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(1685 - 1759)
A naturalized English composer of
German origin, Haendel was adept at
drawing on all the influences of his
time for the types of repertoire he
worked in. As a result, he would
mark the end of the Baroque era
with his own unique musical style.
Haendel composed more than forty
opera seria in the Italian style,
twenty-two oratorios, two passions
and various instrumental works. His
elegant music was also powerfully
dramatic, less rigorous than the
contemporary Bach's, and was wellknown throughout all of Europe.
Georg Friedrich Haendel was born on the 23rd of
February, 1685 in Halle, Germany. He was the secondborn child of a barber-surgeon and the young daughter
of a minister. His father did not intend him to pursue
music as a career, but saw to it that he received training
on the organ and harpsichord because his talents were
so obvious. As a result, Handel was placed under the
tutelage of the most celebrated organist of his city,
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau.
In 1702, after proving his talent for composition by
completing a few sonatas, he was engaged as the
organist for the cathedral at Halle. At the same time, he
enrolled at the university in order to study law. It was
here that he encountered Telemann. But the discovery
of opera drew him away from his career as a church
musician. Motivated by an ambition to work in this
genre, Handel, Handel left Halle in 1704 to move to
Hamburg, one of the great musical capitals of Europe
and a place where the operatic genre dominated. At the
opera, he worked as a second violin player, and later as
a harpsichordist. He composed his first two operas at
this time, including Almira, which afforded him some
relative success. Later in 1706, he undertook a journey
to Italy, from Florence to Rome, where encountered the
works of Domenico Scarlatti as well as opera seria. he
wrote several oratorios including The Resurrection
(1708) and Il triomfo del tempo that was later
conducted by Arcangelo Corelli.
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.
In 1712, Haendel returned temporarily to Hanover and
then left the city permanently for London where his
Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, in the tradition of Purcell,
were performed at Saint Paul's Cathedral during the
following year. In 1714, the Elector of Hanover succeeded
to the British throne as George the First of England, an
incident that coincided with the doubling of Haendel's
stipend. The composer later wrote the music for a
nautical party hosted by the king, a group of works that
we now refer to simply as Water Music (1717). Under the
patronage of the Duke of Chandos between 1717 and
1720, Haendel also composed several harpsichord suites,
a collection of psalm settings called the Chandos
Anthems, the sacred oratorio Esther (1718), the secular
oratorio Acis and Galatea (1718) and grand motets for
choir,
soli
and
orchestra
(1717-20).
In 1719, Haendel became the Director of the Royal
Academy of Music and devoted much of his attention at
this time to recruiting musicians. In the following year,
the Academy opened its doors, and enjoyed considerable
success. However, financial problems began to emerge
fairly quickly and the Academy eventually crumbled in
bankruptcy in 1728. But during this period, Haendel wrote
some of his most important operas, Radamisto (1720),
Julius Cesar (1724), Tamerlano (1724), and Rodelinda
(1725). He also complete the four Coronation Anthems
for the coronation of George the Second in 1727.
In 1728, the year in which he became a naturalized
English citizen, Haendel put together his own theatrical
company. But problems of competition and rivalry lead
him once again into financial straits and he was obliged to
give up the company in 1734. In addition, an attack of
paralysis suffered in 1736 prevented him from further
forays into the business of operatic production even
though he had already recruited a new troupe. He left
England to recover in the more temperate climes of Aixla-Chapelle. During this period, from 1728 to 1740,
Haendel composed between one and two Italian operas
per year, and oratorios including Deborah (1733), Athalia
(1733) and Saul (1739). He also completed works for the
concert stage, such as the Solo Concertos (1736), the
twelve Concerti grossi (1739), and the Ode to Saint
Cecilia (1739)
After 1741 and his fortieth and final opera Deidamia,
Haendel turned entirely towards English oratorio and in
the space of twenty-four days produced Messiah, a work
that conquered its Dublin audience of 1742 no less than
its London counterpart of the following year. Until 1751,
Haendel turned out about twenty oratorios including
Samson (1743) and Solomon (1749), but he also wrote
six organ concerti as well as the Dettingen Te Deum and
the Fireworks Music as part of the celebrations for the
victory of George the Second in France and the peace of
Aix la Chapelle respectively.
