Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/450

 436 HAND HAND, a S. E. county of Dakota, recently formed, and not contained in the census of 1870 ; area, about 1,000 sq. m. It is watered by affluents of the Missouri and of the Dakota or James river. The N. W. portion is occupied by the "Plateau du Coteau du Missouri." HANDEL, or HSndel, Georg Friedrich, a Ger- man composer, born in Halle, Feb. 23, 1685, died in London, April 13, 1759. His father was the chamberlain and surgeon of a Saxon prince and also of the elector of Brandenburg, and was 63 years old when the boy was born. His predilection for music was so strong that his father, who wished him to become a lawyer, thought it necessary to lay his interdict upon the study of the art. In his necessity the boy was fain to practise organ music by night upon one of the small clavichords of that period. About 1693 the father was called to Weissenfels by the duke upon business, and the child, then eight or nine years old, was taken with him. A grandson of the elder Handel held at the time some post in the family of the duke, by whom the talents of young Han- del were made known to the members of the musical chapel. Upon a Sunday he was taken into the organ loft, and at the close of the service was placed in the organist's seat to play the voluntary. The duke remained to hear him play, and afterward asked who the child was. "Little Handel from Halle, my grand- father's youngest son," was the reply. The duke's views of music and musicians, and his arguments in their favor, were such as to abate the father's prejudices, and on returning to Halle music was added to the other studies of the child. The teacher chosen was Friedrich Wilhehn Zachau, the first organist and instruc- tor in Halle, a thorough master of the old Saxon school. While pursuing the usual school studies then required of boys intended for the gymnasium and the university, he was kept by Zachau upon contrapuntal and fugal exercises, to steady practice upon the organ and harpsi- chord, and gradually brought to a familiar prac- tical knowledge of the then principal instru- ments of the orchestra, the string quartet, the flute, and the oboe. To develop his feeling for musical form, he copied specimens of the style of the principal masters of his time, particu- larly of the old organists. At least as early as 1696, when the boy was 11 years old, a friend of the father took him to Berlin and pre- sented him to the elector, afterward Frederick I. of Prussia, who was so much struck by his talents as to offer to take charge of his educa- tion and send him to Italy ; a favor, however, wisely declined by his father. During his stay in Berlin the young musician had opportunity of hearing other and far higher music than be- fore, the brothers Bononcini and the composer Attilio being in Frederick's service, and music being in a highly flourishing condition, through the influence of the electress, herself a fine musician. He returned to Halle, to school, and to Zachau, and was afterward bound to HANDEL home by new and stronger ties,; for on Feb. 11, 1697, his father died, and the mother could not part with her only son. No immediate change in the plans laid for the son by the de- ceased father was made. The boy pursued his studies with such zeal and success as to matric- ulate in the university of his native city, Feb. 10, 1702. He was already an extraordinary performer upon the harpsichord and organ, a good violinist, and familiar with the instru- ments then in use. Ten years of constant prac- tice had brought him to that skill in composi- tion by which his musical ideas were thrown upon paper with as much facility as he wrote his native German; but as yet he was not emancipated from the forms of the schools, and wrote a fugue with more ease and elegance than a melody. On March 13, 1702, Handel, having just completed his 17th year, was for- mally installed organist of the Domkirche at Halle, with a regular salary and a right of free house rent, amounting in the aggregate to $50 per annum. At the end of the first year he resigned. A new prospect had opened before him. His mother had allowed her son with her blessing to abandon the law. In March, 1703, Handel made music his profession. There was nothing more for him to learn in Halle or Leipsic ; but in Hanover the greatest of the Ital- ians then in North Germany, Abb6 Steffani, was chapelmaster ; and in Hamburg Reinhard Keiser, the greatest German operatic com- poser of his day, was astonishing the public by his inexhaustible fund of pleasing popular melody. To these cities the youth bent his steps. Hawkins records Handel's own account of his reception in Hanover: "When I first arrived at Hanover I was a young man under 20. I was acquainted with the merits of Stef- . fani, and he had heard of me. I understood somewhat of music, and could play pretty well on the organ. He received me with great kindness, and took an early opportunity to introduce me to the princess Sophia and the elector's son, giving them to understand that I was what he was pleased to call a virtuoso in music ; he obliged me with instructions for my conduct and behavior during my residence at Hanover ; and being called from the city to at- tend to matters of public concern, he left me in possession of that favor and patronage which himself had enjoyed for a series of years." In June, 1703, Handel, doubtless by advice of Steffani, was in Hamburg. During the short opera season, ending in August, he played sec- ond violin in the orchestra, and gave lessons in music. He soon had an opportunity of showing his powers. The harpsichordist being one even- ing absent, the youthful violinist was per- suaded to take the seat, to the astonishment of all the orchestra. Handel's first work of im- portance in Hamburg was a sort of oratorio on the " Passion," which Chrysander dates during the spring of 1704 ; his second, the opera Almi- ra, composed in the summer and autumn of the same year. On the evening of Dec. 5,