by John Alexander Fuller Maitland and William Barclay Squire

“ The power of assimilating what is best in the work of others is, indeed, one of his most noticeable characteristics. Besides this, his massive simplicity of effects, and his remarkable skill in expressing with singular directness the less complex side of devotional feeling, have secured for some few of his compositions a place in the hearts of Englishmen which is conceded to no other composer. But despite all the vaunted admiration of Handel, the attempt to revive any of his less known works is rarely made, and when made is usually unsuccessful. ”

“ Many different opinions have been entertained as to the ultimate position which Handel will occupy in the history of music. In England he is regarded with a veneration which acknowledges no faults. Abroad he has been condemned as old-fashioned and out-of-date, and has been undeservedly neglected. ”

“ The Jewish amateurs of music, of whom there were many in London, patronised the celebration of their national hero, and the whole season was so successful that Handel wisely turned again to Jewish history for the subjects of his two next oratorios. ”

“ It is curious to find that the libretto of the last opera was the work of Paolo Rolli, who had previously been so bitterly hostile. Before his tenure of the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre came to an end, Handel's setting of Dryden's shorter 'Ode on St. Cecilia's Day' was given (22 Nov. 1739) . On 20 March 1739 'Alexander's Feast' was performed at the King's Theatre in aid of the funds of the Royal Society of Musicians, when Handel himself played the organ. For the benefit of the same society he devoted thenceforth one performance each year, and always took his place at the organ. ”

“ Domenico was adjudged to be the better player of the harpsichord, but Handel carried off the palm in organ-playing ; the two remained close friends, and each retained in after life the greatest admiration for the other's talents. In Naples, where Handel stayed from July 1708 until the autumn of the following year, he wrote the serenata, 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo,' which has only the subject in common with the better known English work of a later period. Several cantatas and songs belonging to the Italian period were probably written at Naples, where Handel had ample leisure. ”

“ The famous Vittoria Tesi, who sang the part of the hero, was so attracted by the composer that she followed him to Venice in order to take part in his next opera, 'Agrippina.' This was produced there early in 1708 at the Teatro di San Giovanni Grisostonio, and the audience, mad with enthusiasm, shouted repeatedly 'Viva il caro Sassone' (ib. p. 53; Chrysander, i. 139) . In March 1708 he went again to Rome as the guest of the Marchese di Ruspoli, the leader of the celebrated Arcadian academy. ”

“ The operetta 'Imeneo' was transformed into a cantata, 'Hymen,' and was performed twice (March 24 and 31) . The series closed with 'Esther' on 7 April. Handel had taken with him to Ireland the score of a new oratorio, his masterpiece, the 'Messiah,' which he had completed in the incredibly short space of twenty-three days (22 Aug. to 14 Sept., Chrysander in Allgem. D. Biogr. xii. 789) . Nine months had passed since the completion of 'Deidamia,' his last Italian opera, and during that time the process of composition was doubtless going on, perhaps in part unconsciously. ”

“ The composer was offered a doctor's degree, but declined the honour. In the 'A. B. C. Dario Musico,' 1780, Handel is said to have refused on the ground that he disliked 'throwing his money away for dat de blockhead wish.' But the story, Chrysander points out, is unauthentic, since an honorary degree was conferred without more than a nominal charge. It is probable that in the summer of this year, as Hawkins (Hist. v. 318) states, he went to Italy once more to get singers for his new season. ”

“ Smith was then abroad as tutor to a young man of large fortune, but returned to England at once. At the performances of the oratorios Handel still played the organ concertos, which were an integral part of the entertainment, but of course from memory, and gradually the solo parts of the concertos assumed the character of an improvisation (Burney, Sketch, p. 29) . The oratorios went on year after year, apparently with regular success ; on the revivals of 'Jephtha' and 'Semele,' additions were made to the score of each work. ”

“ In the autumn of 1741 Handel went to Dublin at the invitation of the Duke of Devonshire, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. A series of subscription concerts was arranged at the new music hall in Fishamble Street, and there a number of Handel's most popular cantatas, such as 'Acis,' 'L' Allegro,' &c., were given successfully, always, or almost always, with the additional attraction of instrumental concertos. ”

“ Chrysander considers the cantata 'Ach Herr, mir armer Sunder' to be genuine, but its authenticity is very doubtful. At the close of the year of probation imposed upon Handel by the terms of his appointment as organist, he threw up the post and started off' for Hamburg, then the most important musical centre in Germany, where he arrived between 5 April and 5 June 1703. On his arrival he was given a place among the supplementary ('ripieno') second violins in the opera orchestra. At first he affected complete ignorance of music. ”

“ The fact that the court returned to England in January 1717, and that 'Rinaldo' and 'Amadigi' were revived during the operatic season of that year, makes it highly probable that Handel's visit to Germany was only of a few months' duration (Chrysander, i. 456) . In 1718 he succeeded Pepusch as director of the music at Canons, the magnificent country house of the Duke of Chandos, where a series of twelve anthems on the grandest scale was composed for the duke's chapel, now the parish church of Whitchurch, near Edgware. ”

“ After the collapse of 1744 no operas were given at the King's Theatre till the beginning of 1746, and in the following year, when Lord Middlesex was joined by a number of noblemen in the management of affairs, a pasticcio, called 'Lucio Vero,' was arranged from the works of Handel, and performed with great success during the winter of 1747-8. It is at least possible that this done without Handel's consent. The next season saw the production of 'Susanna' on 10 Feb., and of 'Solomon' on 17 March 1749. ”

