George Frideric Handel

"Whether I was in my body or out of my body I know not. God knows it!"

"I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself."

"I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better."

"You have taken far too much trouble over your opera. Here in England that is mere waste of time. What the English like is something that they can beat time to, something that hits them straight on the drum of the ear."

"Er ist der Meister von uns allen!"

"Händel ist der unerreichte Meister aller Meister. Gehen Sie und lernen Sie von ihm, wie gewaltige Wirkungen mit einfachen Mitteln zu erreichen ist."

"Händel ist der größte Komponist, der je lebte. Ich würde meine Kopfbedeckung abnehmen und auf seinem Grab knien."

"Händel ist der Größte und Fähigste aller Komponisten; von ihm kann ich immer noch lernen."

"His hallelujahs open the heavens. He utters the word "Wonderful," as if all their trumpets spoke together. And then, when he comes to earth, to make love amidst nymphs and shepherds (for the beauties of all religions found room within his breast), his strains drop milk and honey, and his love is the youthfulness of the Golden Age."

"Handel is so great and so simple that no one but a professional musician is unable to understand him."

"Handel paralysed music in England for generations and they have not yet quite got over him."

"Every Englishman believes that Handel now occupies an important position in heaven. If so, le bon Dieu must feel toward him very much as Louis Treize felt toward Richelieu."

"Handel is one of the giants of musical history. His is happy, confident, melodic music imbued with the grace of the Italian vocal school, an easy fluency in German contrapuntal writing and the English choral tradition inherited from Purcell."