During his London years, the composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), a native of Halle, often recalled the kindness and generosity of the duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. His ties to the Weissenfels court as a six-year-old marked an important turning point in his life and laid the foundation for his musical career.
It is known that his father, Georg Händel (1622–1697), when confronted with his son’s obvious musical talent, reacted with a lack of understanding and even hostility. George Frideric secretly played music in the attic of his parents’ home in order to get round his father’s prohibitions. When the composer was just six years old, his aging father took him to his older half-brother Carl in Weissenfels. Carl was working as a court valet and apparently had more sympathy with his little brother’s passion than did his father: one day the duke heard someone playing the church organ outside the usual hours, and he asked Carl who it was. Carl responded that it was his younger brother, and the duke had the child brought to him. After questioning the boy at length, he summoned his father and strongly enjoined him to give his gifted son musical training. Handel’s father had no choice but to follow the duke’s advice.
Handel’s father had had close ties to the ducal family for a long time. In 1660 he was hired as a valet and personal physician to Duke August in Halle. In 1666 his son Carl assumed the same position at the court of the hereditary prince Johann Adolf, who became the new ruler in 1680.