Bach vs. Händel

One never knows what to expect from destiny that whimsically rules our life. Take two renowned composers of the 18th century – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Born in the same year and in the same country they lived diverse earthly and musical lives without ever meeting each other.

Handel as a secular person was fond of publicity, success and recognition while Bach was a devout man who created for the sake of creativity. Handel was a devoted traveller who sojourned in different countries while Bach due to certain circumstances never left his homeland. Each of them followed his own way in creative work: Bach preferred religious themes in his works which were permeated by glorification of God whilst Handel was inclined to compose secular music. Bach received acclamation from public as an organ player and performer in the first place and then as a composer, Handel, on the other hand, purely wrote music.

On the whole, these two unique musicians have one thing in common – they won fame and respect as the greatest composers of the Baroque Era.

Lascia Ch'io Pianga from Opera Rinaldo. Georg Friedrich Händel

The Violin

In this instrument ("the king of instruments") the art of instrument making has reached its highest point in terms of simplicity of materials and effect. The violin has the unique advantage of combining the emotional expressiveness and flexibility of the human voice, which it closely resembles, with a special brilliance and agility of its own in passage work. Unlike the human voice, the violin can also play chords to some extent.



This instrument first emerged in the sixteenth century and evolved substantially to its present form in the eighteenth century with Antonius
Stradivarius. Certain changes were made in the nineteenth century to in crease the power and brilliance of the violin. The bow, "the soul of the instrument," is strung with horsehair, and it assumed its present form about 1780 in the hands of Franfois Tourte, still considered the greatest of all bowmakers.

The violin is fully chromatic (that is, can play all the semitones) throughout its range. Originally the violin I part had more interesting and difficult things to do than the violin II. Since Wagner, however, the latter part has become increasingly difficult, and in some scores one part is as difficult as the other.

Almost any violin concerto will give an idea of the violin's capacity for
singing tone and brilliant passage work.

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No1 Part 1

The Fugue

The Fugue was an instrumental form, diligently cultivated in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, a movement, founded upon a given Subject, repeated sometimes in one part, sometimes in another, and enriched with all the clever contrapuntal devices the ingenuity of its composer could suggest.

The Fugue was successfully introduced by Lulli into nearly all the Overtures to his once celebrated Operas, and employed with infinitely greater effect by Handel and Bach, who used it freely in their choral, as well as their instrumental compositions, and brought it to a state of perfection which has never since been equaled. Bach's Wohltemperirte Klavier contains Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of inimitable beauty: while, among Handel's Overtures and Choruses, we find innumerable specimens of the style which have always been regarded as his grandest and most sublime conceptions. Corelli has also left us some fine instrumental examples.