The world of music is occupied with both the memory and current life of the musical equivalent of Albert Einstein. Often, these musical geniuses are grouped based on their style, background, or even their personal lives. An unfortunate example of this grouping is that of Bach and Handel. In his two articles, Handel: 300 Years Later and Bach: 300 Years Later, an author named Paul Henry Lang explains in depth why these two very famous composers have been incorrectly grouped together. Lang's articles are very intelligent and give notable and valid reasons on this specific topic. It discusses musical styles, their achievements, their personal lives, and how often the composers traveled. By comparing the two composers, Lang highlights a historical misunderstanding that has gone unnoticed for years. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe grouping of Bach and Handel is a very nasty grouping for these two composers. As Lang says, “the Bach-Handel hyphenation, which we owe to the Germans' claim to Handel as their own national composer, is one of the most ill-founded. Handel lived nearly half a century, that is to say his entire adult life, in England, became a naturalized British subject by Act of Parliament, composed all his important works in and for England , recognized expressis verbis his allegiance to his chosen country and is buried among the great ones of England in Westminster Abbey” (Lang). To claim that Handel is to Bach what Germany is to England is absolutely incorrect, because the two countries were in completely different cultural spaces at the time and the two composers demonstrated different musical styles and musical creations, specific to where they lived. Handel, for example, was a man of movement, moving from place to place, adopting new musical styles and creating his own from what already existed. Handel began as a young church organist and soon moved to Hamburg, Germany, to continue his studies in theater where he quickly rose from modest musician to respected opera producer. This resulted in Handel's first opera entitled Almira. From Germany, Handel moved to Italy where he remained for four years. According to Lang, "in less than a year he was at the top again, hobnobbing with princes and cardinals, and after the great success of his opera Agrippina in Venice (1709), a career opened up for him that would have the main composers of Italy in the shadows” (Lang). However, Handel was not interested in this career, instead he decided to move to England. England was the most advanced country at the time and Handel believed it was the ideal place to realize all his ambitions. Handel remained in England for most of the rest of his life. It was here that Handel began to deviate from what was considered normal and began to create his own rules for music. It began with ceremonial music that was loved by all and to this day the coronation anthem that Handel composed for George II has been used for all English monarchs from that time on. Handel began to "borrow" music from his past compositions and recreate them for new purposes. However, when people began to discover this, Handel faced a lot of backlash and was, at one point, even considered a plagiarist. Handel did not let this discourage him and continued to work in the world of opera. Handel composed and debutedmany operas and often incorporated the use of deus ex machina, which was considered unusual at the time. As he grew in the art of opera, people began to notice how “interruptions and substitutions are particularly attractive and expressive; he would enter the aria with recitatives or ariosos, or even replace the da capo section with something completely different, or suspend it and immediately enter the next number… his dramatic figures come to life through the intensity and vision psychological of music, which goes well beyond what is written in the text” (Lang). Handel had the ability to compose music that truly encompassed the full personality and humanity of the characters he would write for. He could go from sensual to heroic in the blink of an eye without the change being too drastic. Once Handel left opera, he developed the English Oratorio entirely himself. Compared to the Italian Oratorio, there are several notable differences. Most notable is that in the Italian Oratorio the chorus plays a minor role while, as in the English Oratorio, the chorus is the star. Through this, Handel created the action chorus, where the chorus becomes the protagonist. Towards the end of his life and his musical life, Handel used his music to explore complicated and subjective ideas. As Lang says: “Both Theodora and Jephtha Handel seem to have opened a new and final chapter in their creative lives. He seems to contemplate the meaning of life and the afterlife, and deep spiritual issues surround these works. These issues are hidden [and] difficult to explain…perhaps they are philosophical and religious, perhaps autobiographical. The local color, even the action, and all the details seem superfluous, only the soul speaks... it was while working on Jephté that blindness struck the composer and he had to put down his pen” (Lang). When