
The Lives of George Frideric Handel
David Hunter(Author)
Boydell Press
Published on 19. November 2015
Book
Hardback
536 pages
978-1-78327-061-3 (ISBN)
Description
How have Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories moulded our understanding of the musician, the man and the icon?
To evaluate the familiar, even over-familiar, story of Handel's life could be seen as a quixotic endeavour. How can there be anything new to say? This book seeks to distinguish fact from fiction, not only to produce a new biography but also to explore the concepts of biography and dissemination by using Handel's life and lives as a case study. By examining the images of Handel to be found in biographies and music histories - the genius, the religious profound, the master of musical styles, the distiller into music of English sentiment, the glorifier of the Hanoverians, the hymner of the middle class, the independent, the prodigious, the generous, the sexless, the successful, the wealthy, the bankrupt, the pious, the crude, the heroic, the devious, the battler of ill-fortune, the moral exemplar - and by adding new factual information, David Hunter shows how events are manipulated into stories and tropes. One such trope has been employed to portray numerous persons as Handel's enemies regardless of whether Handel considered them as such. Picking apart the writing of Handel's biographers and other reporters, Hunter exposes the narrative underpinnings - the lies, confusions, presumptions, and conclusions, whether direct and inferred or assumed - to show how Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories have moulded our understanding of the musician, the man and the icon.
DAVID HUNTER is Music Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin.
To evaluate the familiar, even over-familiar, story of Handel's life could be seen as a quixotic endeavour. How can there be anything new to say? This book seeks to distinguish fact from fiction, not only to produce a new biography but also to explore the concepts of biography and dissemination by using Handel's life and lives as a case study. By examining the images of Handel to be found in biographies and music histories - the genius, the religious profound, the master of musical styles, the distiller into music of English sentiment, the glorifier of the Hanoverians, the hymner of the middle class, the independent, the prodigious, the generous, the sexless, the successful, the wealthy, the bankrupt, the pious, the crude, the heroic, the devious, the battler of ill-fortune, the moral exemplar - and by adding new factual information, David Hunter shows how events are manipulated into stories and tropes. One such trope has been employed to portray numerous persons as Handel's enemies regardless of whether Handel considered them as such. Picking apart the writing of Handel's biographers and other reporters, Hunter exposes the narrative underpinnings - the lies, confusions, presumptions, and conclusions, whether direct and inferred or assumed - to show how Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories have moulded our understanding of the musician, the man and the icon.
DAVID HUNTER is Music Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin.
Reviews / Votes
At the heart of his project is an attempt to explore the gap between image and individual-in this case, between 'Handel' and Handel. Handel as image, argues Hunter, is a phenomenon that has superseded Handel the person.the care and intelligence with which Hunter interrogates the facts of Handel's life, and their use by biographers, should attract the attention of all readers interested in the perils and pleasures of biography. * EARLY MUSIC * [A] unique contribution to Handel scholarship. * MUSIC & LETTERS * Handel was an early entrepreneurial composer: he owned his own opera company, he borrowed from himself and others to increase his musical output, and he was impressively resourceful for his time. This study focuses on the multiple representations of Handel that were at least partly a result of his legendary resourcefulness as well as on questions that remain about his sexuality, health (disability), nationalism, friends and acquaintances, and so on. * CHOICE *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Woodbridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
18 s/w Abbildungen
17 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
1134 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78327-061-3 (9781783270613)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

David Hunter
The Lives of George Frideric Handel
E-Book
11/2015
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download

David Hunter
Lives of George Frideric Handel
E-Book
11/2015
1st Edition
Boydell & Brewer
€48.99
Available for download
Person
David Hunter
Content
Introduction
The Audience: Three Broad Categories, Three Gross Errors
The Audience: Partner and Problem
Musicians and Other Occupational Hazards
Patrons and Pensions
Musical Genres and Compositional Practices
Self and Health
Self and Friends
Nations and Stories
Biographers' Stories
Conclusion
Bibliography
The Audience: Three Broad Categories, Three Gross Errors
The Audience: Partner and Problem
Musicians and Other Occupational Hazards
Patrons and Pensions
Musical Genres and Compositional Practices
Self and Health
Self and Friends
Nations and Stories
Biographers' Stories
Conclusion
Bibliography