23 February: George Frederic Handel

Composer George Frederic Handel was born on this date in 1685. During his lifetime, Handel composed about 30 oratorios and 50 operas. Here are some things you might not know about him.

1. He was born Georg Frideric Handel in Halle, Germany. He would Anglicise his name to George Frederic after he settled in London and became a British citizen.
2. Music was his passion ever since he was a young child, but his father disapproved of him even learning an instrument, wanting him to be a lawyer. Luckily, his mother helped him out by having a clavichord smuggled up into the attic, so he could go up there and play it when his father was out.
3. Despite his father's disapproval, by the time he was ten, Handel could play the organ, oboe and Violin and even had the opportunity to play the organ for the duke’s court in Weissenfels. Here, he met composer and organist Frideric Wilhelm Zachow, who would become his music teacher.
4. Handel started composing when he was eleven and wrote church cantatas and chamber music during his teenage years. However, these pieces were for small audiences and have been lost.
5. He followed his father's wishes at first and went to the University of Halle to study law, but soon dropped out to pursue a career in music. He joined Hamburg Opera’s Goose Market Theatre as a violinist and taught music to supplement his income.
6. He wrote his first Opera, Almira, in 1705. It was a success, after which Handel moved to Italy in 1706. He wrote more operas there, and while in Venice began hearing about the opera scene in London. Deciding he wanted a piece of that, he moved to London in 1710. He was commissioned that same year to write Rinaldo, the opera which would make him famous.
7. He became Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the first Italian opera company in London, and later left to form his own company, the New Royal Academy of Music. He produced a couple of operas a year for 10 years, but by then, Italian opera was falling out of fashion. That was when he switched to writing oratorios. Oratorios were cheaper to produce as they didn't need costumes or sets, and they were popular with London audiences. His most famous oratorio, The Messiah, was written in 1741 when Dublin’s Lord Lieutenant commissioned him to write a new oratorio based on a biblical libretto by art patron Charles Jennens. During this time, he also composed orchestral works such as Water Music, Coronation Anthems and Music for Royal Fireworks.
8. In his later life, Handel was plagued by health problems. He had two strokes and lost movement in his right hand. People thought his career was over, but after a six week convalescence in France, he was back, not only composing but playing the organ as well. By 1750, he'd lost the Sight in one eye, but still he never stopped working. Two years later, he was completely blind, but carried on working as much as he could, relying on memory. Samson and Jephtha, two of his final works, both contained references to losing sight.
9. He died on April 14, 1759 in Brook Street, Mayfair at the age of 74. He'd never married or had children, so left his estate to his servants and charities, including the Foundling Hospital, and had made provision to pay for his own funeral. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The house in which he lived and died is now a museum dedicated to him.
10. He was a large, gentle man with a good sense of humour, and earned the nickname "The Great Bear". However, he had a temper when roused. He once grabbed a famous soprano by the waist and threatened to throw her out of a window when she refused to sing a particular aria.

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