George Frideric Handel

German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)

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Germany rank#22

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Fame81.5
Momentum15.1
Germany rank#22
Musicians rank#174
Wikipedia76.6K

Lived 1685–1759, aged 74Germany

Germany MusiciansSinger / Musician

Wikipedia
138 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Germany
#22
Musicians
Era
1685–1759
Aged 74

Summary

Updated 2026-08-14

He wrote the piece that plays at every British coronation and the oratorio everyone hears at Christmas, then died wealthy enough for Westminster Abbey to give him a state funeral — unusual for a composer in 1759, and a measure of how completely he'd bent English musical taste to his will.

Biography

About

Born in Halle in 1685, Handel moved through Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He launched three opera companies to feed the English nobility's appetite for Italian opera, channeling both middle-German choral tradition and Italian Baroque into a high style that brought the form to its peak. In 1737 a physical breakdown forced a creative pivot: he turned from opera to English oratorios, courting the middle class instead. After Messiah in 1742 he never wrote another Italian opera. One of his coronation anthems, Zadok the Pr…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel

said1741

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.

— Libretto mainly from KJV by

George Frideric Handel

said1741

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.

— Libretto mainly from KJV by

George Frideric Handel

said1741

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is the righteous Saviour, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen

— Part 1

George Frideric Handel

said1741

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

— Libretto mainly from KJV by

George Frideric Handel

said1741

Why do the nations so furiously rage together: and why do the people imagine a vain thing?

— Libretto mainly from KJV by

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Albums

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6 Sonatas for Flute & Continuo
1984
Messiah (The Complete Oratorio)
1984
Messiah: Favorite Choruses & Arias
1984
Der Messias
1984
6 Organ Concertos
1984
Aminta e Fillide
1984
6 Recorder Sonatas
1984
Organ Concertos op. 4
1984
Der Messias Auszüge in deutscher Sprache
1984
Handel: Lucrezia; Va tacito e nascosto / Mozart: Il tenero momento; Parto, parto; Lungi da te, mio bene
1984