Chapter 4 - Patrons and Pensions

Summary

PATRONAGE was an integral part of the social structure of Britain and the rest of Europe in the eighteenth century. Almost all official, political, or religious positions, from prime minister to village rat catcher, could be under the control of an elected or unelected individual, be it a monarch, a local landowner, or a mayor. Appointment to such positions was determined not only on the basis of merit but also by what we would regard today as unethical practices such as large gifts, promises of voting behaviour, or the ties of friendship or family. Patronage operated in the great professions of the Church, law, and medicine, as well as in central and local government and the armed forces. Its ubiquity was such that its operation went unremarked, except in those cases when the unfavoured gave voice to their exclusion.

The arts were no different, except that talent was necessary for advancement. Which is neither a claim that talent was sufficient for advancement nor that all those who were talented won advancement. As the struggle for position makes clear, talent was in greater supply than the number of places. Competition among musicians for salaried places and the stability they provided was intense; witness the actual competitions held for appointment to church organist positions.

We have already seen the operation of patronage by selected members of the elite in the context of opera companies and the publication of scores. The displeasure that some opera patrons felt with the management of the second Academy by Handel and Heidegger became manifest in the establishment of a rival opera company. The patronage represented by subscription publication of scores was hard to maintain over the course of numerous works and years. These instances, which some writers have considered to indicate the failure of patronage to benefit Handel, should not be considered to presage the end of patronage. Handel has been used as an example of the new entrepreneurial musician, earning his living in the supposedly free market of commercial entertainment. The reality is so very different.

In Halle, Berlin, and Hamburg, 1685–1705/6

THE life Handel enjoyed as a musician would not have been possible without patronage. His father Georg Händel (1622–97) had benefitted from his position as a surgeon at the court of the Dukes of Saxony to the extent of purchasing a large house in Halle and renewing its licence to sell wine.