George Frideric Handel
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Frideric Handel (German: Georg Friedrich Händel) (b. Halle, Germany, 23 Feb.1685; d. London, England, 14 Apr.1759) was a German composer who became a naturalized Englishman. Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel were born in the same year. They were the greatest composers of their time, yet they never met. Handel himself changed his name to George Frideric Handel (without the dots) when he became English. The German spelling of his name is still used by German writers.
Although they were both living in the late Baroque period, Bach and Handel’s music developed differently. Handel wrote lots of operas and therefore became something of a public celebrity. He travelled a lot, including to Italy where he learned a lot about composition. Bach always stayed in central Germany, and most of the time he was a church musician who was not known by the general public. Bach spent a lot of time writing chamber music and church music.
Handel wrote about 40 operas. Later he wrote oratorios. His most famous oratorio is the Messiah. He wrote anthems, chamber music and orchestral music
