Did Bach and Handel Ever Meet?
"[Händel] is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach.” This quote, attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, seemingly extolls the merits of his exact contemporary, Georg Friedrich Handel, who achieved enormous success as a composer during the Baroque era.
Despite the two taking very different paths in their musical careers, and achieving differing levels of worldly success, there were some instances in which the two came close to crossing paths. However, those paths would never intersect.
References:
Robinson, P. “Handel’s Influence on Bach.” The Musical Times, vol. 47, no. 761, 1906, pp. 468– 69. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/904223. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.
Kelling, Hans-Wilhelm. “Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel: In Remembrance of the Three-Hundredth Anniversary of Their Births.” Brigham Young University Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 1985, pp. 31–50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43041048. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.
Gardiner, John Eliot. “'Old Bach'.” Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven, First ed., Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2013, pp. 536–537.
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