Reinken and Buxtehude.—The Hamburg organist Johann Adam Reinken (1623-1722), a native of Holland, wrote a number of clavier compositions, publishing in 1704, pieces for two violins and harpsichord. Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), organist at St. Mary’s Church, Lübeck, from 1668, excelled in free style of writing for clavier. The latter gave a series of Sunday evening concerts at his church which gained renown through all the surrounding country; and J. S. Bach himself is said to have walked to these concerts, a distance of fifty miles.
Instrumental Polyphonic Forms.—These men have been mentioned largely because their work made possible the results which Bach afterwards attained from an elaboration of what they had already accomplished. It was among such eminent German organists that the instrumental Fugue, the highest instrumental type of polyphonic music, took definite shape, consisting of an Exposition, in which the Subject, Answer and Countersubject were announced by the various voices; and a subsequent Development, in which, according to certain laws more or less strict, the material presented was carried through a variety of phases and brought finally to a triumphant close. Of other forms, like the Toccata and Canzona, the tendency came to be toward more freedom of treatment on the one hand, and an increasing definiteness and consistency on the other.
Handel’s Early Life.—A composer must now be mentioned whose work lay chiefly in other fields than the clavier, but who nevertheless drew much of his inspiration from the strings of the harpsichord. This was George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), who was born at Halle, and whose musical genius asserted itself so strenuously that, although his father was strongly opposed, he learned the harpsichord as a mere child, and became so proficient a performer that the reigning Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, hearing him play, insisted on his receiving a thorough musical education. So he was placed under Zachau, a competent organist and musician, at his native place, with whom he studied diligently. After his father’s death he went to Hamburg, entering the orchestra of the Opera house and rising to the post of harpsichordist. Launching out as an opera composer, he began to acquire a reputation, and in 1706 went to Italy, meeting many distinguished musicians there, among them Domenico Scarlatti, with whom he had a contest as to ability as clavichordist and organist, and winning fresh laurels.
Handel in England.—In 1707, he became music director to the Elector of Hanover, but quickly left the post for England, where, with the exception of short intervals, he passed the remainder of his life, becoming a naturalized English subject. It was no wonder that he was so warmly attached to his adopted country, since he became the popular idol, even winning over the king, George I, formerly Elector of Hanover, who, on his accession to the throne, was at first angry with Handel for his desertion of the post in his service at Hanover.
George Friedrich Handel.
Handel’s Operas and Oratorios.—Handel was of an irascible disposition, and, living in the artificial atmosphere of London, among wits and satirists like Dr. Johnson, Addison and Pope, he was constantly embroiled with the cabals of his rivals, and the fickleness of the public. He produced a great number of operas, most of them successful; but as theatrical manager he met with severe losses, and finally gave up opera writing in despair, and turned to the composition of oratorios. The result was that in this form he has left his most enduring and elevated compositions; for while his operas were sometimes written down to the popular taste for empty Italian melody, the lofty themes of his oratorios inspired him to his grandest and most sincere style, which, moreover, was rendered the more dramatic and intelligible by his knowledge of the requirements of his audiences.
Handel’s Clavier Works.—Handel was an expert performer on the harpsichord, for which he wrote two sets of Suites, besides a number of single pieces. The Suites, of which the first set is by far the better, are written mostly in the dance forms, but with the interpolation of more serious forms, such as Airs, Variations and Fugues. The contrapuntal style is here most prominent, although with harmonic basis, and with a laxity in the strictness of the voice writing, caused by the occasional use of extra notes to complete chords. Some of the variations are worked up to effective climaxes, and have running passages and broken chords, in which the resources of the clavier are cleverly drawn upon.
Handel’s Last Years.—Handel became blind in 1752, but continued to take part in the performances of his works till the year of his death. Choleric as was his temperament, the known generosity of his nature and his devotion to the ideals of his art made him the idol of the English people. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Mattheson.—A close associate of Handel, when he was in the Hamburg orchestra, was Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), famed for his literary writings on musical subjects no less than for his musical ability. He wrote suites, a sonata and fugues in two parts, for clavier, which were of excellent workmanship.