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by two other appointments , bringing in -200 / . a year each . Thus we find the composer , within three years after liis arrival in this country , enjoying 600 / . a year from the bounty of the Crown , and occupying the front place in public favour . Music both sacred and secular now came from his inexhaustible brain with marvellous facility—Amaiis , the Chandos Anthems , ^ Water-Music . The Chanclos Anthems were named after the great Duke of Chandos , at -whose magnificent mansion , Cannons ! near Edgeware , Handel occupied the post of chapel-master . It was at Cannons that he composed his earliest English oratorio , Esther , which was at first only performed for the private Amusement of the duke and his guests ; here also he wrote the celebrated Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin , to one of which the name of The Harmonious Blttcksmifh was subsequently » iven . M . Schoelcher disposes very satisfactorily of two points in connexion with this piece ; on the one side he explodes the pretty little fiction about Powell the blacksmith , and on the other he pats it beyond all doubt that Handel was the real author of the piece . It was whilst Handel was at Cannons that he became musical director of the Royal Academy of Music , an operatic speculation which failed miserably in a pecuniary way , and perhaps also in a musical way , in obedience 4 ; o the old adage that * too many cooks spoil the broth . ' Not content with having oire musical director , the aristocratic patrons who presided over the Royaf Academy of Music would have three , and the consequence , as may be readily imagined , was a desperate rivalry between Handel , Bononcini , , and Atti ' lio . Victory resulted in ^ favour of the German ; but few battles take place without some wounds b ' eing received on both sides , and the _ feud * hen aroused was the cause of a . great deal of bickering and opposition , which continued to trouble Handel for many years . We cannot but think that Handel was somewhat to blame himself in the matter . With all his disposition to put the best face upon his character , M . Schoelcher proves , rather than admits , him to be a man of ungovernable and overbearing temper , with a good heart but a rough exterior , just the man , in fact , to make a few firm friends but a host of enemies . Some of the singers who were subject to him turned against him , and many of the aristocratic subscribers to the Opera took their part , a great deal , we can imagine , for ' the iun of the thing , ' and a great deal because they were seriously offended at what M . Schoelcher terms his * independence of spirit , ' such independence consisting in invariably taking his own way and obstinately persisting in his < rwn opinion . It may be that M . Schoelcher has been misled by the satirists and caricaturists of the day into giving to the opposition against Handel a greater importance than it really deserved . We are loth to believe that the entire aristocracy of England got up every morning and went about conspiring , talked and wrote letters , and gave parties with no other object than to accomplish the ruin of the musician whom Dr . Pepusch rather appropriately nicknamed ' the great bear . ' Yet we are willing to suppose that he had some good haters opposed to him , and instead of wondering with M . Schoelcher that such was the case , we are only surprised that the friends who ever rallied round him were so numerous and so constant . To return , however , to the chain of the narrative , The Academy having failed arid Handel being then ' possessed of 10 , 000 / ., he tried his own hand - at management , and entered into partnership with the notorious Heidegger at the Haymarket . This was a worse speculation than the former , and there is quite enough to account for the failure of it in a natural way to avoid attributing it , as M . Schcelcher seems inclined to do , to the intrigues of the nobrKty . This career of management was , however , marked by some bright spots , one of the most noticeable of which was the first appearance in public of that match-less and ever popular serenata , Acis atid Galatea . In 1733 , he nroduced Deborah , the first English oratorio which was written for public performance ; the success was moderate . The same year he produced AtJialia at a Public Act at Oxford . Next year he dissolved partnership with Heidegger , and took the Lincoln ' s-Inu Theatre on his own account . Almost immediately afterwards he removed to the Haymarket ; next year he went to Covent Garden . This constant shifting about boded no good . Tlie entertainments given under his management were not confined to operas ; oratorios were given , serenatas , and pieces , like the now famous Ode to St . Cecilia ' s Dai / and . Alexander ' s Feast . His company was a first-rate one , for it included the celebrated Farinelli , Senesino , and Signora Cuzzoni ; but it was all in vain , the year 1737 found him an insolvent debtor , and in the month of April in that year he was compelled , with impaired health , to retire to Aix-la-Chapelle . Before the end of the same year , however , he was back again and hard at work . The opera of Faramondo , Queen Caroline ' s Funeral Attthem , Xerxes , and other works , followed in quick succession . At that time he actually wrote music for the Vauxliall Gardens , where a statue by BoubHiac was erected to him during his lifetime . In the beginning of 1739 lie took the Haymarket for the performance of oratorios , and produced Saul and Israel in Egypt in quick succession . About the end of the same year he moved to Lincoln ' s Inn-fields , and there produced VAllegro , Hymen , and JDeiclania . These uneasy speculations ended in a second failure , and for the second time in his life the great composer found himself unable to faoo his creditors . Then followed his journey to Ireland , which was the turning point of his . fortunes . From the day of the first performance of the Messiah , which tock place in Dublin on the 13 th of April , 1742 , the sun of Handel ' s glory ¦ was undimmed by a cloud up to the moment of its setting . A veil seems to have fallen from before the eyes of his enemies j all contentions were settled , all apposition at rest , all failings forgiven . Heuceforth evci'ybody seemed to regard him with pride as the greatest composer the world ever saw , and to agree by common oonsent to overlook foibles which would have been unpardonable in any other man . How much of this is due to the feeling excited in Ireland by his visit there we cannot determine , but wo think it fat move probable that it was mainly due to his final abandonment of operas about the same time or shortly afterwards . Making a mistake which is by no means . uncommon , he valued his worst works the most highly . M . Schoelcuer appears desirous of convincing the woxM that his operas are very fine , and urges , oddly enough , in support of this , that many airs out of thorn hay © been used for sacred songs . As an instance of this we may mention that Braham'fl well-known song , 'Lord , remember David , ' is nothing
. but ' llend' il sereno al ci g lio , ' in Sosarme . But this fact , instead of 1 V *" us into a belief of the uniform excellence of these operas , tends to ea ( i o our impression that they are works of no very great merit , with her ° rJU there , by exception , a fine piece of music . Why have ¦ they been P e f- ^ lost to the stage ? Who ever heard an opera of Handel ? At the t they were written they . were unpopular ; are they likely to be less so S Evidently their failure . could not have entirely arisen from personal , ° " , because neither the oratorios nor Acis failed * It has been smro-estej . , ' i the present disposition of the public mind to test the quality ot overvth Handelian should hint to the managers of our two Opera House th ° ¦ desirability of reviving one of Handel ' s operas . We should like to so th experiment tried , and we have no doubt that the curiosity of the nubl ' ° would render it a successful one in a commercial point of view- b ' t * we must frankly confess that we do not think the reputation of th composer Would be much increased among those who came with their ea ^ filled with the sublime thunder of the choruses in Israel to listen to the inus ' of liinaldo or Roderigo . c From Handel ' s return to London down to his death , on the 13 th of April 1759 , he occupied himself with the production of oratorios and their per ' formance . Judas Maccabceiis , Joshua , Solomon , Theodora , Jept / ta , wer e the children of his old age . His career was at that time honourable and pro fitable ; for he was . not only enabled to pay up all arrears ( which must have " been an unspeakable comfort to one who was himself the very soul of honour but he contrived to scrape together some 30 , 1 ) 00 / . to leave behind him ' His charities were at this time very great ; indeed , it is estimated that he benefited the Fondling Hospital to the extent of about 10 , 000 / . About eight years before his death , he was stricken ^ vith blindness , but whether entire or partial M . Schcelcher seems to be in doubt . This was a "reat affliction to him , but he bore it patiently . At length , on the day which we have already named , and which happened to be a Good Friday , died in the fulness of honour , at a ripe age , and at the zenith of his genius . Such is the story of Handel ' s life , as it is veil told by _ Al . Schoelcher . The