The Handel festival or "Commemoration" took place in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
between 26 May and 5 June 1784, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...
in 1759.
The commemoration was organized by
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. During his life ...
and the
Concerts of Antient Music and took the form of a series of concerts of Handel's music, given in the Abbey by vast numbers of singers and instrumentalists.
Above Handel's own monument in the Abbey, there is a small additional tablet to record the commemoration. An account of the commemoration was published by
Charles Burney
Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...
in the following year (1785).
The commemoration established a fashion for large-scale performances of Handel's choral works throughout the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth. E.D. Mackerness (in ''A Social History of English Music'') described it as "the most important single event in the history of English music".
References
*E.D. Mackerness, A Social History of English Music, London, 1964.
*H. Diack Johnstone, A Ringside Seat at the Handel Commemoration. Musical Times, Vol. 125, No. 1701 (Nov., 1984), pp. 632–633+635-636
*William Weber, The 1784 Handel Commemoration as Political Ritual. Journal of British Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 43–69
*Pierre Dubois, Reviews of the Handel Commemoration of 1784: Discourse and Reception
ESSE-8: LONDON 2006
External links
Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster-Abbey (London: Payne, 1785)
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061014160518/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/library/burial/handel.htm , date=14 October 2006
by Donald Burrows
by William Weber
George Frideric Handel
Baroque music
Handel festivals
1784 festivals
Classical music festivals in England