1748), grave and gay by turns, realistic yet lyric, is a hybrid kind of work, but very original.
Finally, in the spring of 1749, which marks, so it seems, the end of Handel's good fortune, he wrote his brilliant Firework Music—a model for popular open-air fêtes—produced on April 27, 1749, by a monster orchestra of trumpets, horns, oboes, and bassoons, without stringed instruments, on the occasion of the Firework display given in Green Park to celebrate the Peace of Aix la Chapelle.[1]
More solemn works followed these gay pieces. At this moment of his life the spirit of melancholy raised its grey head before the robust old man, who seemed to be obsessed by the presentiment of some coming ill fortune.
On May 27, 1749, he conducted at the Foundling Hospital[2] for the benefit of waifs and strays, his beautiful Anthem for the Foundling Hospital,[3] which was inspired by his great pity for these little
- ↑ The Firework Music has been published in Volume XLVII of the Complete Handel Edition. For the performance on April 27, 1749, the orchestra numbered one hundred. Schoelcher has published a correspondence on the subject of this work between Lord Montague, General-in-Chief of the Artillery, and Charles Frederick, Controller of the King's fireworks. One sees there that very serious differences arose between Handel and Lord Montague.
- ↑ The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1739 by an old mariner, Thomas Coram, "for the maintenance and education of abandoned children." Handel devoted himself to this institution, and gave performances of the Messiah annually for its funds. In 1750 he was elected a Governor of the Hospital, after he had made it a gift of an organ.
- ↑ Vol. XXXVI of the Complete Handel Edition. The Foundling Anthem, of which more than one page is taken from the Funeral Anthem, finishes with the Hallelujah from the Messiah in its original form.