“ In July Handel went to Oxford by the invitation of the vice-chancellor, Dr. William Holmes, to conduct performances of 'Esther,' 'Deborah,' 'Acis,' the 'Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate,' a selection from the 'Coronation Anthem,' and a work written for the occasion, 'Athaliah,' produced 10 July. That a foreigner should be asked to provide the music for the celebration of the 'public act' aroused much ill-feeling (Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 778-9, 935) , and occasioned the production of a new set of lampoons (The Oxford Act, a Ballad Opera, London, 1733) . ”

“ The oratorio was originally preceded by the entire funeral anthem which had been composed for Queen Caroline's funeral in 1737, now sung as a ' Lamentation of the Israelites for the death of Joseph.' In spite of the 'new organ concerto,' introduced in order to give variety to the entertainment, the work found so little favour that at the second performance (on the llth) four songs, three of them in Italian, were interpolated. Though not widely popular, even in its shortened form, 'Israel in Egypt' was highly appreciated by the few. ”

“ In this performance, which took place on 10 June, the parts of Acis and Galatea were taken by Senesino and Signora Strada, and that of Polyphemus by Montagnana. Exactly a fortnight later a serenata by Buononcini was given at Handel's own theatre, in such obvious rivalry to his work that Strada refused to sing in it, and the long feud between the composers now reached its culminating point in the establishment by Buononcini and his friends of a rival opera at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, which Senesino was induced to join. ”

“ The queen was too ill to be present, but the music was subsequently performed in her private chapel, and she conferred upon the composer an annuity of 200l. For some months Handel was the guest of a Mr. Andrews, both in London and at his country house at Barn Elms, Surrey. For the remainder of this visit to England he stayed with the Earl of Burlington at his splendid house in Piccadilly. It is probable that the opera 'Silla' was written for some private performance at Burlington House (Chrysander, i. 414-15) . ”

“ One of the airs occurring both in 'Agrippina' and the oratorio appears also in Alessandro Scarlatti's 'Pyrrhus,' given in London in December of the same year (1708) ; but it seems certain that it was introduced into Scarlatti's opera by the influence of some English amateurs who had seen 'Agrippina' in Venice. For the Roman academy of Cardinal Ottoboni Handel wrote an oratorio to a libretto by Cardinal Panfili, 'II Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno,' which was subsequently transformed into the English oratorio, 'The Triumph of Time and Truth,' performed 1757. ”

“ The production never took place, and 'Alceste,' as the music was called, was incorporated in 'The Choice of Hercules,' a 'musical interlude,' performed four times during the next season, beginning on 1 March 1751. The composition of the last of his oratorios, 'Jephtha,' occupied him from January of this year until August ; the length of time is accounted for by the state of his health, which compelled him to go to Cheltenham for the waters. Handel was at the time threatened with blindness, and the effects of his malady are to be traced in the manuscript of the oratorio. ”

“ He visited Rome and Milan, and was at Venice on 11 March 1729. In Italy he procured less illustrious singers than those who had formerly sung for him, but in one of them, Signora Strada,he found a staunch and much needed friend. In June 1729 Handel went to his native town of Halle to see his mother, who had been seriously ill (she died 27 Dec. 1730) . An attempt made by Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann to bring Handel and Bach, who was at Leipzig, together at Halle failed owing to Bach's ill-health and Handel's business engagements. On leaving Halle Handel went to Hamburg and Hanover ”

“ Chrysander, a third is in the possession of Bevil Granville, esq., of Wellesbourne Hall, Warwickshire. An important collection of sketches in Handel's autograph, besides other complete works in his own and Smith's writing, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge ; the Earl of Aylesford has some autograph works, and the British Museum possesses the autographs of several of the concertos, the Dettingen anthem, one of the Chandos anthems, parts of 'Alcestis' and the water music, and an early Italian concerto. ”

“ One hundred and eighty numbers were published, when the undertaking came to an end. Arnold's edition is both incomplete and incorrect. In 1843 another attempt was made by the English Handel Society, but this was dissolved in 1848, though the publications were continued by Messrs. Cramer until 1855, by which time sixteen volumes had appeared. In 1856 the German Handel-Gesellschaft was formed, mainly owing to the exertions of Dr. Chrysander. The edition issued under his auspices, when complete, will consist of a hundred volumes (list in Grove, Dict. of Music, iv. 665-6) . ”

“ In the summer he returned to Hanover, and on 23 Nov. he stood godfather to his sister's child, Johanna Frederica Michaelsen, at Halle. Twelve of the 'chamber duets,' a group of nine German songs, and the six oboe concertos are assigned to the date of this journey; the songs may, however, have been written on a later visit to Hanover, and the concertos may, as is usually stated, have been composed at Canons. Towards the end of 1712 the composer obtained leave from the elector to visit England again, on the understanding that he should return within a reasonable time (ib. p. 85) . ”

“ In the private chapel at Belton House, Lincolnshire, there is a marble medallion portrait. Of the paintings and miniatures in existence the exact number is unknown ; the following is a list of those of which there is any record. 1 and 2. Life-size to waist, by Hudson, belonging to the Royal Society of Musicians, exhibited at South Kensington (Nos. 57, 58) in 1885. One of these is a poor replica. 3. Half-length, seated, by Hudson, at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Engraved by Bromley for Arnold's edition and also by Faber (1749) (Chaloner Smith's 'Catalogue,' No. 175) . ”