examining Handel's instrumental works, many attempt to use his keyboard fugues to prove his inferiority to Bach, when in reality these fugues prove that "although his contrapuntal talent was formidable, he rarely used it consistently throughout a composition, not even within the composition.” fugues, for the simple reason that a dramatic composer cannot think in strict counterpoint; he needs a flexibility that allows him to deal with constantly changing situations and conflicts…Handel's polyphony is closer to Italian polyphony than to that of North Germany” (Lang). Handel discovered that thinking in a linear mindset would lead him into difficult situations and became remarkably adept at avoiding these situations in a majestic way. Handel was able to use ensembles in a remarkable way thanks to his sense of balance, color and his talent for composing complex and beautiful melodies. Overall, Handel's musical abilities far exceed those of other composers, both chorally and instrumentally. His comparison to Bach is unfair in the sense that he was much more open to the world and much more exposed to musical ideas than his fellow composer Bach. However, neither composer is better than the other, they both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Both Bach and Handel lived in Germany early in their lives, but Bach never left Germany, he just moved from place to place in Germany. It is for this reason that Bach was able to express himself in German musical traditions. Bach began as an organist, but remained in this position until his death. As Lang says: “Bach belonged to the rank ofcraftsmen, church organists” (Lang). Bach was taught by his older brother and then moved to Lüneburg where he was strongly influenced by Georg Bohm who was one of the most important composers of the time. In 1703 he was appointed organist in Arnstadt and again came under the influence of another musical giant. Then, in 1722, when Kuhnau, cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, died, Bach sought and eventually obtained the position which he held until his death. However, according to Lang, "it was only after Johann Friedrich Fasch, Telemann and Christoph Graupner... declined the invitation that they turned to Bach, concluding that in the absence of a good modern musician, they should settle for an old-fashioned musician.” (Language). There is a widespread and very erroneous myth that when Bach died, his music died with him until it was rediscovered almost a century later. However, this is completely inaccurate because according to Lang "the date of this rediscovery, and with it the beginning of Bach's renaissance, is attributed to March 11, 1829, when the young Mendelssohn performed the Matthew Passion at the head of the Singkakademie in Berlin. Bach was celebrated during his lifetime as the greatest keyboard virtuoso of his time and for his expertise in organ building” (Lang). Bach was a sacred composer and focused primarily on the church. Although he wrote primarily choral music, he was considered an instrumental composer. However, he was capable of writing in different styles. According to Lang, "Bach had a fantastic ability to reconcile and blend his German heritage with Italian and French music in a distinctly individual style, an ability he shared with Lassus, Handel and Mozart" (Lang). Bach developed the ability to write chamber music that was unprecedented, unaccompanied, and absolutely blew people away. This was a technique Bach was known for and which he invented himself. The melodies of these pieces were woven together but remained clean. As Bach continued his musical creations, he wrote the Goldberg Variations which were notable for moving away from the traditional figured bass and writing a very detailed harpsichord part which he called cembalo concertato. Bach also began to "borrow" his own violin concertos, rewriting and completely reworking them for the harpsichord. Bach is known for his instrumental music, but especially for his organ music. Where Handel wrote nothing for the organ, Bach wrote pieces that still remain coveted today. As Lang describes them, "the stylistic range is phenomenal, from the kind of counterpoint of Ockeghem's time to the bold modern language of the toccatas that began with Frescobaldi...it is this spirit that we find in Bach's great organ works with their pedal rumbles. , dramatic harmonic surprises and strettos. These works dominate all organ literature and remain forever uncontested” (Lang). Bach had the ability to write pieces that made the organ show characters that people didn't know it could show. Since Bach was so closely linked to the Church, he also wrote choral hymns and developed a new style for them. “The artistic goal was to keep the chorale melody intact or almost intact, while exploiting it in the most sophisticated melodic, rhythmic and contrapuntal manner” (Lang). This was one of Bach's greatest contributions to choral music. He was able to take these pieces and write them to the point where you would think he had done everything he could, but then he would add something more. As Bach continued to compose, he began to use symbolism in his.