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Home , George Frideric Handel, Israel in Egypt, Messiah, Messiah (Handel), Oratorio

In 1742, the king stood as he heard the “” chorus; when the king stands everyone does. Almost 300 years later, all audiences everywhere do the same thing! I mentally embrace and love that historical connection every time I play the ! JANET HALL, NCS

Messiah

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL BORN February 23, 1685, in , ; died April 14, 1759, in PREMIERE Composed 1741; first performance April 13, 1742, in , conducted by the

THE STORY By now probably the best-known, best-loved, and most-performed choral work of all time, Messiah was in many ways an experiment for Handel. Faced with a sharp decline in popularity of seria, the composer’s first love, Handel somewhat reluctantly toyed with a new musical form of his own devising. The — a musical dramatization of a sacred theme, performed without staging or scenery — was first developed in Italy at the beginning of the 17th century. About the same time in Germany, unstaged renditions of ’s Passion according to the evangelists were performed during Holy Week. But the English oratorio as developed by Handel, while owing something to these early ancestors, was quite a different creature. Necessity is the mother of invention, and for Handel, the oratorio was something of a compromise. It was a way to continue to compose and perform opera-like works in the face of the decline in popularity of opera proper — and a way to continue to hold performances when the theaters were closed (as for or for the death of Queen Caroline). By the time Handel began to compose his first , he was nearly 50 and a consummate master of all the musical genres of the high . His technical expertise, combined with a deep sensitivity in portraying human feelings in , provided him with the tools for creating something truly original. His dramatic use of the chorus was indirectly borrowed from Greek tragedy, where it serves both to portray the community and to comment on the action. Because scene structure was no longer wedded to the operatic formula, he expanded the structural possibilities of the solo and their placement within the drama. Most of Handel’s oratorios were musical dramas based on biblical stories. Messiah, however, is not a dramatic oratorio, but rather a collection of biblical extracts compiled as a complement and response to the story of Christ’s , death, and resurrection. There are no dramatic characters; the soloists adopt a primarily prophetic voice and the chorus responds as a kind of universal congregation. It is unique among Handel’s works. Perhaps that is why , rather than Messiah, was the model followed by future , including Haydn for and Mendelssohn for . Handel composed Messiah in a little over three weeks, dipping into earlier compositions when it suited his taste and probably his schedule: “And He shall purify,” “For unto us a Child is born,” and “His yoke is easy” were originally Italian secular for two voices. Remnants of style can be heard in the “Rejoice greatly,” but the repeat of the first part is by no means exact, driving to an emotional and musical climax that ends the aria. Another distinction in this aria is that Handel notated the ornamentation instead of allowing the singer to improvise, as was the custom with the castrati singers who dominated the operatic stage. Commissioned by the Lord Lieutenant of Dublin, Messiah was an enormous success at its premiere performance in 1742 — but it fell flat the same year in London. Only after it had been revised and presented in a successful concert for the benefit of the in London did it take off on the way to its current popularity. But nothing boosted the work so much as its adoption every by traditional English civic choral societies, in which “casts of thousands” continue to belt out the choruses that, at its premiere, were performed by only 33 instrumentalists and 32 singers.

LISTENING TIPS Part I: The first part of Messiah deals primarily with the prophecies of Christ’s birth, mainly from the and . The texts are all optimistic, focusing on redemption through acceptance of a merciful and gentle savior. The actual Christmas story is told only in the three central numbers: the chorus “For unto us a Child is born,” the “There were shepherds abiding,” and the chorus “Glory to in the highest,” in which the soprano soloist serves as “Evangelist” and the chorus as mankind and the of , respectively. Always attentive to matching words and music, Handel, like Bach, frequently used tone- painting to accentuate important textual elements: Note the trills on the word “shake” in the recitative “Thus saith the Lord” and the twisting chromatic vocal line in the bass aria “The people that walked in darkness.” (On the other hand, note the ironic difficulty of the musical line on the word “easy” in “His yoke is easy, and His burthen is light.”) The instrumental “ Symphony” portrays the shepherds through the use of the drone in the bass, representing a simple rural bagpipe, and the lilting rhythm of traditional Italian folk music.

Part II: The second part is distinct from the Passion oratorios in that it does not tell the story of the crucifixion — it is a meditation on Christ’s death and mankind’s need for redemption. The events surrounding the crucifixion occur as indirect allusions. The meditation begins with the chorus “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.” These words become the theme of Part II — ’ sacrifice as a means of saving humankind. The chorus “And with His stripes we are healed” conveys a redemptive message alluding to the scene of Jesus’ torture. Handel lightens the tone a bit in the chorus “All we like sheep have gone astray” by writing meandering vocal lines, sometimes with incorrect — one of the most brilliant tone-painting devices in the Messiah. The and arias “He was despised,” “Thy rebuke hath broken His heart,” “Behold and if there be any sorrow,” and “And they that see Him” are more intimate and are a contemplation of Jesus’ suffering. “But Thou didst not leave His soul in Hell” is the transition aria that introduces the second half of Part II, the Resurrection. It refers to the belief that Jesus descended into hell on Holy Saturday to bring out the souls of the righteous. At this point, the musical atmosphere lightens considerably, much of it welcoming Jesus into heaven, as in the chorus “Lift up your heads.” The text then turns to the spreading of the Christian message with the chorus “Their sound is gone out.” Nervous strings support the aria “Why do the nations so furiously rage.” Part II ends with the “Hallelujah” chorus, celebrating the redemption of man.

Part III: The final part of Messiah is a musical consideration of the message of redemption, and even looks forward to the and the end of days when the Messiah will return (with the aria “I know that my liveth”). Every one of the numbers in Part III treats the theme of eternal life. The final enormous chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb,” is a joyous celebration of praise and thanksgiving.

INSTRUMENTATION Two , , two , , strings

© 2019 & Elizabeth Kahn