Before speaking about Bach and Handel as great world musicians, it is worth mentioning that their biographies were very important in the formation of the individual features of their creative works.
The son of the poor city musician, Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the epoch of difficult ruins of Germany after the thirty-year wars. The destroyed cities, the devastated fields, the ruined country facilities were the result of this war (1618 – 1648). The ancestors of Bach were peasants, but one of them managed to get an education and to become a musician, having begun the whole galaxy of musicians. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in March 1685 in Eisenach, where he had lived up to ten years of age. When Bach was15, he moved to Luneburg, where he entered a local grammar school and became the chorister in chorus. Here Bach formed his esthetic tastes and musical views. It is interesting that he was here almost simultaneously with Handel, the ingenious contemporary who has born, as well as Bach in 1685. But both great musicians did not meet. In 1708 Bach came back to Weimar.
In 1717, after the conflict with the duke and monthly arrest, he passed to the service in Ketene, where he had created the collection “Preludes and fugues” for orchestral concerts, suites, sonatas, suites for a violin and clavier. In 1723 moved to Leipzig to give education to his sons. Since 1729 Bach was the musical director of Leipzig University and supervised the students’ musical society. In Leipzig, Bach composed a huge quantity of works (Davison, 1951).
By 1740 Bach reached the greatest popularity but began to conduct the most closed way of life, giving all time to the highly talented children, whose glory in future has eclipsed the glory of the father. Last year the life Bach suffered from the illness of their eyes, had an operation and became blind. Bach died at the age of 65 in 1750. The number of works by Bach is very great. They are broken into five groups. The most extensive are church cantatas. The second are large art cult compositions – passions, oratorios, solemn mesa and 4 incomplete messes. The third group is the works for body and a harpsichord. The 4th group is the works for various instruments – a violin, flutes, lutes. The last, the fifth group includes the works for orchestral structure.
On behalf of Bach, the huge historical process gets to the end, which is based, on the one hand, on the communication of music with the cult, and from another – on powerful development of household music – dance, national song, music with drama representation. Both these jets have merged in the creativity of Bach and make him the universal musician of the time.
It is necessary to mention the ease of the composing, his confidence and shown by him in the most various areas of musical composition. From the graceful, simple dances to the graceful vocal works, Bach always finds the finished possession of style, expressive melody, brightly pulsing rhythm, strictly logical modulation in inexhaustible riches of harmony. During the lifetime of Bach was appreciated basically as the virtuoso (Hadow, 1973).
First of all, Bach was interested in melodious and expressive play – the art of cantabile. It was not the idea of Bach only. Another major quality of the musician is accuracy. For the achievement of this purpose, it is necessary to observe all rules with which the greater masters burden themselves.
Like the majority of great people of the past, George Fredric Handel was a native of the lower class of German society. His ancestors were handicraftsmen; Handel’s father, the barber-surgeon, served in various European armies (Swedish, Saxon) and had located in native city Halle, had achieved a post of the court surgeon of duke Saxon and by the time of the birth of his son he reached significant material prosperity. Mother of the composer was a match for the spouse: conceded to him neither in courageous energy nor insincere and physical health.
George Fredric Handel was born in February 1865 in Halle. Since their early childhood, his surprising musical abilities and extreme interest in everything connected with the world of sounds, music was showed. But musical hobbies of the child have encountered prejudiced counteraction of the. He dreamed of another future for his son, about the career of lawyer what was respectable in the environment of the German burghers. However, the spontaneous draft to music broke all barriers and obstacles. The success of performance in seven-year age before duke had that desirable result that has begun regular employment by music with the best musician and teacher of the city Halle, organist Zahau. Under the direction of Zahau, Handel studied polyphony and the style of German composers.
Handel’s first creative experiences concern ten years’ age: for the favourite instrument of an oboe, he has written a series of plays – six trios for two oboes and a bass. Thanks to Zahau, he was accustomed to being guided easily and quickly since childhood in the various musical phenomena, to master them and to select for him the most important and interesting. These qualities strengthened by the experience of the subsequent creative work especially promoted the formation of a universal style of music by Handel. In the twelfth year, Handel has undertaken their first concert trip to Berlin. The success was great (Scott, 2007).
The death of the father in 1697 has removed an interdiction from the profession of musician; nevertheless, carrying out his will, Handel continued grammar school and, having finished, has entered the university on the faculty of law. Simultaneously Handel has acted as the church organist. Handel’s official duties included teaching music in grammar schools. Weekly concerts demanded constant updating of repertoire, and Handel created it, composing a set of cantatas and chorals. In the spring of 1703, Handel has moved to Hamburg. The Hamburg opera headed by the Kaiser was in blossom. For the first time, the young musician closely adjoined musical theatre; and becomes the opera composer. The increasing attention to Handel as to the musician and the teacher has entailed creative orders and offers.
The Hamburg opera noticeably tended to decline. The new administration of the theatre, being guided mainly by commercial reasons, has filled the repertoire of theatre with rough low-standard works. To seize the universal Italian opera style, Handel leaves Hamburg and goes to Italy. In Italy, he has lived about four years, being long in the largest and well-known cities: Florence, Rome, Venice, and Naples (Davison, 1951).
It should be mentioned that Handel’s musical traditions were defined in Italy. Between 1711 and 1716, Handel lives alternately in Hanover and in London, obviously preferring to stay in the English capital. These were the most productive periods of Handel’s life.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that the biographies of the two musicians had a great impact on their creative work. They both did not reach the beginning of their career, and that is why they needed great affords to become really good professionals.
It should be mentioned that Bach’s creative activity was more pessimistic than Handel’s one. Probably it is connected with the difficulties which were experienced by Bach in his childhood.
Nevertheless, both of these two great musicians made a great contribution to the development of world classical music.
References
- Sadie Stanley, Tyrrell John (2003)The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: 29 volumes with index, Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition
- Hadow William Henry (1973) The Age of Bach and Handel (The Oxford History of Music, Vol. IV), Cooper Square Pub; 2nd edition
- Davison Archibald T. (1951) Bach and Handel: The Consummation of the Baroque in Music, Harvard UP
- Scott Cyril (2007) The Comparison between the Influence of Handel and Bach, Kessinger Publishing, LLC