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[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

(_From a Portrait by Mercier in the possession of the Earl of
Malmesbury._)

_Frontispiece._]]




HANDEL

BY

ROMAIN ROLLAND

TRANSLATED BY
A. EAGLEFIELD HULL

MUS. DOC. (OXON.)

_WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR_

_17 MUSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND 4 PLATES_

[Illustration: colophon]

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1916




PREFACE


For a proper appreciation of the colossal work of Handel many years of
study and a book of some two hundred pages are very insufficient. To
treat at all adequately of Handel's life and work needs a whole lifetime
in itself, and even the indefatigable and enthusiastic Chrysander, who
devoted his life to this subject, has hardly encompassed the task.... I
have done what I could; my faults must be excused. This little book does
not pretend to be anything more than a very brief sketch of the life and
technique of Handel. I hope to study his character, his work, and his
times, more in detail in another volume.

ROMAIN ROLLAND.




CONTENTS


                                                 PAGE

HIS LIFE                                            1

HIS TECHNIQUE AND WORKS                           111

  (1) THE OPERAS                                  122

  (2) THE ORATORIOS                               134

  (3) THE CLAVIER COMPOSITIONS                    143

  (4) THE CHAMBER MUSIC (SONATAS AND TRIOS)       154

  (5) THE ORCHESTRAL WORKS                        158


APPENDICES--

  LIST OF HANDEL'S WORKS                          193

  BIBLIOGRAPHY                                    201

INDEX                                             204




PLATES


PORTRAIT BY THORNHILL                       _frontispiece_

GEORGE I AND HANDEL'S WATER MUSIC _to face page_       69

HANDEL'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY                107

HANDEL DIRECTING AN ORATORIO                          165




INTRODUCTION

BY THE EDITOR


Here in England we are supposed to know our Handel by heart, but it is
doubtful whether we do. Who can say from memory the titles of even six
of his thirty-nine operas, from whence may be culled many of his
choicest flowers of melody? M. Rolland rightly emphasises the importance
of the operas of Handel in the long chain of musical evolution, and it
seems impossible for anyone to lay down his book without having a more
all-round impression than heretofore of this giant among composers.

M. Saint-Saens once compared the position of a conductor in front of the
score of a Handel oratorio to that of a man who sought to settle with
his family in some old mansion which has been uninhabited for centuries.
The music was different altogether from that to which he was accustomed.
No nuances, no bowing, frequently no indication of rate, and often
merely a "sketched-in" bass.... Tradition only could guide him, and the
English, who alone could have preserved this, he considers, have lost
it.

Can it be recovered to any extent, and, if so, how?

Behind each towering figure of genius are to be found numbers of
eloquent men who prepared the way for him; and amongst these precursors
there is frequently discovered one who exercised a dominating influence
over the young budding genius. Such an influence was exercised by Zachau
on Handel, and M. Rolland rightly gives due importance to the
consideration of this old master's teachings and compositions, a careful
study of which should go far to supplying the right key to Handel's
music. One of the great shortcomings in the general musical listener is
a lack of the historical view of music. It is a long cry from Bach and
Handel to Debussy and Scriabin, but we shall be all the better for
looking well at both ends of the long musical chain which connects the
unvoiced expression of the past with the vague yet certain hopes of the
future.

No doubt we have hardly yet recovered from the false position into which
we have all helped to place Handel. He was never the great Church
composer which has been assumed for so long. Perhaps, rather, he leaned
to the pagan side of life in his art. As Mr. Streatfeild says, "You can
no more call the _Messiah_ a work of art than you can call the _Book of
Common Prayer_ popular as a masterpiece of literature.... Handel the
preacher is laid for ever in the tomb, but Handel the artist with his
all-embracing sympathy for human things and his delight in the world
around him lives for evermore." Handel has been greatly, almost
wilfully, misrepresented; but he has played too great a part in the
history of English music to be cast aside on this account. It is true
that there are many difficulties in the way of a clearer understanding
of his music. A two-hundred years' overgrowth of vain vocal traditions
is not going to be torn away in the space of a few years.

If the operas have been overlooked in favour of the oratorios, then his
instrumental music has been even more neglected on account of the
preponderance of his vocal movements. In a recent important contribution
to Handelian biography only a few pages are given to the instrumental
works. In this respect M. Rolland's clear and critical biography fills
in a distinct _hiatus_.

