King and Country: How Handel’s Coronation Anthems Outlived the British Monarchy
Though he never achieved the monumental popularity of Beethoven or Mozart, George Frideric Handel led a charmed existence; his compositions, which provided him with significant financial success, have been consistently performed from his own lifetime through the modern day. Handel rose to prominence as a composer of operas, in which he successfully blended Italian Baroque style with German choral tradition. As a young composer on the rise, Handel was invited by a patron to leave his homeland of Germany and…