In the old castle at Weissenfels he quickly found out which of the inmates were musical, and soon made friends with them. One day, after the chapel service, he jumped on to the organ stool, and played in such an astonishing manner that the Duke, who was still lingering in the chapel, sent up to inquire who was playing. The boy and his indignant father were summoned: but the Duke's evident delight in the child's music softened old Handel's heart. He gave his consent to his son's musical education, and almost from that moment George Frederick Handel became known as a musician.
I can not tell you anything more of his childhood or youth but that he studied very hard, and that, like every true genius, he was humble while he was learning. We must skip over many years to the time when he went to England; for there he produced his greatest works, and to this day the English reverence him as their own.
George I., King of England, you know, had been Elector of Hanover, and so he as well as his successor felt a strong interest in Handel. The latter went to England in 1710, and there he found that much attention was paid to Italian music. Operas were very fashionable. They were quite a novelty then. Fine ladies and gentlemen filled the opera-house. They crowded the greenrooms behind the scenes, and chatted and talked at the "wings," as if they were in a drawing-room. Fashion governed nearly everything, and so Handel, realizing this, set to work upon an opera. He wrote Rinaldo in fourteen days, and it was produced at Drury Lane with a splendor that created great excitement throughout London. We never hear Rinaldo now, but its airs are beautiful, and one of these, "Lascia ch'io Pianga," lingers in the heart of every one who hears it.
Well, Handel began to teach the Prince of Wales's daughters, to write a great deal of music, and to be very much the fashion, and very famous. So he roused the jealousy of petty people, and, strange as it may seem, opinions differed to such an extent, and such a fuss was made, that society was divided into two factions. One party favored a distinguished musician named Buononcini, and the other Handel. The war raged, and during it a wit and poet named John Byrom wrote the following verse, which has since been famous:
"Some say, as compared to Buononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee."
Handel's genius, however, was not to be suppressed by any such foolish contentions. He worked on as usual, and in 1749 produced the work with which his name is most associated, the oratorio of The Messiah.
I do not think you can go into any part of England without finding people who love The Messiah. It used to seem to me it was the one work every one knew about. And it is well worthy of such general knowledge. In it are airs that must move every Christian heart. It seems to teach so many things—reverence, love, hope, and a glimpse of a heaven that has in it God's many mansions. When I hear it sung it always seems to me that the voices are those of the angels who sang on Bethlehem's plains, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men."
I want to tell you something about oratorios in general; that is, how they originated, and what they are as musical works. Oratorios, strictly speaking, are dramatic and musical compositions where the parts are sung without scenery or special costume, and they are on sacred subjects.
Dramatic representations of sacred stories are as old as Christianity. In the Middle Ages they were very common. At times of public rejoicing they were given, or during any special season, like Advent or Lent, and so far were they recognized as part of public life that the government or special societies paid their expenses.
These old performances were very roughly put on the stage, but gradually from them grew an idea of a distinctly musical and dramatic sacred work. In Germany, "Passion Music" was written. In Italy, it had long been thought of and given; finally, the oratorio as we have it now was developed by various great composers.