Chronology of George Frideric Handel's
Life, Compositions, and his Times

1760 and Beyond

Abbreviations used for locations:

CG : London, Covent Garden Theatre
DLT : London, Drury Lane Theatre
FHC : Foundling Hospital Chapel
KT : London, King's Theatre, Haymarket
LIF : Lincoln's Inn Fields
LTH: London, "Little Theatre" in the Haymarket
NMH: Dublin, Mr. Neal's Musick Hall (or the Great Music Hall), Fishamble Street
QT : London, Queen's Theatre, Haymarket
TaG : Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg
WA : Westminster Abbey

1760

25 October : King George II dies. [Kensington Palace, London]
John Mainwaring's (ca. 1724-1807) biography of Handel, "Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel," is published anonymously. [London] (NOTE: Facsimile reprints of the "Memoirs" are published in 1964 and 1975.)

1761

The Opus 7 organ concertos are published by John Walsh, the younger.
Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) publishes an expanded translation of Mainwaring's Handel memoirs titled "Georg Friederich Händels Lebensbeschreibung".
(around this date) John Christopher Smith, the younger, composes Tobit, a pasticcio oratorio of Handel's works, with recitative by Smith. Thomas Morell is the librettist.

1762

15 July : Louis François Roubiliac's monument in memory of GFH is unveiled. It incorrectly lists his birthdate as "February XXIII, MDCLXXXIV" (NOTE: this spurious birthdate was miscalculated under the incorrect assumption that GFH was born under the old Julian calendar. Rather, at the time of his birth in Saxony/Magdeburg, the new Gregorian calendar was already in use). [WA]
Thomas Arne (1710-78) performs Alexander's Feast. John Stanley and John Christopher Smith, the younger, are both upset as they were already engaged in the performance of Handel's oratorios since his death. In retaliation they perform various Handel oratorios on the same nights as Arne's performances. Arne decides not to produce any more Handel oratorios.

1763

John Christopher Smith, the elder (1683-), dies.

1764

16 March : John Christopher Smith, the younger, premieres Nabal, a pasticcio oratorio of Handel's opera arias and choruses from anthems and Latin psalms. Thomas Morell is the librettist. [CG]

1766

John Walsh, the younger (1709-), dies.

1767

25 June : The composer (and GFH's friend) Georg Philipp Telemann dies from pneumonia (1681-). [Hamburg]

1768

Earl Cowper promotes performances of Alexander's Feast and Messiah. [Florence]

1770

The composer John Stanley (1712-86) is elected a governor of the Foundling Hospital and from 1775 until 1777 he directed the annual performance of Messiah in aid of the hospital funds.
16 January : A partial performance of Messiah takes place at George Burn's Music Room in the New York City Tavern. As reported by the 'New York Journal':

"...A SACRED ORATORIO, on the Prophecies concerning CHRIST, and his Coming: being an Extract from the late Mr. Handel's Grand Oratorio, called the MESSIAH, consisting of the Ouverture, and sixteen other Pieces, viz, Airs, Recitatives, and Choruses. Never performed in America."

1772

21 May : Michael Arne conducts the first performance of Messiah in Germany. [Hamburg]

1773

20 November : Charles Jennens (1700-) dies. [Gopsall, Leicestershire; buried at Nether Whitacre, Warwicks]
Charles Jennens' music collection is bequeathed to the Earl of Aylesford. Later, the Earl's collection is referred to as the "Aylesford Collection".

