Bach and Händel: a Comparison

The knowledge we have today of the figures of Bach and Händel is related mainly to the diverse characterology available, overflowing with contrasts and teeming with equivalences according to Prof. Dr. Alberto Basso in his magisterial work entitled Bach e Händel: un confronto. Music, the bond that unites them, was interpreted in a very different way by the artistic, musical, professional and even religious aspects of their personalities. While there are common elements in the early parts of their careers, and in the freedom employed in the use of elective affinities that later sealed their artistic personalities, their testimony serves as an excellent example of the wealth of nuances with which one can express oneself. According to Alberto Basso, the musical depths of Bach owe especially to a heartfelt liturgical prevalence grafted from the essential spirituality that drove all his work. Distinctly but not contradictorily, Händel’s approach stems from the evocation of a religiosity that befits the open nature of the public theatre of the time. Both composers created works of great importance in their youth. Although Bach lacked theatre experience, he became an
extraordinary craftsman of this art. He did not seek a practical eclecticism, but rather a real experience of his trade, becoming, therefore, organist Konzertmeister, Kapellmeister and municipal Direktor Musices. Around 1744 he also became interested in speculative music. His children also each sought their own path in musical art. In 1738 Christoph Lorenz Mizler, a former student of Bach, founded La Società per corrispondenza delle sciencie musicali in Leipzig. Bach was admitted, although, as Alberto Basso highlights, he limited himself to the creation of music for common use, though endowing it with that divine radiance that made him immortal.