In 1750, Haendel's health was further compromised by a
carriage accident. In the following year, he underwent a
failed cataract operation and he suffered progressive
blindness as a result. Nonetheless, he continued to
perform as an organ improviser and to conduct from
memory. In 1759, he slipped into unconsciousness during
a performance of Messiah and died shortly afterwards on
April 14th in London.
Haendel was one of the first figures of music history to
have his biography (1760), as well as his entire works
published. His operas and oratorios were written for an
enlightened bourgeois society. His dramatic oratorios,
which he created by drawing on the traditions of opera,
served as models for composers of the Classic and
Romantic eras (of Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn),
while his operas languished in obscurity until their
revivals during the twentieth century, an era in which he
would be most well-known for the Water Music and
Messiah.
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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on the 27th of
January, 1756 in Salzburg (Austria). His father, Leopold
Mozart was a well-known and highly regarded musician and
took his son's musical education upon him from an early
age. Between 1762 and 1769, Leopold put his son on
display for the courts of Europe--audiences that were quick
to recognize his virtuoso talent at the harpsichord, organ,
and violin. At this time, Mozart wrote his first works: a
minuet (1762), a sonata for harpsichord and violin (1763),
a symphony (1764), an opera buffa La Finta Semplice
(1768) and the Singspiel Bastien et Bastienne (1769).
.
.
After 1786, Mozart collaborated with
the celebrated librettist Lorenzo Da
Ponte and experience rather qualified
successes, mainly in Prague (but still
somewhat in Vienna) with the opera
The Marriage of Figaro (1786), the
Symphony no. 38 in D major,
"Prague" (1787), the opera Don
Giovanni (1787) and the opera Cosi
fan tutte (1790).
who had come to study in Vienna. During this period and in
spite of numerous successes, Mozart experienced continual
financial difficulties and was literally crushed by his work
load.
In 1791, the last year of his life, Mozart wrote a number of
masterworks: the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (K.
595), the String Quintet in B-flat Major, the opera La
Clemenza di Tito. While working at a furious pace on The
Magic Flute, a new Singspiel on a magical theme which
would enjoy great success, Mozart received a commission
for a requiem mass. He attacked the work but his general
state of health was rapidly deteriorating. He became
depressed and persuaded of a plot to poison him. Deprived
of all physical energy, he dictated the Requiem to his
student Sssmayer but would not have time to complete
the work before his death on the 5th of December, 1791 of
renal failure. After a pauper's funeral, his few faithful
admirers could not find the courage to confront the rain
and storm to witness his burial in the common grave of the
Saint
Marx
cemetery.
This was the death of a genius, a master of every genre
who became the chief representative of the "Classic" period
of music history.
.
.
CHOPIN Frdric
(1810 - 1849)
This Polish composer and
pianist, "poet of the piano"
exuding
originality
and
refinement of style, is the
archetype of the Romantic
composer. He wrote mainly
for the piano and produced
his best works in both
Romantic genres (Nocturnes,
Impromptus, Ballades, etc.)
and
traditional
forms,
infused with new life.
BRAHMS Johannes
(1833 - 1897)
A composer and pianist of German
descent,
Brahms
combined
Romantic inspiration with classical
tradition, the latter aesthetic having
been shunned by the majority of
composers since Beethoven. Little
inclined to gratuitous use of novel
effects in terms of harmony and
orchestration, he championed a
type of music that ran counter to
the artistic current of his time. His
profoundly personal compositional
output makes him one of the most
significant
composers
of
the
nineteenth century.
Johannes Brahms was born into a modest family on the 7th of
May 1833 in Hamburg. His father, bassist, introduced him to
music and specifically the violin and cello. Instinctively attracted
to the piano, young Brahms began to study the instrument with
Otto Cossel, and appeared in public for the first time at the age
of ten. At the same time, music professor Eduard Marxen
initiated him to the world of composition, including the
technique of classical counterpoint. Brahms responded with the
composition of his first two piano sonatas. As early as the age of
thirteen, he began to earn a living playing in local orchestras,
which eased the families pecuniary burdens, all the while
pursuing his musical training.
Songs
dn (1873) for
a
work
that
(1896).
orchestra,
predates h
is immanent mastery of
inked with the historical
classical tradiagneriase.