Moreover, Handel sojourned in Germany, Italy, finally (and longest) in
England--but never in France. M. Rolland, therefore, a Frenchman and the
author of that brilliant work _Histoire de l'Opera en Europe avant Lulli
et Scarlatti_, may, more than any other writer, be expected to bring a
freshness of vision and an impartial judgment to bear on Handel's works.
_And he has not disappointed us._

A. E. H.




GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL




HIS LIFE


The Handel family was of Silesian origin.[1] The grandfather, Valentine
Handel, was a master coppersmith at Breslau. The father, George Handel,
was a barber-surgeon, originally attached to the service of the armies
of Saxony, then of Sweden, later of the French Emperor, and finally in
the private service of Duke Augustus of Saxony. He was very rich, and
purchased at Halle in 1665 a beautiful house, which is still in
existence. He was married twice; in 1643 he married a widow of a barber,
who was ten years older than himself (he had six children by her); and
in 1683, the daughter of a pastor who was thirty years younger than he
was: he had four children by her, of which the second was George
Frederick.

Both parents sprang from that good old _bourgeois_ stock of the
seventeenth century which was such excellent soil for genius and for
faith. Handel, the surgeon, was a man of gigantic stature, serious,
severe, energetic, religiously attached to duty, upright and affable in
his dealings with those around him.

His portrait exhibits a large clean-shaven face which has the impression
of one who never smiled. The head is carried high, the eyes morose;
prominent nose and a pleasant but obstinate mouth; long hair with white
curls falling on his shoulders; black cap, collar of lace, and coat of
black satin: the aspect of a parliamentary man of his time.--The mother
was no less sturdy a character. Of a clerical family on the maternal
side as well as on the paternal side, with a spirit imbued with the
Bible, she had a calm courage, which came out prominently when the
country was ravaged by pestilence. Her sister and her elder brother were
both carried off by the plague; her father was also affected. She
refused to leave them and remained quietly at home. She was then engaged
to be married.--This sturdy couple transmitted to their distinguished
son in place of good looks (which he certainly had not, and which never
disquieted him) their physical and moral health, their stature, their
keen intelligence and common sense, their application to work, and the
indestructible essence of their quiet, calm spirit.

       *       *       *       *       *

George Frederick Handel was born at Halle on Monday, February 23,
1685.[2] His father was then sixty-three years, and his mother
thirty-four.[3]

The town of Halle occupied a singular political situation. It belonged
originally to the Elector of Saxony; by the Treaties of Westphalia it
was ceded to the Elector of Brandenburg; but it paid tribute to the Duke
Augustus of Saxony during his lifetime. After the death of Augustus in
1680, Halle passed definitely to Brandenburg; and in 1681 the Grand
Elector came to receive homage there. Handel then was born a Prussian;
but his father was in the service of the Duke of Saxony, and he retained
relationship with the son of Augustus, Johann Adolf, who moved his court
after the Prussian annexation to the neighbouring town of Weissenfels.
Thus the childhood of Handel was influenced by two intellectual forces:
the Saxon and the Prussian. Of the two the more aristocratic, and also
the more powerful was the Saxon. Most of the artists had emigrated with
the Duke to Weissenfels. It was there that the genial Heinrich Schuetz
was born and died:[4] it was there that Handel found his first impetus,
and where the calling of the child was first recognized. The precocious
musical tendencies of the little George Frederick were somewhat curbed
by the formal opposition of his father.[5] The sturdy surgeon had more
than objection--he possessed an aversion to the profession of artist.
This sentiment was shared by nearly all the sturdy men of Germany. The
calling of musician was degraded by the unedifying spectacle of many
artists in the years of relaxation which followed the Thirty Years'
war.[6] Besides which, the _bourgeois_ German of the seventeenth century
had a very different idea of music from that of our French middle
classes of the nineteenth century. It was with them a mere art of
amusement, and not a serious profession. Many of the masters of that
time, Schuetz, Rosenmueller, Kuhnau, were lawyers, or theologians, before
they devoted themselves to music; or they even followed for a time the
two professions. Handel's father wished his son to follow his own
profession, that of law; but a journey to Weissenfels overcame all his
objections. The Duke heard the little seven-year-old Handel play the
organ, with the result that he sent for the father to see him and
recommended him not to thwart the child's obvious musical talents. The
father, who had always taken these counsels very badly when they came
from anyone else, doubtless appreciated them when they came from the
lips of a prince; and without renouncing his own right over his son
(for he still had the legal plan in his head) consented to let him learn
music; and on his return to Halle he placed him under the best master in
the town, the organist Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau.[7]

       *       *       *       *       *

Zachau was a broad-minded man and moreover a good musician, whose
greatness was only appreciated many years after his death.[8] His
influence on Handel was splendid. Handel himself did not conceal it.[9]
This influence affected the pupil in two ways: by his method of
teaching, and by his artistic personality. "The man was very well up in
his art," says Mattheson,[10] "and is possessed of as much talent as
beneficence."

