A Thinking Person's Reintroduction to Classical Music Part 2

In the last post I left you with a movement from one of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. Bach didn't get the job for which he was applying when he sent the Duke of Brandenburg the music. He didn't actually say outright that he was applying for the job but we have his letter to the Duke of Brandenburg, who kept the music. Bach spent much of his career writing and performing in court chapels before settling in Leipzig where he ran the St. Thomas School (a choir school) and provided music and direction for 4 churches. He was otherwise occupied fathering no fewer than 21 children.

Bach never met George Fredrich Händel whom he admired. The two were not rivals as Bach wrote mostly church music and Händel was a successful composer of Italian language operas. Händel was Court Musician to the Prince George Ludwig, Elector of Hanover in Germany. The Electors were princes who elected the King of Germany who was then crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1714 Queen Anne died and George Ludwig was next in line to become King of England. He moved to London and took Händel with him.

Fortunately for Händel, Italian opera was all the rage in London, a city with lots of rich people and a flourishing middle class. He wrote more than 40 operas and founded 3 commercial opera companies while at the same time being the King's court composer writing music like Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Italian opera eventually fell out of fashion. It had always became costly to stage and the shrinking audiences put it to bed.

Handel moved on to oratorios, like The Messiah, most of which are religious operas although church figures made it clear costuming and staging them was inappropriate so they were presented as concert works. He also wrote service music for the court. Zadok the Priest, an anthem, has been performed at every British coronation since.

So Bach is remember for comparatively dense and complex choral and organ music and a few orchestral suites like the Brandenburgs. Händel's music is more approachable and less complicated, reflecting the situations and audiences for whom it was performed. 

Here's a little Händel from the 1st Water Music Suite. You might enjoy listening a again to the Bach excerpt in Part 1 again, either before or after listening to this so you can compare them.