Funtestiq! Pictures
 

 

"Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows."

 George Frideric Handel on Messiah, which he composed in just over three weeks, August 22 - September 14, 1741.
 
 

 

George's father was a surgeon who first married a woman who was 11 years older  than him and then, upon the death of this first wife and at when he was 60, married a woman 28 years younger than him. The future musician came from this second union, much to the delight of Handel the senior who could very well have been the baby's grandfather. And the stern surgeon was strongly opposed to his son's early interest in music. Frustrustrated at his failure to stop his son, he roared at one point: "Then let him be a clown, a tightrope walker, a minstrel or a bear trainer!"

The boy's genius in music was, however, too evident and notable for his father to suppress. George received scholarships from nobles who appreciatd his talents and thus began his career as a musician. He studied in Germany and Italy and served as a court musician to George of Hanover. He later moved to England, where Queen Anne granted him a stipend of 200 pound sterlings a year, which was later doubled to 400 pound sterlings by King George, who succeeded Anne and who was no other than his former benefactor in Hanover.

Over the course of his life Handel composed numerous operas and other music pieces, but the most memorable would forever be the Messiah.