       *       *       *       *       *

Handel's devotion to Zachau was so great that he seemed never able to
show him sufficient affection and kindness. The master's first efforts
were devoted to giving the pupil a strong foundation in harmony. Then he
turned his thoughts towards the inventive side of the art; he showed
him how to give his musical ideas the most perfect form, and he refined
his taste. He possessed a remarkable library of Italian and German
music, and he explained to Handel the various methods of writing and
composing adopted by different nationalities, whilst pointing out the
good qualities and the faults of each composer; and in order that his
education might be at the same time theoretical and practical, he
frequently gave him exercises to work in such and such a style.

       *       *       *       *       *

This education with a true European catholicity was not confined to one
particular musical style, but spread itself out over all schools, and
caused him to assimilate the best points of all, for who can fail to see
that the conception and practice of Handel, and indeed the very essence
of his genius, was the absorption of a hundred different styles! "One of
his manuscripts dated 1698, and preserved carefully all his life,
contains," so says Chrysander, "some airs, choruses, capriccios, and
fugues of Zachau, Alberti (Heinrich Albert), Froberger, Krieger, Kerl,
Ebner, Strungk, which he had copied out whilst studying with Zachau."
Handel could never forget these old masters, distinct traces of whom are
found from time to time in his best-known works.[11] He would doubtless
too, with Zachau, have seen the first volumes of the clavier works of
Kuhnau, which were published at that time.[12]

Moreover, it seems that Zachau knew the work of Agostino Steffani,[13]
who later on took a fatherly interest in Handel; and Zachau followed
sympathetically the dramatic musical movement in Hamburg. Thus the
little Handel had, thanks to his master, a living summary of the musical
resources of Germany, old and new; and under his direction he absorbed
all the secrets of the great contrapuntal architects of the past,
together with the clear expressive and melodic beauty of the
Italian-German schools of Hanover and Hamburg.

But the personal influence of the character and the art of Zachau
reacted no less strongly on Handel than did his methods of instruction.
One is struck by the relationship of his works[14] to those of Handel;
they are similar in character and style. The reminiscences of motives,
figures, and of subjects count for little;[15] there is the same essence
in the art of both master and pupil; there is the same feeling of light
and joy; there is nothing of the pious concentration and introspection
of Bach, who goes down into the deeps of thought, and who loves to probe
into all the innermost recesses of the heart, and--in silence and
solitude--converse with his God. The music of Zachau is the music of
great spaces, of dazzling frescoes, such as one sees on the domes of the
Italian cathedrals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but
Zachau's work contains more religion than these. His music pulses with
action like the bounding and rebounding of great springs of steel. It
has triumphant subjects with expositions of great solemnity. There are
victorious marches, carrying everything before them, which go crashing
on without stopping, ever spurring on the sparkling and joyous patterns.
There are also pastoral themes, pure and voluptuous reveries,[16]
dances, and songs accompanied by flutes, with a Grecian perfume,[17] and
a smiling virtuosity, a joy intoxicated with itself, twisting lines, and
vocal arabesques, vocalizations, trills for the voice which gambol
light-heartedly with the little wave-like arpeggios of the violins.[18]
Let us unite these two traits: the heroic and the pastoral, the
warriors' marches and the jubilant dances. There you have the Handelian
tableaux: the people of Israel and the women dancing before the
victorious army. You find in Zachau a sketch for the monumental
constructions of Handel in his Hallelujahs; those mountains of sound
which resound their joy, the colossal _Amens_ which crown his oratorios
like the dome of St. Peter at Rome.[19]

Add to this also Zachau's marked liking for instrumental music,[20]
which makes him combine it so happily with the vocal solos; and very
often he imagines the voice as an instrument, which combines and gambols
with the other instruments, thus forming a decorative garland
harmoniously woven.

To sum up, it was an art less intimate than expansive, an art newly
born; not devoid of emotion though,[21] but above all, restful, strong,
and happy--an optimistic music like that of Handel.

Truly Handel in miniature, with much less breadth, less richness of
invention, and particularly a smaller power of development. There is
nothing of the attractiveness of Handel's colossal movements, like an
army which marches and sings; and more solid strength is necessary to
carry the weight right to the end without bending. Zachau flinches on
his way; he has not the vital force of Handel, but in compensation he
has more _naivete_, more tender candour, more of the childlike
chasteness and evangelic grace.[22] Certainly there we have the master
really necessary to Handel, a master more than one great man had the
good fortune to find (it is Giovanni Santi for Raphael; it is Neefe for
Beethoven): good, simple, straightforward, a little dull, but giving a
steady and gentle light where the youth may dream in peace and abandon
himself with confidence to a guide almost fraternal, who does not seek
to dominate him, but rather strives to fan the little flame into a
greater fire; to turn the little rivulet of music into the mighty river
of genius.

       *       *       *       *       *

Whilst studying with Zachau the young Handel visited Berlin. After
having paid his homage to his former master, the Elector of