narrative is , of course , frequently interrupted by criticism upon the various works as they appear in proper order ; and it is in these excursuses that the musical reader will find the matter which he will value most highly . A valuable collection of MSS ., discovered and acquired by M . SchoeTcher himself , and which prove to be the identical copies which Handel himself used whilst conducting his own works , and whicli are filled with marginal notes and references in his own handwriting ( containing , in fact , invaluable traditions of the orchestra direct from the hand of the great composer himself ) , has enabled M . Schoelcher to throw light upon a multitude of points hitherto obscured , if not unknown ^ In his search among the original MSS . in Buckingham Palace , he has had the good fortune to light upon a German oratorio on the Passion , whose existence was suspected , but about which so little had been ascertained , that it may be said to ha , ve been quite unknown before M . Schoeleher ' s discovery . The most , valuable results of M . Schoeleher ' s researches will , however , appear in a separate volume , which is to be a catalugue misonm-. of all the great composer ' s works . The exact date at which this important addition to the literature of music is to make its appearance has not yet been announced ; but there can be no doubt that its advent will be looked for with interest by all scientific musicians . In fulfilment of the unpleasant but necessary critical duty of fault-finding , we have to accuse M . Schoelchcr of taking what appears , to us a somewhat narrow view of his hero ' s character and position . He has gazed at tho sup . so Ion" that he has lost all distinctness of vision . Having once madu up his mind that Handel was the greatest musician in the world , he straigh t way « oes about to prove that he was also the most virtuous , the most dignified , the most temperate , and the most amiable of men . This , however , is a venial offence . What care we for the man Handel , so that the character ol the musician remains perfect ? We would not have had him a fraction less good as a musician to make him twenty tunes more amiable , ilis character and the effects of it arc gone ; but his music is eternal . Ihorefore , whether we believe that Mr . George Frederick Handel was u glutton , and a course companion , and a swearer , and an uiigallant hater ol tue iwr sex , and a man of a somewhat grasping disposition , or whether we concede to M . Sclwelchor that he was an angel in gorge da yiutoti breechus and u l' ^ ' ^' o . is of no matter at all . It is enough that wo know him lor the greatest musical genius that ever subjected to his will the mysterious p » wus ot divine harmony , that he had the power of Orpheus to bring all imtu i to his feet , that he wrote music such as it is not nupiety to hope the buiapuua perform in Heaven . These are the truths with winch wo now have to Uoai , and in which wo are happy to coincide fully w » tU M . bchtalclior . n « would ( says the latter ) U > the Shakspcaro of Music , if ho wore not us Michael Angelo . "
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CHINA AND ITS INHABITANTS . China : a General Description of that Empire and Us Inhabitants . By Sir o Fruncia Davis , Bart ., K . C . B . Now Edition . 2 vola . » l ' lUvxs ' s China is sufficiently well known to require little more '" « JJ of introduction to tho reader , than a mention of its reappearance , vU iw tions and corrections by the author . It now ( arms tho mast , , o d . bio w authoritative work on the manners and institutions ol >' 1 Co / V , jVlti ir has in so fur as existing materials enable them to bo described . 1 he ulhoi controlled the statements of previous writers byliia own ¦ exn u . ncu ^ ( > though inclined to magnify the importance of Chinese civ » i 1 U 0 , on w whole exhibits discretion and judgment He » " « ' *™™ 1 ' , f ^ indeed , far more moderate than many others 1 lie Oluneao , iiico ' in mans , have a sort of mysterious power of fascinating tho m " ^ > Kj $ dc contact with theirs , and sending them buck into < < outor biu ba , w , prived of the free exorcise of some of their hi-rUer ^ wlum . * ° ^ of travel in those regions lose either tho power oi ^ » $ > ™{ ' & K in tbo writing clearly ; ? nd acquire , among other th » np » w «» d « ulimw » obsequiousness of the public-its willingness to **™* ^« ai general cism , and believe particulur assertions that utterly contiadiot uu b
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&m THE LEAD-EB . ; [ No . 376 , Satttrday .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 6, 1857, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2196/page/18/
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