Handel | Page 5

free meals at his father's house. He evidently
regarded him as a very simple and provincial young musician, a notable
organist indeed, and a master of such learned devices as counterpoint
and fugue, but a dull composer, turning out endless arias and cantatas
with no sense of the fashionable Italian taste.

It was Mattheson, by his own account, who introduced Handel to the
musical life of Hamburg. The opera was closed for the summer, and
Keiser's celebrated winter concerts, at which the wealthy society of
Hamburg listened to the most famous singers and regaled themselves
with tokay, had not yet begun; but there was no lack of social
distractions, in which music no doubt played its part. In August the two
friends made a journey to Lubeck, to compete for the post of organist at
the Marienkirche in succession to Dietrich Buxtehude, who was nearly
seventy and ready to retire. But both Buxtehude and the town council
insisted that the new organist should marry his predecessor's daughter,
in order to save the town the necessity of providing for her; she was
considerably older than the two youthful candidates, and they both
withdrew in haste. Late in life Mattheson married the daughter of an
English clergyman; Handel remained a bachelor to the end of his days.
It was no doubt through Mattheson that Handel, in the autumn, entered
the opera band as a humble second violinist. He seems to have been of
a very retiring and quiet disposition, although of a dry humour. Opera
management at Hamburg was no less precarious than it was in London;
Keiser could not afford the Italian singers patronised by the German
princes, and his performances had often to be helped out by amateurs of
all classes. On one occasion the harpsichord-player failed him; Handel
took his place at short notice, and his musicianship was at once
recognised. Unfortunately Mattheson, whose chronology is always
rather uncertain, does not tell us when this occurred. In addition to his
duties in the orchestra, Handel earned a living by teaching private
pupils, and through Mattheson he was engaged by Mr. John Wyche, the
English Envoy, as music-master to his small son Cyril.
Early in 1704 Mattheson went to Holland, where he had some success
in organising concerts at Amsterdam, and was offered the post of
organist at Haarlem. He seems to have had some idea of seeking his
fortune in England; he spoke English well, and may have had useful
connexions in England through Mr. John Wyche. But in March Handel
wrote to him that the Hamburg opera could not get on without him, and
to Hamburg he returned. It soon must have become clear to him that
Handel was rapidly outgrowing any need of his condescending

patronage. A _Passion according to St. John_, the words of which had
been written by Postel, an opera-poet turned pietist, had been set to
music by Handel, and performed on Good Friday with marked success.
Mattheson arrived too late to hear it, but it is significant that twenty
years later he published a scathing criticism of it, although it is a work
of little importance in relation to Handel's complete career, and can
seldom have been performed. A Passion oratorio by Keiser was
produced at the same time, it may well have been that Handel's work,
youthful and conventional as it is, was enough to arouse the jealousy of
both Keiser and Mattheson.
Shortly after Easter, Keiser began the composition of a new opera,
Almira, on a libretto by the local poet Feustking, but for some reason or
other he found it necessary to call in Handel's assistance, and
eventually left the whole work to Handel to compose. It was to be
produced in the autumn. Handel seems to have consulted Mattheson
over every detail of the opera; there exists a complete score in
Mattheson's handwriting, with corrections and additions by Handel.
Mattheson spent the summer enjoying a country holiday in
Mecklenburg; Handel probably went on with his opera, at Hamburg. In
October, just as the opera season was reopening, Mattheson contrived
to get himself engaged by Sir Cyril Wych as tutor to his son; he also
took over the boy's musical education, hinting that Handel was
dismissed for neglect of his duties. In view of Handel's strictly
honourable character it is difficult to believe that he was guilty of
neglect, and we may naturally suppose him to have resented the loss of
a lucrative appointment.
The first opera of the autumn was not Handel's Almira, but an opera by
Mattheson, called Cleopatra. Mattheson, always eager to exhibit his
versatility, sang the part of Antony himself, and, not content with that,
came into the orchestra as soon as Antony had died on the stage and
kept himself in view of the audience by conducting