Handel in London
England
London
Composer for Chappel Royal
Stay in Cannons
England
At that time England was the most advanced country in the world and offered the young
Handel particularly favourable conditions for personal and artistic development. The English
bourgeois revolution of 1640-9 had placed political power into the hands of the bourgeoisie and
opened the way for capitalist development in agriculture, industry and public life. Even as early
as Handel's arrival in England the way had been cleared for England to assume a foremost position
in European affairs and to take the lead in the industrial revolution.
London
In the world-city and trade metropolis of London the positive, attractive sides of economic
and technical progress were plain for all to see. All the more glaring and conspicuous was the
reverse side of the medal: misery, filth and crime.
Handel did not have to return to Hanover - if he had ever intended to. His “master” came to
him, to ascend the English throne as King George I. Whatever demurs there may have been over
Handel's “
extended leave of absence” they must have been quickly forgotten. In 1715 a salary of 500
thalers was paid out to the former musical director, and in 1716 the latter found himself in the
entourage of the King on his way to Hanover. After a brief look-in at Halle Handel travelled to
Ansbach, probably at the behest of the King or Princess Caroline, whose family lived there. It was
possibly here that he got to know his future secretary, Johann Christoph Schmidt, and persuaded him
to come to London.
Composer for Chappel Royal
At all Handel cultivated close relations with the royal family even in later time, received
official commissions and he was giving harpsichord lessons to Princess Anne, George’s II eldest
daughter, and later to her sisters (in 1724 he is mentioned for the first time as music master to
the princesses) and it was presumably in connection with this lessons that his first collection of
harpsichord suites HWV 426-433 was published by John Cluer in London on 14 November 1720.
On 25 February 1723 Handel was appointed “
Composer of Musick for his Majesty’s Chappel Royal.” In the same year he moved into a house
in Lower Brook Street, which he lived in until he died. On 13 February 1727 he addressed a letter
to the House of Lords, in which he formally applied for naturalisation; King George I promptly set
his signature to this on 20 February. This removed all formal impediments to his receiving a royal
commission to compose the music for the coronation of George II. George I had died in June 1727 and
the commission was received by Handel in September.
Stay in Cannons
On the invitation of James Brydges, later Duke of Chandos, Handel stayed from the summer of
1717 until the spring of 1719 in the Brydges’ mansion, Cannons. Here he wrote the Chandos Anthems
HWV 146-156 and the cantata Acis and Galatea HWV 49a, his first typically English compositions, and
a number of other works.
Here it is interesting to note, if only by the way, that a number of singers and
instrumentalists gave performances at Cannons under the direction of Johann Christoph Pepusch, who
was later to write the music for the Beggar’s Opera of 1728. There is little else to tell about
Handel during the Cannons years, which prompts the conclusion that he lived a rather secluded life
and aroused no great public interest.
