Händel Haus

Description

As a municipal music museum in the Old Town of Halle (Saale), the Händel-Haus presents itself; since 2008 the institution has been organized as a municipal foundation under private law. The building complex at Große Nikolaistraße 5–6 combines historic fabric with museum use and is situated adjacent to the Institut für Musik, Medien- und Sprechwissenschaften der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg as well as the Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Halle. The house also accommodates the directorate of the Händel-Festspiele, the office of the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft e. V. with the editorial office of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, and the office of the Freundes- und Förderkreis.

The core building, in its present form dating to before 1558, contains the birthplace of Georg Friedrich Händel; its foundations and cellar vault extend back to the Middle Ages. Construction phases in the 15th and 16th centuries, a ground-floor arrangement from the 16th/17th centuries and an upper floor from the second half of the 18th century characterize its appearance. Parts of the fabric still show Renaissance half-timbering; the Bohlenstube and historic ceilings testify to the long history of use.

The property changed hands several times after its first recorded mention in 1558. In 1666 the Händel family acquired the corner house in which the composer Georg Friedrich Händel was born in 1685 and spent the first eighteen years of his life. Over the following centuries the premises served, among other uses, as residential and commercial property, student rooms and an inn. The city of Halle acquired the building in 1937 with the aim of establishing a music museum; after war-related delays the exhibition opened in 1948. In the 1980s and 1990s the house was expanded and museally reorganized. Since its conversion into a foundation, the state and the municipality have participated in its financing; a comprehensive renovation and the opening of a new permanent exhibition took place in 2009.

The Händel-Haus brings together extensive research and collection units: a scholarly specialist library with internationally significant holdings on Georg Friedrich Händel, a historic collection of musical instruments (around 750 objects, of which approximately 220 are shown chronologically in the exhibition), extensive manuscript and pictorial holdings and a sound archive. Among the outstanding items are a Ruckers harpsichord (1599), an organ (1770) and a fortepiano (c. 1790). The collection of portraits and historical prints complements the foundation’s research-oriented publishing activities, including publication series, catalogues and participation in the Händel-Jahrbuch.