George Frideric Handel Research Paper

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on March 21st, 1865. He was the son of a musician, Johann Abrosias Bach, who was a director of church musicians, and most likely taught Bach the violin. Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died less than a year later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who most

George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Germany on February 23, 1685. He expressed an interest in music at an early age. While his mother encouraged this love of music, his father, George Handel, was not supportive of him pursuing music as a career, and pushed him towards a career in law. However, when Handel was 9, a duke heard him playing the organ and persuaded his father to let Handel study under Friedrich Zachow (the organist at the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle) who instructed him in the organ as well as composing. Handels’ father died when he was 12, leaving him as the only son of that marriage. This put more responsibility on Handel to maintain his family, but it also relieved most of the objection of his music studies. In

Many musical scholars believe that J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel are the two most important, influential composers of the Baroque period. Both of these men were born in Germany in 1685, and since they came into existence around the same time, they share some similarities. As an introductory statement, Bach and Handel were born into two very different families. Handel did not come from a musical family; his father wanted him to study law. By age nine, his talent was too obvious for his father to ignore and Handel began to study with a local organist and composer. On the contrary, Bach came from a long line of musicians. Bach also had four sons which became gifted composers, in their own right. Bach, like Handel, also started as an organist

His career includes 42 operas, 29 oratorios, 16 organ concerti, over 120 cantatas, trios and duets, chamber music, odes, and many ecumenical pieces, his most famous work being the Oratorio “Messiah.” Composed in 1741, the oratorio was preformed first in Dublin in 1742. It had a scriptural text from the King James Bible and was written for modest vocal and instrumental forces. The work, although very much in the style of Handel, is a series of thoughts on the Christian idea of redemption and utilizes a mixture of traditions. After Handel’s death in 1759, the Oratorio began to gain popularity even further and was adapted to larger scale choirs and orchestras. Handel has very much influenced the world of music, especially through his operas, and has grown in popularity throughout the years. As the inventor of English Oratorios and being so well known for his Italian operas his style and influence is felt around the world even still in the music of today.

George Frideric Handel is generally considered the second most important Baroque composer after Bach. Unlike Bach's nearly complete focus on church music in Germany, Handel more openly embraced the French, Italian, and English secular music. Also unlike Bach, Handel did not come from a long line of musicians. When he was born on February 23, 1685, Handel's family had no idea that he would rise to a legendary status in music. Handel's father began to see his son's desire to compose at an early age and violently objected. His mother was responsible for nurturing and continuing his musical education. At the age of seven, Handel was asked to give an organ recital for the Duke of Sachse-Weissenfels. The Duke was very impressed and awarded the family with a generous amount of money. This event persuaded his father to allow Handel to pursue his musical career. When his father died in1697, Handel was freed from his father's will. He studied with numerous organists and gained minor fame.

John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts. John was married to Dorothy Quincy in 1775. They had two kids a girl and a boy neither of them lived into adulthood. John’s parents were Mary Hawke and senior John Hancock. John’s father died and his mother gave him and his siblings to their aunt and uncle, Lydia and Thomas Hancock. Thomas was a wealthy merchant who had enough money to live in a mansion.

Gustav Holst, born in Cheltenham in September 1847, is still today considered to be one of the greatest music composers of all time. He was not very fond of music when he was younger, but he enjoyed the piano. He was sent to Cheltenham Grammar School and forced to take long music lessons, even though he had neuritis in his hands.

Handel and Bach are considered two of the greatest composers of all time. However, when comparing the output of these two musicians, the diversity manifest in music in the era when they wrote immediately becomes apparent. Handel, although he used religious subject matter, is usually characterized as fundamentally a 'secular' composer. He composed for the concert hall, not the church, and primarily as a result of royal commissions. His music is strident, powerful, and large in scope. It is designed to entertain, rather than to spur contemplation (The pure power of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', NPR, 2008). Bach, in contrast, often created music designed to be performed in sacred spaces. His music is more fluid and nuanced in style and designed more to spur contemplation and devotion rather than excite people's interest as a piece of entertainment.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, artist, teacher, and a very influential person in the baroque. Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy on March 4th, 1678. He was immediately baptized after his birthday which leads people to believe he was an unhealthy infant or a recipient to other natural causes. Throughout his life, he has composed many pieces such as his numerous amounts of concertos for a variety of different instruments, his operas, and one of his most famous pieces, The Four Season. Even though Vivaldi was a very successful composer and virtuoso he died on the 28th of July in 1741, in poverty with little to no money.

Handel's discovery of oratorio was quite accidental and came in the form of a commission from Dublin. His appreciation of its possibilites was immediate, and the die was cast that he would devote the rest of his creative life to composing in the genre.

Over the course of his musical career, Handel, exhausted by stress, endured a number of potentially debilitating problems with his physical health. He is also believed to have suffered from anxiety and depression. Yet somehow, Handel, who was known to laugh in the face of adversity, remained virtually undeterred in his determination to keep making music.

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a baroque era composer, with an impressive repertoire of compositions. Handel didn’t grow up in a music rich environment, but in fact, he was forbidden by his father to touch any musical instrument, but found time when everyone else was asleep to play a clavichord he had smuggled to an upstairs room in the house. He grew up in Halle, Germany and at the age of 18, he traveled to Hamburg, and took a job as a violinist in the Hamburg Opera House. He supported himself by giving private lessons, and eventually published his first opera, Almira.

He was born in the German town of Bonn on the 16th of December 1770. His grandfather Ludwig and his father Johann were both musicians. Johann was to act as little Ludwig's first music teacher, but Ludwig soon changed to the court organist C. G. Neefe. Passing eleven years of age, Ludwig deputized for Neefe, and at twelve had his first music published. He then stayed as Neefe's assistant until 1787, when at seventeen, he took off for Vienna. Even though Vienna was to be his home for the rest of his life, this first visit was short. On hearing that his mother was dying, he quickly returned to Bonn. Five years later he finally moved to Vienna to live and work.

in 1710 and moved to Hanover; here he was given the job of director of

Baroque Period, during which a few of the greatest composers on this planet were born, brought classical music onto a whole new level. The word “Baroque”, which came from the Portuguese for “the imperfect pearl”, implies strange, extravagant and overblown. Toccata, fugue, chorale, ortario, and the concerto Grosso, all of these special musical forms were created and represent this period. The six main characteristics: increased emotional expression, contrast, use of basso continuo, continued harmonic development, use of ornament, and the emphasis of improvisation, molded the unique style of music of the Baroque period.