Facts about Handel

In 1727 Ephraim Chambers wrote in his Cyclopжdia, "The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the old and the new."

Nevertheless, the young Handel was permitted to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard techniques from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, the organist of the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle.

From 1723 until his death in 1759, Handel lived at 25 Brook Street, London as is commemorated by a blue plaque on the outside of the building.

During the years 1707-1709 Handel traveled and studied in Italy.

In August of 1750, on a journey back from Germany to London, Handel was seriously injured in a carriage accident between The Hague and Haarlem in the Netherlands.

The circumstances surrounding the composition of Messiah stand as a legacy to Handel's Christian faith.

George Frideric Handel (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a leading composer of Baroque concerti grossi, operas, and oratorios.

Handel adopted the spelling "George Frideric Handel" on his naturalization as a British citizen.

Handel gave up operatic management entirely in 1740, after he had lost a fortune in the business.

Handel also had a long association with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, where many of his Italian operas premiered.

Handel was born at Halle in Saxony-Anhalt to Georg and Dorothea Taust in 1685, the same year that both Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti were born.

Handel never married, and kept his personal life very private.

In 1710, due to disputes over governance, the Carolina colony began to split into North Carolina and South Carolina.

Handel's works were edited by S. Arnold (40 vols., London, 1786), and by F. Chrysander, for the German Hдndel-Gesellschaft (100 vols., Leipzig, 1859–1894).

In 2000, the upper stories of 25 Brook Street were leased to the Handel House Trust, and, after an extensive restoration program, the Handel House Museum opened to the public on November 8, 2001.

In 1729, a sultan precipitated the split between northern and southern Yemen that would last 260 years by gaining independence from the ruling imam.

Handel was director of the Royal Academy of Music 1720-1728, and a partner of J. J. Heidegger in the management of the King's Theatre 1729-1734.

When opera was banned by local authorities, Handel found work as a composer of sacred music and wrote some pieces in operatic style.