Handel House

One of my favorite things in the whole world is Handel's Oratorio Messiah.  I have sung in the Ripon Oratorio Society's presentation of it every year for at least the last quarter of a century, and my formerly soft-cover score has been hard bound and had my name embossed on the front (a Christmas gift from my husband who knows how much I love it!).  So of course I wouldn't miss out on a chance to visit Handel's birthplace!  The images above are of a score of Messiah open to the Hallelujah Chorus written by Handel himself. This manuscript resides in the treasure room of "Handel House," which is now a museum.

The house is quite large and encompasses not only the building you see on the corner below but also the one with the steep roof next to it.  This is the house in which Handel was born and is where he spent the first 18 years of his life.

Though I adore Messiah to the point of near obsession, I didn't think I'd necessarily spend a whole lot of time in this museum dedicated to its composer - was figuring half an hour to forty-five minutes.  I'm not sure how long I spent here, but it was quite a bit longer than that.  The museum is so large and well presented, and the descriptions of the displays were so interesting; I think I read every single thing that was posted.  The room shown below shows a map of the city streets and also buildings that were significant in Handel's life - such as his home, the Market Church, the cathedral, and so on.

Many descriptions and quotations were painted right on the walls.  I don't know that I'd seen that done before, but it worked well.  Some of the larger signs were words of his friends or admirers.  I especially like the one from Beethoven (two pictures down).

Another wall painting was this map of where Handel had lived.  I had no idea he'd lived so many places!  Next to this on the wall was a timeline of his life and when it was he had been in each place, for what reasons he had moved, etc.

It's interesting how the next image resonated with me as being similar to childhood stories of some of the mathematicians I've been studying.  Apparently Handel's father had forbidden him to pursue music, which had become an "absorbing passion" for him.  For a time the family thought their house was haunted, as they were hearing sounds coming from the attic, but a trip up there one night found Handel playing under cover of darkness.

Handel was born on February 23, 1695 and was baptized the next day in the Marienkirche (also known as the Marktkirche or Market Church).  The church and baptismal font are pictured below.

 The church is the four-towered structure in the center of the picture, and the statue in the foreground is of Handel.  For more pictures of the church (inside and out, above and below), click here.

According to one of the wall displays in the museum, Handel "had his first and only musical education from Fredrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712), the organist of [this] church.  The small organ above the altar, built by Georg Reichel in 1664, was available to the boy from the beginning.  He would have seen the large organ [at the back of the church], built by Christoph Cunzius and whose original outer case is still visible today, only on his later visits to Halle.  None other than Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a report on this organ in 1716; between 1746 and 1764 his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) was organist here  .  .  ."

Halle Cathedral (or "Dom") is pictured below - as seen from the top of the Marienkirche.  Handel was hired to be organist here in 1702.  In 1688 the church had been handed over to the newly-arrived Calvinists as their parish church.  Handel was Lutheran, so he was appointed to a one-year probationary term only.  Since the Calvinist worship was relatively limited musically, Handel had to restrict himself, though on feast days he probably had a choir available to him from the local reformed grammar school.

It was interesting to me to read of worship music concerns of the day.  As they say, "The more things change, the more they remain the same!"  Below is a picture of a "Cheerful Hymn-book" that Handel would have been familiar with.  The picture below that expresses the concern of orthodox Lutheran theologians of the "deeply subjective piety" of the texts and the "cheerful worldliness of its melodies."

Much of the museum is dedicated to the history of musical instruments in general (not necessarily having belonged to Handel).

Glass Harmonica

"Harmonium" - I never knew it was called that; my parents have one, and I've always called it a "pump organ."

In the market place is a statue of Halle's famous son, George Frederic Handel, and I must say I'm quite happy, upon closer inspection, to see what he is depicted holding in his hand.

And I can't finish without including the following products of Halle's chocolate factory (the oldest in Germany), the Halloren Schokoladenfabrik.

(The white bits on the chocolate are salt, which Halle/Saale is also famous for and is named for!)

