Handel
Your profile, built from Spotify + Wikipedia/Wikidata + your indexed library.
Born / died
Not indexed
Movement
Not indexed
Location
Not indexed
Friends / contemporaries
Not indexed
Most music lovers have encountered George Frederick Handel through holiday-time renditions of the Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus.Spotify
And many of them know and love that oratorio on Christ's life, death, and resurrection, as well as a few other greatest hits like the orchestral Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music, and perhaps bits of Judas Maccabeus or one of the other English oratorios. Yet his operas, for which he was widely known in his own time, are the province mainly of specialists in Baroque music, and the events of his life, even though they reflected some of the most important musical issues of the day, have never become as familiar as the careers of Bach or Mozart.Spotify
Perhaps the single word that best describes his life and music is "cosmopolitan": he was a German composer, trained in Italy, who spent most of his life in England. Handel was born in the German city of Halle on February 23, 1685. His father noted but did not nurture his musical talent, and he had to sneak a small keyboard instrument into his attic to practice.Spotify
As a child he studied music with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, organist at the Liebfrauenkirche, and for a time he seemed destined for a career as a church organist himself. After studying law briefly at the University of Halle, Handel began serving as organist on March 13, 1702, at the Domkirche there. Dissatisfied, he took a post as violinist in the Hamburg opera orchestra in 1703, and his frustration with musically provincial northern Germany was perhaps shown when he fought a duel the following year with the composer Mattheson over the accompaniment to one of Mattheson's operas.Spotify
In 1706 Handel took off for Italy, then the font of operatic innovation, and mastered contemporary trends in Italian opera seria. He returned to Germany to become court composer in Hannover, whose rulers were linked by family ties with the British throne; his patron there, the Elector of Hannover, became King George I of England. English audiences took to his 1711 opera Rinaldo, and several years later Handel jumped at the chance to move to England permanently.Spotify
He impressed King George early on with the Water Music of 1716, written as entertainment for a royal boat outing. Much of his keyboard music, including the suite with the famous melody "The Harmonious Blacksmith" dates from just before his going to Italy and his first decade in England. For 18 months, between 1717 and 1719, Handel was house composer to the Duke of Chandos, for whom he composed the 11 Chandos Anthems for chorus and string orchestra.Spotify
He also founded the Royal Academy of Music, a new opera company in London, with the support of the Duke and other patrons. Through the 1720s Handel composed Italian operatic masterpieces for London stages: Ottone, Serse (Xerxes), and other works often based on classical stories. His popularity was dented, though, by new English-language works of a less formal character, and in the 1730s and 1740s, after the Academy failed, Handel turned to the oratorio, a grand form that attracted England's new middle-class audiences.Spotify
Not only Messiah but also Israel in Egypt, Samson, Saul, and many other works established him as a venerated elder of English music. The oratorios displayed to maximum effect Handel's melodic gift and the sense of timing he brought to big choral numbers. Among the most popular of all the oratorios was Judas Maccabeus, composed in 32 days in 1746.Spotify
His Concerti grossi, Op. 6, and organ concertos also appeared in the same period. In 1737, Handel suffered a stroke, which caused both temporary paralysis in his right arm and some loss of his mental faculties, but he recovered sufficiently to carry on most normal activity.Spotify
He was urged to write an autobiography, but never did. Blind in old age, he continued to compose. He died in London on April 14, 1759.Spotify
More than 3,000 mourners were present for the funeral of the famous composer. He was buried at Westminster Abbey and received full state honors. Beethoven thought Handel the greatest of all his predecessors; he once said, "I would bare my head and kneel at his grave."Spotify
~ TiVo Staff
role: composer · 90%
Study resources & scores
Curated study material and indexed score links related to Handel.
No related study resources yet. As more lectures, transcripts, and scores are indexed, they will show up here.
Local matches
Matches your current indexed library (videos table). This will be sparse until connectors run.
France Musique · published 2026-05-29
Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 par Emmanuelle Haim
2026Handel
FreeFull concert
France Musique · published 2026-05-14
Handel: Theodora - Millenium Orchestra, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo García-Alarcón
2026Handel
FreeFull concert
Play videoARTE Concert · published 2026-01-20 · 2h 21m
Handel's Messiah - Lausanne Cathedral 2025 - ARTE Concert
20252h 21m
FreeFull concertLong
Play videoYouTube · published 2025-11-15 · 46m
Une fete Baroque Le Concert d'Astree - Jean-Philippe Rameau, George Friedrich Handel, Henry Purcell
202546m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 2m
Robert Wilson’s Der Messias: A Staging of Handel’s Messiah (excerpt) | Carnegie Hall+
Free
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 2m
Sing Along to Handel’s Messiah at Český Krumlov Castle
20252m
Free
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 22m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2023: Karen Mathilde Heier Hovd sings from Handel’s “Hercules”
202322m
FreeLong
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 28m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2023: Agustin Pennino sings from Handel’s “Alcina”
202328m
FreeLong
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 35m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2023: Karen Mathilde Heier Hovd sings from Handel’s “Alcina”
202335m
FreeLong
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 26m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2023: Travon D. Walker sings from Handel’s “Ariodante”
202326m
FreeLong
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 33m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2023: Agustin Pennino sings from Handel’s “Alcina”
202333m
FreeLong
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2025-05-16 · 3m
Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt at the Theater an der Wien | Carnegie Hall+
20253m
Free
Play videoYouTube · published 2025-02-11 · 1h 10m
Baroque concert with countertenor Jakub Józef Orlinski | Pieces by Handel, Cavalli, Boretti & others
20251h 10m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoYouTube · published 2025-02-11 · 1h 27m
Dmitri Alexeev - recital in Cedars Hall Wells - Handel, Brahms, Medtner, Wagner, Liszt, Chopin
20251h 27m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2024-05-11 · 2m
Handel’s Messiah at Český Krumlov Castle | Carnegie Hall+
20242m
Free
Play videoCarnegie Hall · published 2024-04-13 · 28m
Joyce DiDonato Master Classes 2022: Handel’s “Pena tiranna” from “Amadigi di Gaula”
202228m
FreeLong
Play videoYouTube · published 2024-02-12 · 2h 32m
Handel's Messiah (A complete performance by Royal Melbourne Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Wailes)
20242h 32m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoYouTube · published 2023-03-14 · 1h 42m
Handel Celebration Concert | The English Concert, Händelfestspielorchester Halle, Howard Arman
20231h 42m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoSt. Peter Live Zurich · published 2022-09-30
Vortragsreihe | «Umdenken und neu handeln in Bezug auf LGBT-Inklusion in der Kirche» vom 06.09.2022 mit Prof. Dr. David P. Gushee | Moderation: Pfrn. Priscilla Schwendimann und Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dietz
2022
FreeFull concertLive
Play videoBerlin Philharmonic · published 2022-05-18 · 2m
Handel: Harp Concerto in B flat major / Langlamet - Berliner Philharmoniker
Free
Play videoYouTube · published 2021-02-12 · 1h 35m
Handel: Messiah | Voces8 and Academy of Ancient Music [Full Concert]
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoBerlin Philharmonic · published 2020-05-18 · 3m
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks / Haïm - Berliner Philharmoniker
Free
Play videoYouTube · published 2018-05-31 · 58m
Joep Beving Live@ "Motel Mozaique 2018" (Groot Handels Gebouw in Rotterdam).
201858m
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoYouTube · published 2015-03-16 · 2h 17m
G. F. Handel: Messiah HWV 56 (fantastic performance)
FreeFull concertLongLive
Play videoBerlin Philharmonic · published 2012-05-20 · 2m
Handel: Water Music / Haïm · Berliner Philharmoniker
Free
Play videoYouTube
La Nuova Musica | Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno - Live from Wigmore Hall
Tempo
FreeLive
Saved playlist songs
Tracks from your saved Spotify playlist that are attributable to Handel.
No Spotify playlist is seeded yet.
No attributable tracks for this person in your saved playlist songs yet.