Anecdotes of Handel and Smith_ mention two occasions on +which he was said to have become engaged to be married, or nearly so, but +the writer is so reticent that little faith can be placed in his statement, +and in any case the _Anecdotes_, published in 1799, are not very reliable +as far as Handel is concerned. + +It is not difficult to understand that there were two Handels, one +"excessively polite" (which, in the language of the eighteenth century, +does not mean that he was servile and cringing, but simply that he behaved +like a man of good breeding), as he appeared to such people as Mrs. Delany +and the Harris family, and the other as he showed himself at rehearsals, +or in the society of men friends of more or less his own standing--bluntly +outspoken and perhaps at times inconsiderate. The hostility of a large +number of social leaders may well have been aroused in the first instance +by some careless harsh word. + +"The figure of Handel was large," says Burney, "and he was somewhat +corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I +remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of +fire and dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius. He +was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but +totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an original +humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or impatience, +which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His natural +propensity to wit and humour, and happy manner of relating common +occurrences in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw persons and things +into very ridiculous attitudes. Handel's general look was somewhat heavy +and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of +a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good +humour, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other." + +Both Burney and Hawkins record that outside his profession he was said to +be ignorant and dull, and the fact that they are at pains to defend him on +this charge shows that there was apparent ground for it. Pepusch said of +him that he was "a good practical musician," which is what one might well +expect of Pepusch, whose devotion to antiquarian learning aroused the +amusement rather than the admiration of his contemporaries. Handel was at +any rate keenly interested in painting, like Corelli, and the third codicil +to his will, dated August 4, 1757, mentions two landscapes by Rembrandt, +one a view of the Rhine, which he bequeathed to one of the Granvilles from +whom he had received both as a gift. + +Another characteristic of Handel's for which his early biographers are +hard put to find an excuse was his enormous appetite for food and drink, +satirised by his once intimate friend the painter Goupy in a well-known +print called "The Charming Brute," in which Handel is represented with the +head of a pig, seated at an organ, with various comestibles disposed at his +feet. In this connexion it may be noted that for all his gluttony Handel +was never accused of drunkenness; if he exceeded in the pleasures of the +table, it was as a gourmet and a connoisseur. Yet it is recorded that he +never led an extravagant life, and apart from this particular weakness +he lived as simply in the days of his wealth as in those of his poverty. +Generosity to those in distress was at all times characteristic of him. + +Although Handel became a naturalised British subject, none of his +contemporaries would ever have dreamed of regarding him as an Englishman, +or as a composer of English music. Burney's account of the commemoration +festival of 1784 may be regarded as an official panegyric, but even in +that he goes no further than to say that Handel, "though not a native +of England, spent the greatest part of his life in the service of its +inhabitants, improving our taste, and introducing among us so many species +of musical excellence, that, during more than half a century, while +sentiment, not fashion, guided our applause, we neither wanted nor wished +for any other standard. Indeed, his works were so long the models of +perfection in this country, that they may be said to have formed our +national taste." In the pages which deal with the character of Handel as a +composer, he says that he united "the depth and elaborate contrivance of +his own country with Italian elegance and facility." Handel's music, he +holds, was from the first congenial to the English temperament, but he +never regards it as being at all English in style, though in other writings +he naturally recognises the occasional indebtedness of Handel to the +influence of Purcell. It was only in the nineteenth century that Handel +came to be regarded as a national institution. His own country for the most +part neglected his works; his operas were thought impossible to revive, and +the oratorios were considered by most Germans as being "too English"--an +opinion which the writer of this book frequently heard expressed in Germany +some fifty years ago. Since 1920 there has been an astonishing revival +of Handel in Germany, beginning with the restoration to the stage of his +operas--the last works of his which most people would have thought suitable +for presentation to modern audiences--and much energy has been expended +by German critics on an attempt to demonstrate the essentially Germanic +character both of Handel's music and of his personality. + +The more closely we study Handel in relation to his own times, and in +relation to the general history of music, the clearer it becomes that Goupy +the caricaturist was only right when he put into Handel's mouth the words, +"I am myself alone." + +The foundation of Handel's musical style was Italian, and it was only +natural that this should be the case, for, in his days, Italy dominated +European music as she did European architecture. All music in the grand +manner, except in France, was Italian in its tradition, and if ever there +was a composer who illustrated the grand manner throughout his life, it was +Handel. France had produced a grand manner of her own, though not without +an initial impulse from Italy; in all other countries north of the Alps +native music was only for the humbler classes of society. When Handel +condescended to it, as he did in the political excitement of 1745, he +deliberately adopted the musical style of a tavern song. + +Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his +later oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the +middle classes, but we have the records of his conversations with Gluck, +Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste. He +composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality, +but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in +its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity. + +If Handel's works have for later generations become a source of joy and +delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the +musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel's day which +are now national monuments and open to all comers. We walk beneath their +colonnades, peopling them in imagination with the gracious and stately +figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard +strains of Handel's music: + + _Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round, + And silence now is drown'd, + In ecstasy of sound! + How on a sudden the still air is charm'd, + As if all harmony were just alarm'd + And every soul with transport fill'd!_ + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +Mainwaring, J.: _Memoirs of the Life of the Late G. F. Handel_. London. +1760. + +Burney, Charles: _A General History of Music_. London. 1776-89. + +Burney, Charles: _An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster +Abbey, etc._ London. 1785. + +Hawkins, Sir John: _A General History of the Science and Practice of +Music_. London. 1776. + +Coxe, W.: _Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Y. C. Smith_. London. 1799. + +Schoelcher, Victor: _The Life of Handel_. London. 1857. The first attempt +at a complete and documented biography. + +Chrysander, Friedrich: _G. F. Händel_. Leipzig. 1858-67. This biography +does not go beyond 1740, but it is the most valuable source for carefully +documented facts. + +Delany, Mary: _Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. +Delany_. Edited by Lady Llanover. London. 1861-62. + +Taylor, Sedley: _The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers_. +Cambridge. 1906. + +Robinson, Percy: _Handel and His Orbit_. London. 1908. + +Streatfeild, R.A.: _Handel_. London. 1909. The best biography of Handel and +critical study of his works in English. + +Squire, W. Barclay: _Handel in 1745_ (Riemann-Festschrift). Leipzig. 1909. + +Rolland, Romain: _Haendel_. Paris. 1910. + +Flower, Newman: _George Friederic Handel: His Personality and His Times_. +London. 1923. + +This book contains much new biographical matter. I have to thank Mr. Flower +for kind permission to make use of his valuable discoveries. + +Leichtentritt, Hugo: _Händel._ Stuttgart. 1924. Biography based mainly on +Streatfeild; gives a detailed analysis of all Handel's works. + +Young, Percy M.: _Handel._ London. 