dent, occur the air and variations since so
universally popular under the name of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It
is not known to whom the composer was indebted for the name generally
applied to this extremely broad air, and clever variations. Very
likely some music publisher was the unknown poet. As an organist
Haendel was both great and popular. In the middle of his oratorios he
used to play an organ concerto with orchestra. Of these compositions
he wrote a very large number. They are always fresh and hearty in
style, well written for organ, and with a very flowing pedal part.
Haendel appears to have played the pedals upon a somewhat different
plan from that of Bach. Bach is generally supposed to have used his
toes for the most part, employing the heel only for an occasional note
where the toes were insufficient. Haendel seems to have used toe and
heel habitually in almost equal proportion.

It is a curious feature of the later part of Haendel's career that he
brought out his oratorios in costume. Several of the original bills
are extant, in which an oratorio is promised "with new cloathes."
"Esther" is said to have been given with complete stage appointment at
Chandos, like an opera; but the Lord Chamberlain prohibited future
representations of the kind on account of the supposed sacredness of
the subject. Afterward the characters were costumed, and the stage
set, but there was no action. While Haendel was German by birth, his
long residence in England and his habitual writing for the last ten or
fifteen years of his life oratorios in the English language, made
him, to all intents and purposes, an English composer. For nearly a
century he stood to the English school as a model of everything that
was good and great, to such an extent that very little of original
value was accomplished in that country, and when, by lapse of time and
a deeper self-consciousness on the part of English musicians, this
influence had begun to wane, a new German composer came in the person
of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who, in turn, became a popular idol,
and for many years a barrier to original effort.

The influence of Haendel upon the later course of music is by no means
so marked as that of Bach. Nevertheless, he was one of the great tone
poets of all times, and his works form an indispensable part of the
literature of music. It was his good fortune to embody certain types
of melody and harmony with a clearness and effectiveness that