1774

25 February : The English composer Samuel Arnold (1740-1802) presents Omnipotence, a pasticcio of Handel's works. [LTH]

1775

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach conducts Messiah [Hamburg]

1776

The Concert of Antient Music forms. Joah Bates is the musical director. [London]

1777

Wolfgang Mozart (21) attends Georg Vogler's rehearsal of Part I of Messiah [Mannheim]

1779

The Baron van Swieten (1733-1803) persuades the Tonkünstler Sozietät to put on a considerably altered Judas Maccabaeus. The performance failed to raise significant funds for charity. [Vienna]

1782-3

The Baron van Swieten holds regular informal meetings on Sundays at his library. Mozart becomes acquainted with the music of J.S. Bach and Handel. [Vienna]

1784

26 May - 5 June : Five concerts devoted to the music of GFH are directed by Joah Bates (1740-1799). Mistakenly, this festival is touted by its organizers as the "Handel Centennial Commemoration." (See 1762 note above.) It is sponsored by the aristocratic directors of the Concert of Antient Music. [WA]

1786

10 March : Samuel Arnold produces Redemption, a pasticcio of Handel's works. [CG]
Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804) directs Messiah. Hiller is one of the first to update Handel's scoring to current musical tastes. [Berlin]

1787

Samuel Arnold begins to publish his collected edition of GFH's works. He publishes the 180 part edition up through 1797.

1788

November : Mozart arranges Acis and Galatea for Baron van Swieten's "Society of Associated Cavaliers". [Vienna]

1789

27 February : Samuel Arnolds produces The Triumph of Truth, a pasticcio from Handel's works and others. [DLT]
6 March : Premiere of Mozart's arrangement of Messiah for the Society. [Palffy Palace, Vienna]

1790

July : Mozart arranges Alexander's Feast and the Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day for the Society. [Vienna]

1791

Handel Festival held. Frans Joseph Haydn attends. [WA]

1792

The Academy of Ancient Music disbands. [London]

1795

3 October : John Christopher Smith (83; 1712-), the younger, dies. [Bath]

1799

William Coxe's (1747 - 1828) "Anecdotes of George Frederick Handel and John Christopher Smith" is published by W. Bulmer and Company (London). (NOTE 1: William Coxe is John Christopher Smith's stepson. NOTE 2: A facsimile reprint -- with an introduction by Percy M. Young -- is published in 1979.)

1805

Wolfgang Mozart's arrangement of Messiah (with further additions by Hiller) is performed at Covent Garden. A critic from the Sun opines:

"we entertain a very high respect for the genius of Mozart, but we also hold the unrivaled powers of Handel in due reverence, and therefore must enter our protest against any such alterations in works that have obtained the sanction of time and of the best musical judges."

1817

1, 4, 6 April : Messiah (spread over several nights) is performed by The Handel & Haydn Society (Boston). On each successive night, one part of Messiah and the corresponding part of Haydn's Creation were performed.

1818

Christmas Day: First American premiere of Messiah, complete, at a single performance -- by The Handel & Haydn Society. [Boylston Hall, Boston]

1826

8 July : The German musicologist Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander (-1901) is born. [Lübtheen, Mecklenburg]

1844

The English Handel Society, the first Handelian publishing society, is founded by Sir George Macfarren (1813-87) 'for the production of a superior and standard edition of the works of Handel' (according to its prospectus). [London]

1848

The English Handel Society folds. [London]

1851

Victor Schoelcher (1804-93), the French writer and politician, is exiled. He spends the next 18 years in England where his fascination with Handel is born.

1854

The Handel & Haydn Society begins to perform Messiah annually during the Christmas season. [Boston]

1856

The Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft is founded by Chrysander and the literary historian Gottfried Gervinus (1805–71) for the publication of a critical and uniform edition of the whole of Handel's works. Friedrich Chrysander is the sole active editor. [Leipzig]

1857

15, 17, 19 June : The "Great Handel Festival" or "Trial Festival", organized by The Sacred Harmonic Society, is held. A choir of approx. 2000 singers and an orchestra of 500 instrumentalists under the direction of Sir Michael Costa performed Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, and Israel in Egypt. [Crystal Palace, Sydenham, London]
Victor Schoelcher's book "The Life of Handel" is published. It is written by Schoelcher in French; James Lowe translates it into English. This is the first Handel biography to be based upon solid documentary research. In writing the book, Schoelcher assembles a vast collection of Handelian literature, music, and portraits.