Update from Back in the States

A "good-bye" through simultaneous photos at the Hauptbahnhof ("railway station") on Saturday, May 14, 2016 between me and Dr. Manfred Stern before I zoomed off to end my sabbatical travels - leaving behind this new dear friend and northern Europe and the beautiful city of Halle, Germany.

I bounced into California for three days before bouncing back eastward across much of the American continent for my son's college graduation.

And now, as of today, I am finally hanging out in one time zone for the foreseeable future!  However, this does not mean I am done posting!  I have mathematicians and locations I haven't touched on yet but will be posting about (though somewhat more slowly than during my travels), and I have posts that are yet "In Progress" that I will be finishing.

Here is what I yet plan to do at the moment - perhaps more as well!  I will change this post to reflect what has been completed as I finish each one:

Planned Upcoming Posts:

Worship in London                                                             (Completed May 26, 2016)
Handel House                                                                   (Completed May 28, 2016)
G. H. Hardy                                                                      (Completed June 4, 2016)
Long-overdue London Wrap-up                                            (Completed June 7, 2016)
More Mathmaticians & Miscellaneous Math Stuff                 (Completed July 13, 2016)
Closing Highlights                                                             (Completed July 15, 2016)

Posts in Progress:

Poet Robert Fergusson                                                       (Completed July 27, 2016)
David Hilbert                                                                      (Completed July 19, 2016)
Mathematical Gottingen                                                      (Completed August 5, 2016)

I'm also beginning to sort through all the many threads of information about people, places and events that I encountered in this trip and these studies, am needing to determine exactly how to weave them together into the talks I will be giving in the fall - as well as into elements that I can effectively incorporate into my teaching.  Somehow I'll also need to find a way to write up a final report in a full yet succinct way for the college.  Manfred and I found that we have many interests in common, so I hope as well to do some collaboration with him.  My travels may be done, but the sabbatical is going to echo in my life and in my teaching for a long time and in many ways.

But for now,  a couple more brief glimpses of that final city for me, Halle, the city of the five towers.  These videos were taken in the marketplace early in the morning before I hopped on the train - a view from below, and a view from above.  (The market booths were just getting set up, and there was some event taking place behind me in the marketplace - hence the loud speaker.)

Stadtgottesacker, Halle

On my first full day in Halle, prior to visiting the market place ("maktplatz") and church ("kirche"), my wonderful host, Dr. Manfred Stern, took me to see graves of mathematicians in the Stadtgottesacker.  It you take apart that word you see "stadt" for city, "gottes" for God's and "acker" for "acre."  So it is "God's acre of the town;" I think that's a great name for a cemetery!

I believe this is the only Renaissance-style cemetery in Europe north of the alps.  It was designed in the same fashion as the Campo Santo in Pisa, Italy and has been here since 1557.

 The tombstone below, which is also visible in the center of the photograph above, is that of little-known mathematician Friedrich Meyer.  He was not a university professor but rather a teacher at the Stadtgymnasium.  However, he was on close terms with Halle University and professors Eduard Heine and Georg Cantor there.  He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Halle University in 1894.

 Manfred, who had discovered this tombstone years ago while looking for the tombstone of famed mathematician Eduard Heine, showed me this particularly stone because this mathematician and I share a surname and because the tombstone is mathematically interesting - inscribed with mathematical objects somewhat reminiscent of what was said to be on the tombstone of Archimedes.

We also looked for Heine's grave, which Manfred had taken a picture of in about 1980.  It was in good shape then, but it looks like in the past 36 years it has either deteriorated or been removed.  It should be in the area of what is shown in the photograph below.  If there's one thing I've learned on these travels it is that our memorials are not permanent!

We did see the tomb of mathematician Johann Andreas Segner (1704-1777).  From 1735-1755 he taught physics, mathematics and chemistry at the University of Gottingen. He also founded the observatory there.  Then from 1755 until his death he taught physics, mathematics and astronomy at the University of Halle.  He invented a precursor of the turbine, which was known as the Segner wheel, and he was visited in Halle by Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), who used Segner's results in his own mechanical investigations.*

*Information on Segner taken from the Mathematical Intelligencer (vol. 15, no. 2, 1993) article The Stadtgottesacker in Halle by Dr. Manfred Stern.