o share a great respect for the educated musical world. George Frideric Handel is generally considered the second most important Baroque composer after Bach. Unlike Bach’s nearly complete focus on church music in Germany, Handel more openly embraced the French, Italian, and English secular music. Also unlike Bach, Handel did not come from a long line of musicians. When he was born on February 23, 1685, Handel’s family had no idea that he would rise to a legendary status in music. Handel’s father began to see his son’s desire to compose at an early age and violently objected. His mother was responsible for nurturing and continuing his musical education. At the age of seven, Handel was asked to give an organ recital for the Duke of Sachse-Weissenfels. The Duke was very impressed and awarded the family with a generous amount of money. This event persuaded his father to allow Handel to pursue his musical career. When his father died in1697, Handel was freed from his father’s will. He studied with numerous organists and gained minor fame. In 1703, he moved to Hamburg. There he met Telemann and began to have many of his works performed. He then traveled to Rome and numerous European capitals until he settled in England in 1714. He remained a world traveler his entire life which was a main contributing factor to his originality and probably was responsible for his well-known habit of “borrowing” music of other composers and taking credit for it. Handel focused most of his attention on opera and is still remembered mainly as an opera and oratorio composer. Before his death in 1759, Handel had achieved world fame and his oratorio Messiah is the single most performed choral work of all time. Although he was primarily considered an opera composer, Handel displayed great originality in the orchestral suite. This is especially apparent in his Water Music. This work, divided into three separ...
