542 



HANDEL 



obliged to compound with his creditors, and give 

 bills for a large amount. No wonder that the 

 health of even his massive frame broke down ; 

 paralysis disabled his right arm, and his mind was 

 for a time seriously disordered. A visit to Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, and the strongest remedies there, how- 

 ever, restored him, and by November 7 he was back 

 in London. This ended his career as composer- 

 manager. 



Handel's opera days were now over. True, he 

 wrote a few more for his old partner Heidegger 

 Faramondo, Serse, Imeneo, and Deidamia ; but 

 henceforward he was to tread a nobler path, that 

 of the English oratorio, which has rendered him 

 immortal. Esther had been composed before 1720, 

 Deborah and Athalia in 1733, Alexander's Feast in 

 1736, in the very thick of his opera squabbles. Then 

 came the funeral anthem for his friend Queen Caro- 

 line, 'The ways of Zion ' (1737), itself almost an 

 oratorio, and containing some of his noblest music. 

 Saul was produced early in 1739 ; Israel in Egypt 

 followed in three months ; then the Ode for St 

 Cecilia's Day, November 1739, and L 1 Allegro, Feb- 

 ruary 1740. The Messiah, finished September 14, 

 1741, was produced in Dublin, April 13, 1742. He 

 returned to London shortly after, and produced 

 Samson (which he had begun before leaving for 

 Dublin ), as the leading work in an oratorio season 

 of twelve nights, in the course of which the Messiah 

 was first given in London. The new style told, and 

 he enjoyed a short time of prosperity. In 1743 he 

 had a return of paralysis, and in 1751 we find him 

 at Cheltenham drinking its waters. But nothing 

 interferes with his activity. From 1744 to 1750 

 oratorio follows oratorio, like huge rocks thrown 

 forth from a crater. The Dettingen Te Deum and 

 an anthem, ' The King shall rejoice,' in com- 

 memoration of the great victory, were followed 

 by Joseph, Semele, Belshazzar, Hercules, The Occa- 

 sional Oratorio, Judas Maccabceus, Alexander 

 Balus, Joshua, Solomon, Susanna, and Theodora. 

 Of these Judas, written as a hymn of triumph on 

 the campaign of Culloden, has always been the 

 most popular. 



Handel's music had now taken wider possession 

 than ever of the public, and had penetrated to a 

 lower stratum. At the Lenten ' Oratorios ' nothing 

 else was done. There, too, were his great organ 

 performances, which were very popular. He was 

 probably not a great pedalist, but the spirit and 

 fire of his playing must have been immense. He 

 has left eighteen organ concertos to testify to it. 

 He composed for all occasions. The Anthem for 

 the Peace and the Fireworks Music for the public 

 fetes after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle were both 

 his. The Foundling Hospital acquired much 

 wealth through his music, and he himself made 

 money, so that at his death he had the large 

 sum of 20,000 in the funds. Of this 1000 was 

 left to the Royal Society of Musicians. 



In the summer of 1750 he went abroad, and 

 again missed Bach, who died July 28. After his 

 return he wrote Jephthah, his last oratorio. His 

 eyes had for some time troubled him, and in May 

 1752 he was couched, but with no success. Hence- 

 forward, with some slight glimmering, he was 

 virtually blind ; but with the help of his old pupil, 

 John Christopher Smith, he continued his Lenten 

 oratorio-concerts to the end. His last note was 

 probably a pencil quaver, inserted in a quintet in 

 Jephthah. He died in his house (now No. 25) in 

 Brook Street, Bond Street, at 8 A.M., Easter Eve, 

 April 14, 1759, aged seventy-four, and was buried 

 in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, 8 P.M., 

 April 20. At this time Haydn was twenty-seven, 

 and Mozart three. 



There is something expressly English in Handel's 

 characteristics. His size, his hearty appetite, his 



vast productiveness, his domineering temper, hi 

 humour, his power of business, are all our own. So 

 was his eye to the main chance. When a friend 

 picked out the best pieces in one of his oratorios, 

 he said, ' True, they are the best ; but you have for- 

 gotten the pieces that are to make the money.' 

 In fact he pre-eminently belongs to England. The 

 practical sense of his music, and its close alliance 

 with the Bible, joined to its lofty imaginativeness, 

 suit the English public. Its sacred character and 

 its independence of the theatre also fall in with 

 our Puritan spirit. Abroad he is little known, 

 and that mostly as a curiosity. But to the great 

 English public he is even still their meat and 

 drink. And yet on how slender a thread does 

 the connection hang ! But for the oratorios of 

 the Messiah and Israel in Egypt Handel's name 

 could hardly have been what it is to us. His 

 operas scarcely lasted beyond their original produc- 

 tion. When Giulio Cesare was revived in 1787 ( the 

 year in which Don Giovanni was brought out in 

 Vienna), it had to be enriched by the most favourite 

 songs from the others, to make it go down. The 

 Messiah, however, took the English people from 

 the first, and has gone on being performed more 

 and more till now. It must have been heard 

 oftener than any play of Shakespeare's. The 

 revival of Israel followed in our own times, 

 though its fame is still incomplete. It is no 

 exaggeration to say that these two works have 

 made Handel's name immortal. In them he 

 fortunately forgot that the house had to be 

 filled ; nothing is ad captandum all is pure 

 music. But for the light reflected from tnem 

 few of his works would have remained to the 

 present day. The bright light cast from these two 

 masterpieces illumines a number of compositions 

 which otherwise would have forever remained in 

 the dark. More than this, there can be no doubt 

 that the enormous spread of music since his day has 

 been very largely due to the popularity or the 

 Messiah. Cheap editions of that noble work have 

 always led the van. 



It is unnecessary to describe the characteristics 

 of his compositions, because every Briton knows 

 them, or can know them. His plagiarism must be 

 mentioned, though there is no room to deal with 

 both sides of the subject. His habit of using 

 almost of preferring ideas from strangers or from 

 his own earlier works is most remarkable. Perhaps 

 this was his own practical way ; the work had to 

 be done in the time, and he trusted in himself that 

 all would be right. Perhaps, too, the habit came 

 from a deeper source than mere economy. When 

 writing the Hallelujah Chorus, he looked up like 

 Isaiah in the Temple, and had the same vision. ' I 

 did see,' said he, 'all heaven open before me, and 

 the Great God Himself.' This was the spirit in 

 which he composed ; and to one so near the fount 

 of inspiration themes or passages will always be 

 subordinate to the general result, which in Handel's 

 case is pure gold. Sometimes he takes movements 

 bodily ('Egypt was glad'), but he oftener adopts 

 fragments or subjects. His power of transforma- 

 tion is extraordinary. He will take an ordinary 

 theme from some trivial work, and transmute it 

 into an absolutely immortal monument ( ' Hail- 

 stone chorus'). On the other hand his very 

 greatest works are absolutely his own ('Halle- 

 lujah;' 'The people shall hear/ &c. ). And the 

 remarkable thing is that with all this business- 

 like procedure the effect is so high, characteristic, 

 and appropriate. Beethoven's judgment on him 

 was perfectly sound : ' Handel is the unapproach- 

 able master of all masters ; go to him and learn to 

 produce great effects with little means.' 



Handel's powers of work were enormous. He 

 rarely sketched his pieces, but began the score 



