George Friedrich Handel was born, Georg Friedrich Handel. He was born in Halle, Germany in 1685. He is considered by many as the best baroque composer to have lived. While it was his fathers wish that he study law, he reluctantly allowed Handel to study music. When he was just seven he began to study music with Friedrich Willhelm Zachow, the church organist in Halle. This was to be Handel's only formal musical training. .
In 1703 Handel moved to Hamburg, the center of opera in Germany. It was Hamburg that he received his grounding and love of opera. However Handel loved to travel and in 1706 moved to Italy for three years before returning to England where his opera Rinaldo was produced and he was awarded the royal pension. While in London he also wrote music for the church and court.
By 1717 Handel had entered the service of the Earl of Carnarvon, the soon to be king, for whom he wrote two dramatic works and eleven anthems. It was also during this period that he wrote the Water Music to serenade George the first at a river party on the Thames. It was in 1718 Handel made the decision to start an academy to perform his operas and in 1720, with himself as director, the Royal Academy of Music had its opening. The Academy enjoyed mixed success before its collapse in 1728.
It was towards the end of the academy that Handel wrote his four anthems for the coronation of King George the second and took British naturalization. Shortly after he embarked on a five-year concert series with the Academy Imperasario, which too collapsed after only a few years of mixed success.
In 1730 Handel accepted an invitation to Oxford where he wrote such operas as Athalia and Orlando, two with ballets, Ariondante and Alcina. Throughout the rest of the 1730's Handel switched between opera and oratorio. After Messiah had its premier {in aid of charities} in 1741 he began to focus on oratorios usually at the new Covent Garden theatre and at or close to the lent season.