In London around 1740 Handel had a stroke and for a while lost most of the use of his right hand. His Italian operas had been a huge money spinner in London, but they were becoming repetitive, and were actually ridiculed by rival operas!
So around then he had financial pressures and was feeling his way forward from his Baroque phase to his germanic oratorio phase, hoping there was a way he could cash in on that by staging oratorios other than in churches so he could sell tickets.
Had THAT failed it would be a case of "George Frideric who?" these days. But it didn't, because of what is surely the most amazing long shot in all of musical history, see below. And with the wind of the eventually wildly successful Messiah at his back, he was in his last 17 years pretty triumphalist (as quite correctly depicted here)!
So, to the long shot, the extraordinary critical path to the most performed music in world history, of which we can see quite a few of the key elements here.
Handel had to be born, in Germany of a father then over 60, had to have his mother secretly buy him a piano, had to have a local count hear his organ playing (at age 11) and sponsor him, had to learn baroque music and Italian in his 4 years in Italy, had to find cities & audiences back in Germany smallish, had to move to London for more business, had to be a favorite of the German-born kings then, had to see his main income from Italian operas fading, had to have an avid Christian come up with the idea of the Messiah and the unique libretto (phrases all lifted from the bible), had to have a possible stroke and survive it, had to get fired up enough to write the music on spec for all singers and players in 3 weeks (at age 56), had to doubt London was the best place to surface it, had to need money, had to be invited to Dublin, had to encounter a certain high-profile contralto, had to grasp a charitable angle, had to encounter a crazy-keen first audience there, had to be rebuffed initially in London, and had to be championed years later by the passionate co-founder of a hospital for babies of unmarried mothers (eventually 25,000 of them) in large part funded because he made the Messiah in a real sense theirs.
So around then he had financial pressures and was feeling his way forward from his Baroque phase to his germanic oratorio phase, hoping there was a way he could cash in on that by staging oratorios other than in churches so he could sell tickets.
Had THAT failed it would be a case of "George Frideric who?" these days. But it didn't, because of what is surely the most amazing long shot in all of musical history, see below. And with the wind of the eventually wildly successful Messiah at his back, he was in his last 17 years pretty triumphalist (as quite correctly depicted here)!
So, to the long shot, the extraordinary critical path to the most performed music in world history, of which we can see quite a few of the key elements here.
Handel had to be born, in Germany of a father then over 60, had to have his mother secretly buy him a piano, had to have a local count hear his organ playing (at age 11) and sponsor him, had to learn baroque music and Italian in his 4 years in Italy, had to find cities & audiences back in Germany smallish, had to move to London for more business, had to be a favorite of the German-born kings then, had to see his main income from Italian operas fading, had to have an avid Christian come up with the idea of the Messiah and the unique libretto (phrases all lifted from the bible), had to have a possible stroke and survive it, had to get fired up enough to write the music on spec for all singers and players in 3 weeks (at age 56), had to doubt London was the best place to surface it, had to need money, had to be invited to Dublin, had to encounter a certain high-profile contralto, had to grasp a charitable angle, had to encounter a crazy-keen first audience there, had to be rebuffed initially in London, and had to be championed years later by the passionate co-founder of a hospital for babies of unmarried mothers (eventually 25,000 of them) in large part funded because he made the Messiah in a real sense theirs.