Georg Händel

The 1697 inscription on the vault Georg Händel purchased in 1674 refers to his father as "Councillor,"[3] presumably a member of the city council of Halle.

[2] After his father's death in 1636, Georg took up studies with the town surgeon-barber, Andreas Beger, who in 1618 had married the daughter of the English musician, William Brade, the court kapellmeister at Halle.

[1] In 1643 before he reached the age of 21 he married Anna née Katte,[3] the recent widow of another barber, Christoph Oettinger,[1] although she was 12 years his senior.

He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house.

At his urging, Handel's father permitted him to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of the Lutheran Marienkirche.