ible to get in the
vicinity. When the boy was eleven years old he was taken to Berlin and
placed under the instruction of Bononcini and Ariosti, Italian music
being then the style at the Prussian court. At the age of sixteen
young Haendel had obtained a position as organist, and he was also a
fine clavecin player and a good violinist. A few years later we find
him at Hamburg, where he played the clavecin in the orchestra and was
sometimes conductor. Here he produced several operas--"Nero,"
"Daphne," "Florindo," "Almira"--with so much success that in 1707 he
made a journey to Italy for further perfecting himself in the Italian
style. Accordingly he spent some months in Florence, three months in
Rome, thence back to Florence to produce a new opera, and by the new
year of 1708 he was in Venice, where his second Italian opera,
"Agrippina," was produced. From Venice he went again to Rome, where he
wrote two short oratorios for Cardinal Ottoboni.

He had already made the acquaintance in Venice of Scarlatti, Corelli,
and of Antonio Lotti. He accompanied the Scarlattis to Naples and
remained with them about a year, and there was great rivalry in regard
to the harpsichord playing of Haendel and Domenico Scarlatti. This
success made Haendel's name so celebrated that it led to his being
invited to London, where he went in 1712 to bring out some operas. He
liked London so well that he remained there all the rest of his life.
During a part of this time he was himself the manager of the opera,
importing his principal singers from Italy, producing his own operas as
well, occasionally, as those by other composers, and experiencing in
the vocation of manager the vicissitudes well known to attend it. He
made and lost several fortunes; but finally, at his death, had paid up
all claims against him and left to charity a very handsome estate.

In London he produced a large number of operas, and then, about 1733,
he began to compose oratorios, and in 1741 produced the "Messiah,"
which had a great success. He also composed a large amount of
instrumental music, and was very famous as an organist. He composed a
large number of concertos for organ with orchestra, and he was in the
habit of playing a new organ concerto in the intermission of an
oratorio.

The number of Haendel's works is extremely large. All his operas are
now forgotten. Nevertheless individual fragments remain, such as the
famous alto air, "Lascio Pianga," and ma