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An intimate portrait of Handel’s life and inner circle, modeled after one of the composer’s favorite forms: the fugue.
During his lifetime, the sounds of Handel’s music reached from court to theater, echoed in cathedrals, and filled crowded taverns, but the man himself―known to most as the composer of Messiah―is a bit of a mystery. Though he took meticulous care of his musical manuscripts and even provided for their preservation on his death, very little of an intimate nature survives.One document―Handel’s will―offers us a narrow window into his personal life. In it, he remembers not only family and close colleagues but also neighborhood friends. In search of the private man behind the public figure, Ellen T. Harris has spent years tracking down the letters, diaries, personal accounts, legal cases, and other documents connected to these bequests. The result is a tightly woven tapestry of London in the first half of the eighteenth century, one that interlaces vibrant descriptions of Handel’s music with stories of loyalty, cunning, and betrayal.
With this wholly new approach, Harris has achieved something greater than biography. Layering the interconnecting stories of Handel’s friends like the subjects and countersubjects of a fugue, Harris introduces us to an ambitious, shrewd, generous, brilliant, and flawed man, hiding in full view behind his public persona.
43 illustrations; 3 maps- Sales Rank: #306983 in Books
- Published on: 2014-09-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.60" h x 1.50" w x 6.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 496 pages
From Booklist
*Starred Review* To fully appreciate the great composer of the universally known oratorio Messiah, it is not enough to trace his personal life, Harris says. The culture of the society he served and aspired to join must be considered, too. As she proceeds through Handel’s life, Harris embeds him in the institutional realities of eighteenth-century England, where entrepreneurship predominated. London suited the young musician, who had set out to pursue as independent a career as possible—a goal attainable, however, only by having the right friends. Handel was good at friendship, to the extent that his life and theirs—six in particular, whom Harris chronicles as extensively as she does her main subject—are inextricable. The composer followed their leads in business (his first opera company was structurally similar to the East India and other great trading companies); negotiated with them, by means of carefully ambiguous roman � clef scenarios for his operas, the politics of a kingdom with a contested throne and, by similar means in his oratorios, the religious contention of the day; sympathized with them about loveless, arranged marriages (well he might, since he was socially ineligible to marry at all) via many an opera’s plot; and privately entertained and taught them music with his instrumental works. Handel’s life in Harris’ hands becomes a compelling plunge into the social history of his time. --Ray Olson
Review
Surely no one knows the life and music of Handel more intimately than Ellen Harris. Her daringly original approach to his biography reveals surprising and enlightening connections between contemporary events and his music. This is one of the most insightful―and one of the most humane―composer biographies to appear in quite some time. (Robert L. Marshall, Brandeis University)
This book is an awesome tribute, and an undertaking beyond imagination. (Gilbert Blin, opera director)
Admirable in its scope and boldness. A fascinating, joyful achievement! (Dame Emma Kirkby)
A fascinatingly pure application of [Handel’s] music to history…an interesting, unique, and significant work of nonfiction. (Weston Williams - Christian Science Monitor)
An illuminating, refracted portrait of Handel’s previously obscure inner life… a large-scale fugue, with a series of themes that appear, metamorphose, and interact with one another. (David Weininger - Boston Globe)
Readers will… have a much clearer picture of how Handel lived and worked, and how his music relates to events of the day as well as to the lives of his friends… This quirky biography repays careful reading. (Melinda Bargreen - Seattle Times)
About the Author
Ellen T. Harris is professor emeritus at MIT and has served on the music faculties of Columbia University and the University of Chicago. Her previous books include Handel as Orpheus: Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas, and she has spoken at Lincoln Center and appeared on PBS NewsHour and BBC Radio 3. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
This is a good read, and you can't say that about many ...
By Jessie Ann Owens
This is a good read, and you can't say that about many books by musicologists. A tour-de-force of detective work, starting from Handel's wills, the book illuminates both Handel's life and life in eighteenth-century England by uncovering his circle of friends and associates. Beautifully illustrated, and with a clarity of structure that keeps the needs of the reader always at the fore, this is a book I recommend to anyone interested in music, in eighteenth-century England, and in how to "do" humanities research. It takes newly discovered documents and makes them tell a compelling story. A very fine book.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
It is highly recommended to music lovers at all levels of expertise and ...
By Dale Higbee
This splendid new book by a leading Handel scholar offers new insights into the composer's life, times, music and social circle. It is highly recommended to music lovers at all levels of expertise and belongs in all libraries.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Invaluable for musicologists
By Aldonza81
I am not a musicologist but I enjoy Handel's music. I received this book as a gift and started in without carefully reading the introduction. As I read chapter after chapter, each of which seemed to take me back to a restart, I had a little bit the feeling of "Groundhog Day." (Wait, we're in 1737 again?) Finally I caught on. What the author has done, and I belatedly realized this was brilliant, was to try to compartmentalize Handel's various lives to explain the effects of social status, law, trade, collecting, religion, etc. on his major compositions. Aha! moment.
I expect the author realizes that all the various phases of his life bled into one another, but this effort to explain by categories gives one a unique perspective on the man and the music; by deconstructing a life, we can put it back together in a fresh and interesting way.
The voluminous section of notes and a thorough index will make this book invaluable for musicologists.
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