George Frideric Handel (originally Georg Friedrich Händel), middle-class son of a successful barber-surgeon, was born on 23rd February, 1685, in Halle (in Saxony), less than one month before and eighty miles away from Johann Sebastian Bach. Remarkably, the two never met. Whereas Bach was to stay in his own country, Handel’s career was international, taking him to and from Germany, Italy and England before he finally settled in London. The scope and extent of his achievements are remarkable. He composed over forty Italian operas; over twenty English oratorios and dramas; numerous concertos; an enormous range of church music; over one hundred cantatas; a mass of orchestral and chamber music; and hundreds of sonatas and airs. A brutally selective list of masterpieces would have to…
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Citation: Alsop, Derek . "George Frideric Handel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1969, accessed 21 November 2024.]
