Wes Crone wrote:

>Handel was a German-born composer who wrote music while living in England.
>Eventually, he applied for and, I believe, was granted English citizenship
>in or around 1727.

and Christopher Rosevear wrote:

>Yes indeed! "1727 wurde ihm das englische Burgerrecht verliehen" - in
>1727 he became an English citizen (applying on 13 February for English
>citizenship; 20 February: Royal Assent bestowed on Act to naturalize
>GFH)... and stayed here mainly and died here in 1757. Even adopted the
>English form of his name, Handel instead of Haendel.

Firstly: there was, and still is, no such thing as an "English citizen".
Bill Hong's description of Handel as a subject of the Crown is the correct
one.

Secondly: several references give the date of Handel's death as 1759 (14th
April), not 1757. As to whether he was naturalized in 1726 or 1727 I don't
suppose it matters too much now, but it does seem unlikely that he could
apply on 13 February and have an Act passed by Parliament and given the
Royal Assent all within one week. However that may be, he was only in his
early forties when he became a British subject and remained so until his
death over thirty years later, having also lived here for some fifteen
years before naturalization, so that was even chronologically speaking a
substantial proportion of his adult life, let alone musically speaking.

Thirdly: regarding the form of his name, "Handel" is indeed the form which
appeared in his Petition for Naturalization, and is therefore the form
which is normally used, at least in Britain and America. But his middle
name appears in the Petition as Frideric rather than Frederick, which is
likewise why Frideric is still used. His family is known to have spelt its
name in at least fifteen different ways, including Haendel, Hendel, and
Handel with and without an umlaut on the a, which are all spellings he used
himself at different times. [I believe that Kaplan became Copland through
the error of an immigration official (cries he with silent lips). Who
knows, Herr Hendl may have had a similar experience.]

But the point about Handel's Britischkeit is not only that he lived here
for many years and wrote much of his music here and at some point became
naturalized. That in itself would not have been nearly enough to earn his
bones their place in Westminster Abbey. No, even while still officially an
alien he had a leading role in British musical life, and a central
influence. He was even then what we would call these days a major player,
and later became an icon. Although he is now perhaps best known for his
oratorios and instrumental works, he was of course primarily an opera
composer. His early years in London centred very much on the opera
companies and the theatres in which they performed, and he took a leading
role in the management of several of these companies. He was closely
involved with the Royal Academy of Music since it was first established by
Royal Charter in 1719 and came over time to shoulder total responsibility
for it.

In 1733 a rival opera company was established, and many of Handel's singers
defected to it, including a celebrated castrato whom Handel had headhunted
in Italy. At that point he had to relinquish the premier opera venue, the
Haymarket opera house (renamed since the accession of George I as the
King's Theatre), so he moved his opera company to Covent Garden.

It was the Covent Garden Theatre which on 23 March 1743 saw the first
performance of 'Messiah'. The concert was attended by the King, George II,
and as the Hallelujah Chorus started the King rose to his feet and stood
throughout, so naturally the whole audience did so too. (The awe and
reverence in which Handel is still held in Britain is evidenced by the fact
that the audience standing for the Hallelujah Chorus has become a tradition
which is still observed to this day, even when local choirs sing it in
school halls.) That sort of recognition, plus burial in Westminster Abbey,
has to be just about as good as it gets, British-wise, for a commoner.

After his death his cult, if I can call it that, continued. Strongly
supported by that great Handelian, King George III*, mega Handel
Commemorations were held in Westminster Abbey in 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787,
1791 and again in 1834, the first of these huge events raising a large
amount of money for the eleemosynary Royal Society of Musicians, which
received its Royal Charter on that occasion. More Handel Festivals were
held at the Crystal Palace in south London (since destroyed by fire)
beginning in 1857 and continuing usually triennially till 1926.

*I believe that when the play 'The Madness of George III' was made into a
film they had to change the name to 'The Madness of King George' for fear
that the original title would be thought by Americans to be a sequel.

Alan Moss