Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/293

 tion imposed upon Handel by the terms of his appointment as organist, he threw up the post and started off' for Hamburg, then the most important musical centre in Germany, where he arrived between 5 April and 5 June 1703. On his arrival he was given a place among the supplementary ('ripieno') second violins in the opera orchestra. At first he affected complete ignorance of music. Mattheson, the first tenor in the company, soon (9 June or 9 July) made friends with Handel, discerning, as he tells us, what his powers really were (Ehrenpforte, p. 191, and Lebensbeschreibung, p. 22). On 17 Aug. of the same year they went together to Liibeck. to compete for the place of deputy and ultimate successor to Dietrich Buxtehude. As neither of the friends could comply with a certain condition of the appointment, viz. to marry Buxtehude's daughter, they returned to Hamburg, where, on Good Friday 1704, Handel produced a setting of the Passion from the.gospel of St. John, chap, xix., to words by Christian Postel. Eighteen years afterwards Mattheson devoted a large section of his 'Critica Musica' to an attack on this work, which gives little promise of the composer's ultimate attainments. Before October 1704 Handel succeeded Reinhard Keiser as conductor of the opera. Some ill-feeling arose at the time between the friends, apparently in connection with the tuition of the son of the English representative, Sir Cyril Wich, who was transferred from Handel's care to Mattheson's, on the ground that he did not make sufficient progress under the former. But on 20 Oct. Mattheson's opera 'Cleopatra' was first produced, and Handel in the earlier performances permitted Mattheson, who himself played the part of Antony, to take the director's place at the harpsichord in the latter part of the work, after the hero's suicide. At the performance of the work on 5 Dec. Handel, however, refused to allow Mattheson to take his customary seat as conductor of the end of the opera. Mattheson was indignant, and as Handel was leaving the theatre gave him a smart box on the ear. A duel followed, and was fought at once in front of the opera house. Mattheson's sword broke against a brass button on Handel's coat ; the quarrel was made up, and the combatants became better friends than before. On 30 Dec. they dined together, and attended in the evening a rehearsal of Handel's first opera, 'Almira,' which had been composed faster than the librettist, Feustking, could supply the words. It was produced on 8 Jan. 1705, and was performed without interruption until 25 Feb., when it was succeeded by 'Nero,' which was performed only three times. 'Almira' contains the saraband which was afterwards turned in 'Rinaldo' into the lovely air 'Lascia ch'io pianga.' The operas 'Florindo' and 'Daphne,' the second a sequel to the first, complete the list of Handel's works written for Hamburg. They seem to have been composed in the autumn of 1706, but not performed until 1708, when Handel was in Italy.

There is no doubt that the influence of the Prince of Tuscany, brother of the Grand Duke Giovanni Gaston de' Medici, had something to do with Handel's journey to Italy, though the composer preferred to wait until he could himself afford to pay for the journey, rather than accept the prince's generous offer of paying his expenses. By the end of 1706 he had saved two hundred ducats by giving lessons &c., and it is fairly certain that, after spending Christmas with his mother and sisters at Halle, he started for Italy about the beginning of 1707. (On the difficulties of reconciling the accounts of the contemporary biographers, see, i. 135-42, and , Life of Handel, pp. 443, 444.)

Handel visited Florence on his way to Rome, staying there perhaps three months. On 11 April he finished a Dixit Dominus for five voices with orchestra, the superscription of which is the most important piece of evidence as to the date of his reaching Rome. In the same document the spelling Hendel is adopted by the composer, and this orthography is considered to be characteristic of the Italian period. Two more settings of psalms date from the same visit to Rome, which lasted till July, when he returned to Florence. To the same period is assigned, by those who uphold Handel's perfect artistic integrity, the composition of the 'Magnificat,' which was afterwards used in 'Israel in Egypt,' but which is almost certainly proved to be the work of an Italian composer named Erba. (See below. The question is fully discussed in, i. 168-9, &c.) From July 1707 till January 1708 he was in Florence again, where his first Italian opera, 'Rodrigo,' was produced with great success, the grand duke rewarding him with a hundred sequins and a service of plate (, p. 50). The famous Vittoria Tesi, who sang the part of the hero, was so attracted by the composer that she followed him to Venice in order to take part in his next opera, 'Agrippina.' This was produced there early in 1708 at the Teatro di San Giovanni Grisostonio, and the audience, mad with enthusiasm, shouted repeatedly 'Viva il caro Sassone' (ib. p. 53;, i. 139). In March 1708 he went again to