1858

October : Chrysander and Max Seiffert, editors, publish the first volume of a critical edition of Handel's works: G.F. Händel's Werke: Ausgabe der Deutschen Händelgesellschaft (referred to elsewhere with the initials "HG"); this volume contains Susanna.

1859

June : The Handel Commemoration ("Second Grand Handel Festival") is held. A choir of 2765 singers and an orchestra of 460 instrumentalists under the direction of Sir Michael Costa performed Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and other selections. Following this performance, Handel festivals are held triennially until 1926. [Crystal Palace, Sydenham, London]

1860

The Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft folds. Friedrich Chrysander takes over the production of the editions himself, though retaining the society's name.
Chrysander publishes second volume of Handel's works.

1862

The "Great Triennial Handel Festival" is held. [Crystal Palace, Sydenham, London]

1866

Friedrich Chrysander begins to print and distribute the edition on his own in small printing shop in his garden. He never completes publication of his critical edition of Handel's works. [Bergedorf, near Hamburg]

1867

Chrysander publishes third volume of Handel's works.

1872

Victor Schoelcher's Handelian collection, known as the "Fonds Schoelcher", is donated to the Paris Conservatoire in three stages; it is now located with the Bibliothèque Nationale.

1877

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish dramatist, novelist, and critic, comments in a review of a performance of Messiah :

"Why, instead of wasting huge sums on the multitudinous dullness of a Handel Festival does not somebody set up a thoroughly rehearsed and exhaustively studied performance of the Messiah in St James's Hall with a chorus of twenty capable artists? Most of us would be glad to hear the work seriously performed once before we die."

1882

The Handel Society is formed; it is an amateur choral and orchestral society to revive his less well-known oratorios, as well as other choral music. [London]

1885

Handel Bicentennary is held.

1901

3 September: Chrysander dies. [Bergedorf, near Hamburg]

1910

Richard A. Streatfield's (1866-1919) biography "Handel" is published; it is reprinted in 1964.
Romain Rolland's (1866-1944) biography "Haendel" is pubished in French; it is translated into English in 1916.

1920

26 June : Oskar Hagan, an art history teacher at the University of Göttingen, stages Rodelinda -- the first staging of a Handel opera since 1754. This lead to the birth of the annual Göttingen Händel Festival. [Stadttheater, Göttingen]

1923

Sir Walter Newman Flower's (1879-1964) biography "George Frideric Handel: his Personality and his Times" is published. (A second edition is published in 1947.)

1925

The Neue Händel-Gesellschaft is founded on the German musicologist Arnold Schering's initiative. The society publishes a Händel-Jahrbuch (1928-33, ed. R. Steglich), the Hallische-Händel-Ausgabe (HHA; performing editions of Handel's works), and organizes a number of festivals. [Leipzig]

1931

The Göttinger Händel-Gesellschaft is formed.

1934

Willam Charles Smith (1881-1972), English musical librarian and biographyer, begins to assemble a personal collection of Handel material. This collection eventually contained over 200 early Handel editions and manuscripts.

1935

Erich H. Mühler's "The Letters and Writings of Georg Frideric Handel" is published.

1939

The Handel Society folds. [London]

1946

The Deal and Walmer Handelian Society is founded by the Handel scholar James S. Hall (1899-1975); its purpose is principally to give performances of the choral works.

1947

Percy M. Young's (1912-) biography "Handel" is published. It is republished three times -- the last time in 1979.

1948

William C. Smith's "Concerning Handel" is published.
Percy M. Young's "The Oratorios of Handel" is published.

1952

The Händelfestspiele Halle (Halle Handel Festival) begins.

1954

"Handel: A Symposium" is published; Gerald Abraham, editor.

