Handel report
Devon Greer
Dr. Armstrong
Music Appreciation George Frideric Handel, certainly one of the greatest composers of the 16th century, took Europe by storm with his compositions, arias, and operas. A master of his trade by the time of his death, Handel was not handed his fortune and fame. With rivalry, odds, and sickness stacked against him, Handel overcame hardships to reach his dreams. Hard work and preservation through even the darkest of days led to hundreds of works of musical art by Handel. Through his knowledge of many musical styles from Germany, Italy, and England, Handel rose to greatness and became a well-known artist of his time, despite adversity. Before one learns of Handel’s life it is important to know his music genre and methods. Handel’s musical collection has been placed in the style of Baroque. A term used generally, Baroque has many different origins and definitions. The word in Portuguese is defined as odd pearls and in English simply means strange or different (Dickinson 12). Defined in The Oxford Dictionary of Music by Michael Kennedy as Bizarre, Baroque was a term applied to German and Austrian architecture in the 17th and 18th century. Only later was the term borrowed to describe music (Dickinson 14). Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell and Handel have all had works classified in the Baroque set. The Baroque style eventually began to describe a large portion of musical styles in the late 16th century, which ultimately added even more vagueness to an already imprecise term. Not a lot of things tied pieces of the time together; every piece seemed to be different in style (Dickinson 1-4). Contrary to the information put forth by Buelow, Baroque was described in The Complete Book of Classical Music as having a fairly uniform style. Most of the works of this era made use of basso continuo, which literally means a continuous bass part played by the bassist or cembalist (Dickinson 5-7, Cozen 1-4) Handel’s works more
Dr. Armstrong
Music Appreciation George Frideric Handel, certainly one of the greatest composers of the 16th century, took Europe by storm with his compositions, arias, and operas. A master of his trade by the time of his death, Handel was not handed his fortune and fame. With rivalry, odds, and sickness stacked against him, Handel overcame hardships to reach his dreams. Hard work and preservation through even the darkest of days led to hundreds of works of musical art by Handel. Through his knowledge of many musical styles from Germany, Italy, and England, Handel rose to greatness and became a well-known artist of his time, despite adversity. Before one learns of Handel’s life it is important to know his music genre and methods. Handel’s musical collection has been placed in the style of Baroque. A term used generally, Baroque has many different origins and definitions. The word in Portuguese is defined as odd pearls and in English simply means strange or different (Dickinson 12). Defined in The Oxford Dictionary of Music by Michael Kennedy as Bizarre, Baroque was a term applied to German and Austrian architecture in the 17th and 18th century. Only later was the term borrowed to describe music (Dickinson 14). Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell and Handel have all had works classified in the Baroque set. The Baroque style eventually began to describe a large portion of musical styles in the late 16th century, which ultimately added even more vagueness to an already imprecise term. Not a lot of things tied pieces of the time together; every piece seemed to be different in style (Dickinson 1-4). Contrary to the information put forth by Buelow, Baroque was described in The Complete Book of Classical Music as having a fairly uniform style. Most of the works of this era made use of basso continuo, which literally means a continuous bass part played by the bassist or cembalist (Dickinson 5-7, Cozen 1-4) Handel’s works more