Norwich bulletin., 1922-10-18
FAMOUS MUSICIANS
HANDEL.

If your boy does not want to be law yer. watch his playmates to see what he will do. One reaches this axinotic con- clusion by reading the life of George Frederick Handel born in the Mud Flats of Halle on the Saaie, who reached the heights over difficulties. AS little child his barber father noticed that he ar- ranged his musical playthings into order of sound, and seemed entranced with any harmony.
 Father designed the child for the law and banned the toys. But he became in childhood a self-taught musician. Imagine a little boy of eight pleading with his fa- ther to take him to the home of the Duke of Sachse- Weisenfeis, whither he went on I business, and being whipped from the 1 tail of the cart, only to run faster than | the ancient horse and catch on behind" There you have the start of Handel in ] the world At the dukes palace, where the master was a worshipper of music, a | fine chapel was supported, and the old l organist, lifting the child to the bench, i allowed him to play.
 1 The duke heard the music, was aston ished and filled the chiId's pocket with coins. Then he gave father Handel the injunction to have the lads talents culti- vated, and when he got home the ban was lifted from his secret study. A church organist taught him the use of nearly all of the instruments and instructed him in composition. l It was a rapid jump for the child from being hogged from cart at to going | to Berlin at Il and winning praise against jealous rivals of older years, and the Eiector Frederick, later King of Prussia, offered to send him to Italy for
 study. But he returned to the father
 and, strange as it may seem
 To law school.
 I But while at school he was otganist at a church. earning $50 year, and he was soon writing cantatas by the hundred. At } 19 he made his way to Hamburg, where he fell in with Johann Matthewson, the tenor at the opera. Handel was engaged to play the second fiddle in the orchestra One night the clavier player fell i'll, and he got his chance to take the vacant
 place and reveal his true ability
 The abiding place of a musician i,
 never certain, and he went next to Lei. 1 beck. returning the following year with
 Matthewson to play the clavier at the
 opera at Hamburg. Matthewson, jealous ! of his prestige. tried to take the instru. ment from him after his own singing was
 over, and Handel snatched it away. Mat
 thewson boxed his ears.
 Il NOW in those days the musicians wore
 swords, and the Goose Market in front o-
 the theatre was made the scene of 2. vio
 lent nght, at which the theatre crowds,
 saw fast and furious battle It endet with Handel victor and his rival n1rsint broken sword and dimmed reputation
 His name was known all over Enron,
 by the time he was 23. He lost his bear 6 to the English when he went to I.ondo, t in 1710. There he composed the onar.
 Rinaldo" in two weeks, returnine f,
 Hamburg, where he arranged many con,
 positions. It was late in TIP when h,
 went back to London, which city had an | tiFely captured his fancy, as he had ,vo,
 a high place in the heart of it's peonle
 He produced "The Faithful Shephard which did not do we'll, and followed i 0 With Theseus,' which fared much bet . ter but his manager, McSwiney, abscond
 ed with the receipts
 George gave him a pension of S1 oon
 Many of his operas have been lost an, 2 his chief glory rests in his oratorios [, splte Of his great piety, Handel wa t noted for his profanity, a form of a~
 precision extremely common at the time
 He died in 174s. generally accorded bi : true place among the greatest musician 1 of all times. Ia Il