d elders of the church. The organ was of
the old-fashioned kind, in which the bellows were worked by the feet
of the blower, who for this reason was called a 'bellows-treader'
(_Baelgentreter_). Handel was now seventeen, and longing for greater
things; but he could not expect to earn much in so small a town as
Halle, and so, in January, 1703, he said good-bye to his mother and
his old friend Zachau, and set out for Hamburg to seek his fortune.

His first engagement at Hamburg was a very small one. The Opera House
orchestra needed a _ripieno_ (supplementary violin), and Handel
accepted the post. What reason he had for letting it be understood
that he possessed only a slight skill in playing is not shown, for to
play _ripieno_ meant that he was expected simply to help out the
orchestra when additional harmonies were required, and to give support
to the solo parts. As may be imagined, this must have seemed very easy
work to Handel, nor was it long before he found an opportunity of
showing what he was capable of doing. At that time it was the custom
for the conductor to preside at the harpsichord, where, with the score
of the piece before him, he kept a check upon the players, and, where
necessary, beat the time. One day the conductor was absent through
some accidental cause, and no arrangement had been made to fill his
place. Handel thereupon without a word stepped up and took his seat at
the instrument, and conducted so ably as to excite the astonishment of
the other performers. Having thus revealed his powers, he was
thereafter permanently established in the post.

Handel had not been long in Hamburg before he made the acquaintance of
a most remarkable man named Mattheson. In addition to being an
exceedingly clever musician and composer, Mattheson was a good
linguist and a writer on a variety of musical subjects. He had formed
a resolve to write a book for every year of his life, and he
accomplished more than this, for he lived to be eighty-three years of
age, and at the time of his death he had published no fewer than
eighty-eight volumes. Despite the vanity which formed so large a part
of his character, Handel could not fail to be attracted by so
accomplished a man, and their acquaintance soon ripened into a
friendship which lasted for many years. Shortly after they became
known to each other the post of organist in the church of Luebeck fell
vacant, and Handel and his friend determined to compete for it.
Accordingly