[MUSIC] What a contrast between Bach and Handel. The two formal portraits in this opening slide tells us much. Bach is dressed modestly, holding a contrapuntal canon, smallish sized, something that only the musicians, who played it could appreciate. Handel, on the other hand, is dressed in the finery of a wealthy man. Looking confident and holding a large score of Messiah, the grand public piece intended to be heard by the masses. [MUSIC] As we saw at the end of our last session, when Bach died in 1750 his music languished in obscurity,. After Handel's death on the other hand, Handel's reputation only grew in renown. He became postmortem the most famous composer in the west. Bach worked in church choir lofts in small to mid sized German towns. Handel worked in large theaters, in the largest and most prosperous city in the western world, London. And generally speaking, Bach sought integrity, even perfection, in the internal workings of his music. He often wrote on his music scores, AMGD, ad maiorem gloriam Dei, to the greater glory of God. Handel on the other hand seems to have been more concerned about those on this earth. He seemed to have composed to achieve the greatest effect with the greatest number of citizens of the day. And that, he accomplished. Let's begin with this same map with which we started our discussion of Bach, that of eighteenth century Germany. Let's go to Leipzig where Bach resided and only forty miles to the north to where is and where Bach resided for six years before coming to Leipzig. And in between them, then, as now, is Halle. Here, Handel was born in 1685, the same year as Bach. Handel's father was a barber surgeon. In effect, a medical man, who first prevented his talented son from studying music. But then relented, providing him with music teachers on the organ, violin, and in music theory, music composition. At the age of 18, Handel moved on his financial own to the port city of Hamburg. Here we see Hamburg in the 18th century, a thriving, waterfront city on the North Sea. Handel was employed here as a second violinist in the orchestra of the Hamburg opera. But knowing then that Italy was the center of opera and all things musical generally, Handel began a four year long tour of Italy moving to Florence and then to Rome where he spent most of his time and ultimately, to a few months to Venice where he embraced Italian opera, but most of the time as we've said Handel was in Rome. Here we see one of the palaces at which he was sometimes employed. It was the palaces of the noblemen, and of the princes of the church, mostly cardinals. And they sponsored weekly concerts of sacred operas and sacred cantatas. On the screen is one of the more important of the Roman palaces, the palace of the Cancellaria, run by the Ottoboni family, and that palace is still very much in downtown Rome today, and this was where one of Handel's largest religious works, the Resurrection was performed in 1708. Ultimately having assimilated the Italian vocal style, Handel made his way to Venice, where he produced an opera. And where somewhat by accident, he met representatives of the court of the Elector of Hanover, based back in Germany. And Handel was offered a job there. And he accepted. So now at age 25, having made the grand tour of Italy, Hendell was back in Germany but he did it then, a cheeky thing. He immediately asked for a leave of absence to visit London and off he goes. London, with a population of more than 500,000 in the early 18th century, was the largest city in Europe, a growing center of commerce and trade and hence of wealth. As Handel's German friend, and they were good friends, Johan Matheson famously said, in France and Italy there is something to learn, but in London, there is something to earn. Handel intended to earn by importing Italian opera to London, just as fashionistas import Ferragamo shoes or Prada handbags to London or to New York today. So Handel went to London in 1710 to sell opera. But before we delve into that, let's pause for a moment and see how it came to be that Handel's master back in Germany, the Elector of Hanover, caught up with Handel in London. It makes for an interesting story.
