Handel composed what types of music

During the first performance it rained, most of the fireworks refused to light, and the few that did light caused the staging to catch fire.

Israel In Egypt Israel In Egypt , an English language oratorio, is composed entirely of selected passages from the Old Testament, mainly from Exodus and the Psalms, and tells of the Israelites suffering in, and deliverance from, Egypt. The opera is one of the most often performed Baroque operas and one of the best Handel works. This gripping opera is about a sorceress who has spellbound countless men into loving her until the urn that holds her magical gifts is finally smashed and her power destroyed.

Organ Concertos The six Organ Concertos for chamber organ and orchestra were composed by Handel between and They were written as interludes inbetween performances of his oratorios and were the first works of their kind for this combination of instruments and served as a model for later composers. He produced several operas with the Royal Academy of Music that, while well-liked, were not especially lucrative for the struggling academy. In , Handel decided to make London his home permanently and became a British citizen.

He also Anglicized his name at this time, to George Frideric. Under the New Royal Academy of Music, Handel produced two operas a year for the next decade, but Italian opera fell increasingly out of style in London. Handel composed two more Italian operas before finally deciding to abandon the failing genre. Oratorios, large-scale concert pieces, immediately caught on with audiences and proved quite lucrative. Handel revised a number of Italian operas to fit this new format, translating them into English for the London audience.

His oratorios became the latest craze in London and were soon made a regular feature of the opera season. In , during Lent alone, Handel produced more than 14 concerts made up primarily of oratorios. Back in London, Handel organized a subscription season for that consisted exclusively of oratorios.

Handel continued to compose a long string of oratorios throughout the remainder of his life and career. Over the course of his musical career, Handel, exhausted by stress, endured a number of potentially debilitating problems with his physical health. He is also believed to have suffered from anxiety and depression. Yet somehow, Handel, who was known to laugh in the face of adversity, remained virtually undeterred in his determination to keep making music.

In the spring of , Handel suffered a stroke that impaired the movement of his right hand. His fans worried that he would never compose again. But after only six weeks of recuperation in Aix-la-Chapelle, Handel was fully recovered.

He went back to London and not only returned to composing, but made a comeback at playing the organ as well. Six years later, Handel suffered a second springtime stroke.

Handel, a cosmopolitan figure who was German by birth but who became a naturalised British citizen in , is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of his age. Though he wrote in all the available vocal and instrumental genres, Handel made his reputation and fortune by composing opera to Italian librettos, principally for the London stage. While his reputation from his death until the early twentieth century rested on a small number of orchestral works Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks and choral works the coronation anthem Zadok the Priest and, most of all, Messiah , today, following the modern revival of his extensive operatic output, his full stature as a dramatic composer of the front rank can be appreciated.

After two commercially successful English oratorios Esther and Deborah , he was able to invest again in the South Sea Company.

Handel reworked his Acis and Galatea which then became his most successful work ever. Handel failed to compete with theOpera of the Nobility, who engaged musicians such as Johann Adolph Hasse, Nicolo Porpora and the famous castrato Farinelli. The strong support by Frederick, Prince of Wales caused conflicts in the royal family. The board of chief investors expected Handel to retire when his contract ended, but Handel immediately looked for another theatre.

Rich was renowned for his spectacular productions. In he introduced organ concertos between the acts. For the first time Handel allowed Gioacchino Conti, who had no time to learn his part, to substitute arias.

Financially, Ariodante was a failure, although he introduced ballet suites at the end of each act. In April , at age 52, Handel apparently suffered a stroke which disabled the use of four fingers on his right hand, preventing him from performing. In summer the disorder seemed at times to affect his understanding.

Nobody expected that Handel would ever be able to perform again. But whether the affliction was rheumatism, a stroke or a nervous breakdown, he recovered remarkably quickly. To aid his recovery, Handel had travelled to Aachen, a spa in Germany.

During six weeks he took long hot baths, and ended up playing the organ for a surprised audience. Deidamia , his last opera, was performed three times in Handel gave up the opera business, while he enjoyed more success with his English oratorios. The circumstances of Esther and its first performance, possibly in , are obscure. Another 12 years had passed when an act of piracy caused him to take up Esther once again.

Three earlier performances aroused such interest that they naturally prompted the idea of introducing it to a larger public. In these three oratorios Handel laid foundation for the traditional use of the chorus which marks his later oratorios.

Handel became sure of himself, broader in his presentation, and more diverse in his composition. It is evident how much he learned from Arcangelo Corelli about writing for instruments, and from Alessandro Scarlatti about writing for the solo voice; but there is no single composer who taught him how to write for chorus.

Handel tended more and more to replace Italian soloists by English ones. The most significant reason for this change was the dwindling financial returns from his operas. Thus a tradition was created for oratorios which was to govern their future performance. The performances were given without costumes and action; the singers appeared in their own clothes.

The piece was a great success and it encouraged Handel to make the transition from writing Italian operas to English choral works. Saul and Israel in Egypt both from head the list of great, mature oratorios, in which the da capo aria became the exception and not the rule.

Israel in Egypt consists of little else but choruses, borrowing from the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. In his next works Handel changed his course. In these works he laid greater stress on the effects of orchestra and soloists; the chorus retired into the background. During the summer of , The 3rd Duke of Devonshire invited Handel to Dublin, capital of the Kingdom of Ireland, to give concerts for the benefit of local hospitals. Handel secured a balance between soloists and chorus which he never surpassed.