1947. + + + + +HANDEL'S WORKS + +OPERAS + + _Almira_ (Hamburg, 1705). + _Nero_ (Hamburg, 1705, music lost). + _Florindo_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost). + _Dafne_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost). + _Rodrigo_ (Florence, 1707?). + _Agrippina_ (Venice, 1709). + +The following operas were all produced in London: + + _Rinaldo_ (1711). + _Il Pastor Fido_ (first version, 1712). + _Teseo_ (1712). + _Silla_ (1714). + _Amadigi_ (1715). + _Radamisto_ (1720). + _Muzio Scevola_ (1721, only Act III by Handel). + _Floridante_ (1721). + _Ottone_ (1723). + _Flavio_ (1723). + _Giulio Cesare_ (1724). + _Tamerlano_ (1724). + _Rodelinda_ (1725). + _Scipione_ (1726). + _Alessandro_ (1726). + _Admeto_ (1727). + _Riccardo I_ (1727). + _Siroe_ (1728). + _Tolomeo_ (1728). + _Lotario_ (1729). + _Partenope_ (1730). + _Poro_ (1731). + _Ezio_ (1732). + _Sosarme_ (1732). + _Orlando_ (1733). + _Arianna_ (1734). + _Parnasso in Festa_ (1734). + _Il Pastor Fido_ (second version, 1734). + _Terpsichore_ (1734). + _Ariodante_ (1735). + _Alcina_ (1735). + _Atalanta_ (1736). + _Arminio_ (1737). + _Giustino_ (1737). + _Berenice_ (1737). + _Faramondo_ (1738). + _Serse_ (1738). + _Jupiter in Argos_ (1739, announced but never performed). + _Imeneo_ (1740). + _Deidamia_ (1741). + +ORATORIOS: + + _St. John Passion_ (German, Hamburg, 1704). + _La Risurrezione_ (Italian, Rome, 1708). + _Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno_ (Italian, Rome, 1708). + _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_ (Italian, Naples, 1709). + _Brockes Passion_ (German, Hanover, 1716). + +All the following oratorios are in English: + + _Esther_ (first version, London, 1720). + _Acis and Galatea_ (London, 1720). + _Esther_ (second version, London, 1732). + _Debora_ (London, 1733). + _Athalia_ (Oxford, 1733). + _Alexander's Feast_ (London, 1736). + _Saul_ (London, 1739). + _Israel in Egypt_ (London, 1739). + _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_ (London, 1739). + _L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato_ (London, 1740). + _Messiah_ (Dublin, 1742). + +HANDEL 139 + +The following oratorios were all produced in London: + + _Samson_ (1743). + _Semele_ (1743). + _Joseph_ (1743). + _Belshazzar_ (1744). + _Hercules_ (1744). + _Occasional Oratorio_ (1746). + _Judas Maccabaeus_ (1747). + _Alexander Balus_ (1747). + _Joshua_ (1747). + _Solomon_ (1748). + _Susanna_ (1748). + _Theodora_ (1749). + _The Choice of Hercules_ (1749). + _Jephtha_ (1752). + _The Triumph of Time and Truth_ (1757). + +SACRED WORKS: + + _Laudate Pueri_ (Rome, 1707). + _Dixit Dominus_ (Rome, 1707). + _Nisi Dominus_ (Rome, 1707). + _Gloria Patri_ (Rome, 1707). + _Salve Regina_ (1707?). + _Silete Venti_ (1707?). + _Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate_ (London, 1713). + _Te Deum_ in D (1714?). + _Te Deum_ in B flat (Chandos) (1718-20). + _Te Deum_ in A (1727?). + _Twelve Chandos Anthems_ (1716-19). + _Four Coronation Anthems_ (1727). + _Wedding Anthem for Princess Anne_ (1734). + _Wedding Anthem for the Prince of Wales_ (1736). + _Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline_ (1737). + _Dettingen Te Deum_ (1743). + _Dettingen Anthem_ (1743). + _Foundling Hospital Anthem_ (1749). + +SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC: + + _Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_ (1713). + _Italian Cantatas, Duets and Trios_. + _German Songs_. + +INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: + + _Six Concertos_ (so-called "Oboe Concertos"), published 1734. + _Three Concertos_ ("Select Harmony"), published 1741. + _Twelve Grand Concertos_, op. 6 (published 1740). + _Three Concertos a due cori_. + _Overtures, Marches, Dances, etc_. + _Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra_. + _Concerto for Violin and Orchestra_. + _Water Music_ (1715-17). + _Forest Music_ (1742, probably spurious). + _Music for the Royal Fireworks_ (1749). + _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 4 (1738). + _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_ (1740). + _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 7 (1760). + +Many of these are arrangements of other works. + + _Sonatas for Flute, Oboe or Violin and Bass_ (19). + _Six Sonatas for two Oboes and Bass_. + _Six Sonatas for two Violins (Oboes or Flutes) and Bass_, op. 2 (1733). + _Seven Sonatas for two Violins (Flutes) and Bass_, op. 5 (1739). + _Sonata for Viola de Gamba_. + _Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1720). + _Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1733). + _Miscellaneous Harpsichord Music_. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL *** + +***** This file should be named 9089-8.txt or 9089-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/8/9089/ + +Produced by Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |