George Frideric Handel and The Foundling Hospital, London

George Frideric Handel began his association with The Foundling Hospital almost ten years after its opening. He is mentioned for the first time in the minutes of a meeting of The Foundling Hospital’s General Committee on 4th May 1749. The Committee thanks Handel for

“...having generously and charitably offered a performance of vocal and instrumental music to be held at this Hospital, and that the money arising therefrom should be applied to the finishing the Chapel of the Hospital Resolved.”. (1)

In May, 1749 Handel conducted his first concert in the Chapel itself. The sell-out performance was attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and raised more than £350 for the Foundling Hospital.

Handel’s specially-composed piece, Blessed are they that considereth the poor and needy , soon became known as The Foundling Hospital Anthem. 

The next year, 1750, Handel conducted a performance of his Messiah in the same Chapel. In order to squeeze more guests into the Chapel, Handel requested that ladies remove the hoops from their skirts and gentlemen remove their swords. Despite these requests, so many tickets were over-sold that many ticket-holders were turned away. Handel gladly repeated the concert two weeks later, resulting in £1,000 from both concerts.

After his generous musical contribution to The Foundling Hospital, Handel soon became a Governor of the institution. Messiah, which had not been well received on its first performance in 1743, became an annual event. Despite eventually being unable to conduct due to illness, Handel attended every performance until his death in 1759.

There are a number of reasons why Handel may have felt drawn to support The Foundling Hospital through his charitable concerts.

• Handel  grew up in Halle in Saxony. He would have been aware of the inspirational,      progressive orphanage there, founded by Professor Francke.

• His  music publisher, John Walsh, was elected as a Governor of The Foundling  Hospital in 1748 and may have influenced Handel, who was childless, to  become musically involved in the charity.

• Handel  will have been aware of Antonio Vivaldi’s charity work in the 1730s.   Vivaldi was the concert master to the Pieta orphanage in Venice where he  trained a choir of young women to sing his compositions exquisitely, thus  resulting in many rich patrons for the Pieta.

The Foundling Hospital no longer exists, having been demolished in 1928.

However, next to the original Hospital site is The Foundling Museum which houses many of the Hospital’s preserved artefacts, including documents, clocks, furniture, paintings and sculpture. Amongst these treasures are many rare items relating to Handel.

For instance, in his Will, Handel left a fair copy of Messiah to The Foundling Hospital. Both the fair copy and the Will are on display at The Foundling Museum in a special Handel exhibition area on the second floor. This space, which has permanent and changing displays, also includes two ‘musical’ chairs which allow visitors to not only rest their feet but to listen to works by Handel at the same time!

The Gerald Coke Handel Collection, which includes rare items annotated by Handel and many contemporary prints, drawings, engravings, manuscript scores and letters, can be seen by appointment.

The Foundling Museum gives a fascinating insight into a less well-known side of Handel’s life. In addition, it is a museum which opens up a world where, for the first time in England, art and music were at the service of the desperately poor and marginalised.

 Sources:

• The Foundling Museum, by Kit Wedd (The Foundling Museum, 2009)
• Guided Tour & Lecture at The Foundling Museum with The London Cultureseekers Group