George_Friederich_Handel

George Friederich Handel George Friederich Handel was born in Halle, Germany, on February 23, 1685. His father intended him to be a lawyer, and Handel indeed enrolled at the University of Halle as a law student. Luckily, however, he also had been studying with the Halle cathedral organist Wilhelm Zachow, and eventually left Halle in 1703 to begin his musical career in Hamburg as a violinist and harpsichordist. He subsequently traveled to Italy, where he began presenting his operas and cantatas. He then spent a short time in Hanover as Kappelmeister at the court before permanently moving to London in 1712. He continued to write operas, church music, and music for the court. In 1719, King George I appointed Handel "Master of Arts." In 1723, he was appointed a composer to the Chapel Royal, and in 1727 he became a naturalized British citizen. Handel turned his attention to oratorios during a period when operas were becoming less popular. In 1741 Handel received a request for a new work to benefit three Dublin charities. At the time, he had recently suffered a stroke and had bad health, so was his financial condition. During the summer of 1741, Handel was staying at the 1,000-acre Gopsall estate handel, performances, messiah, through, last, handel's, halle, three, part, operas, london, continued, began, work, time, resurrection, popularity, one, new, music, jennens, gopsall, george, frasi, estate, during, court, conducted, christ, chorus, charles, benefit, been, beard, appointed, 1759, 1741, zachow, wrote, written, writing, writer, write, worthy, world, work's, within, wilhelm, whose, weeks, wass