1955

A new society, the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft (GFHG), is founded for the publication of a new collected edition, known as the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe (Halle Handel Edition; referred to elsewhere with the initials: "HHA"). Originally, the intent of the edition is to supplement Chrysander's editions; however, in 1958 it is announced that a full critical edition will be produced. The GFHG also supports the annual Handel festivals and begins to publish the annual Händel-Jahrbuch. [Halle]
With the encouragement of Edward J. Dent, the Handel Opera Society is founded; its purpose is for "reviving public interest in professional stage performances of Handel's dramatic works" (operas and oratorios). In total, 28 works were staged. Music director (until 1985): Charles Farncombe. Modern instruments and harpsichord are employed. [London]
Otto Erich Deutsch's (1883-1967) "Handel: a Documentary Biography" is published in English; it is reprinted in 1974. A German translation, volume 4 of the Händel-Handbuch, is published in 1985. (NOTE: In volume 4, some information from Deutsch's reference is deleted and some new information is included.)

1957

The Danish musicologist Jens Peter Larsen's (1902-88) "Handel's Messiah: Origins, Composition, Sources" is published; a second edition is published in 1972.

1959

Winton Dean's (1916-) "Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques" is published by Oxford University Press.

1960

William C. Smith's "Handel: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Early Editions" is published. (A second edition is published in 1970.)
The German musicologist Rudolf Steglich's (1886-1976) biography "Georg Friedrich Handel" is published.

1962

Gerald Coke purchases William C. Smith's Handel collection. Coke incorporates this collection with his own at Bentley, Hampshire. (See 1934.)

1965

William C. Smith's "A Handelian's Notebook" is published.
The Henry Watson Library, Manchester, acquires Sir Walter Newman Flower's extensive Handel collection (which includes the bulk of the Aylesford Manuscripts.)

1966

The American musicologist Paul Henry Lang's (1901-91) biography "George Frideric Handel" is published.

1969

Winton Dean's "Handel and the Opera Seria" is published by the University of California Press; it is republished in London in 1970..

1974

Princeton University purchases the James S. Hall Handel collection.

1977

The "Handel Opera Society" is renamed "Handel Opera".

1978

The "London Handel Festival" is founded by Denys Darlow.
The Hallische Händel-Ausgabe publishes the first volume of the Händel Handbuch. Volumes 1-3 contain the Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis prepared by Bernd Baselt (1934-93). Handel's works are organized by HWV numbers.) Volume 4, Dukemente zu Leben und Schaffen, a German translation of Otto Deutsch's "Handel: a Documentary Biography," is published in 1985. (See 1955 above.)

1980

John Eliot Gardiner (1943-) becomes the artistic director of the Göttingen Handel Festival.

1981

The Maryland Handel Festival is founded. [College Park, Maryland]

1984

The Göttinger Händel-Gesellschaft begins to publish the Göttinger Händel-Beiträge (Editor: Hans Joachim Marx; 1935-), an annual journal.
Christopher Hogwood's (1941-) biography "Handel" is published by Thames & Hudson; it includes a chronological table by Anthony Hicks.

1985

The Handel Opera Society closes following its production of Rodrigo. [London]
Jonathan Keates' biography "Handel: the Man and his Music" is published.
8 November - 23 February 1986 : The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds an exhibition, "Handel: A Celebration of his Life and Times". A book to accompany the exhibition is published (edited by Jacob Simon).

1986

The American Handel Society is established. [College Park, Maryland]

1987

Winton Dean and J. Merrill Knapp's (1914-93) "Handel's Operas 1704-1726" is published by Oxford University Press; it is revised in 1994.
The "Handel Tercentenary Collection" (edited by Stanley Sadies and Anthony Hicks) is published.
The Handel Institute (of Great Britain) is established. [London]

1990

Nicholas McGegan (1950-) becomes the artistic director of Göttingen Handel Festival, replacing John Eliot Gardiner.

1994

Donald Burrows' biography "Handel" is published.
Hampshire Record Office receives the papers (letters) of the Harris family, the Earls of Malmesbury. These become known as the "Malmesbury Papers". A significant number of James Harris' letters pertain to Handel.

1997

"The Cambridge Companion to Handel" is published by Cambridge University Press; Donald Burrows, editor.

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Last updated: August 30, 2020 · Site design: Duncan Fielden, Matthew Gardner and David Vickers

Chronology of George Frideric Handel's Life, Compositions, and his Times