George Frederic Handel
February 23, 1684 – April 14, 1759
Before Beethoven, before Mozart, before Tchaikovsky…there was Handel. One of the big three composers of the pre-Classical Baroque era (along with Bach and Vivaldi) Georg Friederich Händel quickly became known in his Brandendburg-Prussian hometown (modern-day Germany). Before the age of 10, he was discovered playing a church organ and his formal music education commenced. Marked by distinctively harmonic – if LONG – cantatas and church compositions, Handel’s early career led him to Hamburg and then to Italy, where he composed sacred church music when classic Italian opera was not allowed by the Pope.
While accumulating a stunning repertoire of religious compositions, the call of Italian opera never left him. By the time he settled in England, he made it his mission to bring the artform to the public there. As the house composer at the stately Cannons estate, Handel undertook what would become many of his defining works. He helped found the Royal Academy of Music in 1719 and spent the last decades of his life in London writing and producing dozens of operas, concertos and oratorios. His most famous of the latter, 1741’s Messiah, is arguably Handel’s grandest masterwork…if not, at least, his most famous.
Wildly popular in life, Handel premiered his operas and orchestral suites at all the grandest theatres in London. He composed anthems for the coronation of King George II. In all he composed more than 200 pieces. Handel was injured in a carriage accident in the Netherlands later in life and eventually lost his sight. He died an icon at the age of 74 and more than 3000 mourners attended his funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Burial
Westminster Abbey – London, UK
Specific Location
The South Transept (aka “Poet’s Corner”) – at the western side of this famous area, underneath a nearby wall memorial to him. Adjacent to Charles Dickens.
Celebrity Graveland 
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