What was george fredric handel's most famous work?

Answer 1

I would guess his "Wassermusik" ("water music") and "Feuerwerksmusik" ("Music for the royal fireworks"), along with his oratorio "Messiha".

One of his most famous pieces, the passacaglia in g-minor 432, wasn't well known at all till the transcription by Halvorsen. It has been originally for harpsichord.

Answer 2

Messiah (HWV 56)[1] is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.[n 1]

Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1713, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s, in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of conventional opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and very little direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on Jesus Christ as Messiah, moving from the prophetic utterances of Isaiah and others, through the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection of Christ to his ultimate glorification in heaven.

Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by (among others) Mozart. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been towards authenticity; most contemporary performances show a greater fidelity towards Handel's original intentions, although "big Messiah" productions continue to be mounted. Since a near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928, the work has been recorded many times.

In the Christian tradition, the figure of the "Messiah" or redeemer is identified with the person of Jesus, known by his followers as the Christ or "Jesus Christ", although the extent to which he made this claim for himself is less clear.[14] Handel's Messiah has been described by the early-music scholar Richard Luckett as "a commentary on [Jesus Christ's] Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension", beginning with God's promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven.[15] In contrast with most of Handel's oratorios, the singers in Messiah do not assume dramatic roles, there is no single, dominant narrative voice, and very little use is made of quoted speech. Jennens's intention was not to dramatise the life and teachings of Jesus, but to acclaim the "Mystery of Godliness",[16] using a compilation of extracts from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.[17]

The three-part structure of the work approximates to that of Handel's three-act operas, with the "parts" subdivided by Jennens into "scenes". Each scene is a collection of individual numbers or "movements" which take the form of recitatives, arias and choruses.[16] There are two instrumental numbers, the opening Sinfony[n 2] in the style of a French overture, and the pastoral Pifa, often called the "pastoral symphony", at the mid-point of Part I.[19]

In Part I, the Messiah's coming and the Virgin Birth are predicted by the Old Testament prophets. The annunciation to the shepherds of the birth of the Christ is represented in the words of St Luke's Gospel. Part II covers Christ's Passion and his death, his Resurrection and Ascension, the first spreading of the Gospel through the world, and a definitive statement of God's glory summarised in the "Hallelujah". Part III begins with the promise of Redemption, followed by a prediction of the Day of Judgment and the "general Resurrection", ending with the final victory over sin and death and the acclamation of Christ.[20] According to the musicologist Donald Burrows, much of the text is so allusive as to be largely incomprehensible to those ignorant of the biblical accounts.[16] For the benefit of his audiences, Jennens printed and issued a pamphlet explaining the reasons for his choices of scriptural selections

Answer 3

The Messiah was his most popular, Zadok the Priest, and Music for The World of Fireworks is another.

Answer 4

the Messiah and Rinaldo

Answer 5

Messiah