MESSIAH
He was not a novice in this genre.
Even while writing operas, Handel had
composed a number of oratorios, notably
Israel in Egypt and Saul. Typically, his
oratorios were not so very different from
his operas: they told a dramatic story,
their soloists played actual characters
and they were performed in theaters and
concert halls, not churches. But Israel in
Egypt took a new musical approach in that
the chorus became the central character.
And Messiah, while giving the soloists
more to do, still emphasized the chorus
for its climactic moments.
Handel himself did not compile the
group of texts drawn from the Bible’s Old
and New Testaments for Messiah. Instead,
this was the work of Charles Jennens, a
wealthy literary figure who was a longtime
friend of the composer’s and had created
texts for several other Handel oratorios.
But Handel, devoutly religious, responded
with a burst of almost miraculous creative
energy to the words Jennens had prepared.
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OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
Beginning work on August 22, 1741,
he completed the two-and-a-half-hour
oratorio in just over three weeks. Besides
inspiration from God, he also had a little
practical assistance in this huge task: like
most Baroque composers, he did not
hesitate to borrow from his earlier works.
Three of the choruses in Part I — “He shall
purify,” “His yoke is easy” and “For unto us
a child is born”— are based on music he’d
originally composed as vocal duets.
Messiah was introduced to the world
in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 during Holy
Week (the tradition of performing it during
the Christmas season is fairly recent). At
the invitation of the Duke of Devonshire,
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Handel
had been presenting concerts of his works
there since the previous November and
winning the warm response that had been
eluding him in London. On that Tuesday,
Neal’s Musick Hall was packed beyond
its capacity; audience members had been
specifically requested to leave their swords
and hoop skirts at home in order to fit
more people into the hall!
The Dublin audience responded with
enormous enthusiasm to the new work,
and another performance was quickly
scheduled. But when Handel brought
Messiah to London in March 1743,
attendance was disappointing and the
critics were unkind. Much of Messiah’s
failure was caused by a heated controversy
that broke out in the city as to whether
such a serious sacred subject ought to be
presented as “entertainment” in secular
concert halls. Receiving few subsequent
performances, the oratorio went back on
Handel’s shelf.
By 1749 when Handel was 64, the
trustees of London’s Foundling Hospital
invited him to present Messiah there at
a charitable fundraising concert. This
time the oratorio aroused no controversy,
more than 1,000 people attended and
for the first time, Messiah enjoyed a
London triumph. From then on, annual
performances during the Lenten season
became a London tradition, soon
spreading throughout Europe. Handel
was finally acknowledged as England’s
leading musical citizen, and he lived long
enough — until 1759 — to be able to savor
the success of the work he loved so dearly.
Listening to Messiah
Messiah’s heroic journey is divided into
three parts. Part I revolves around the Old
Testament prophecies of the Messiah’s
coming and culminates with his birth as
told in the Gospel of Luke. Indeed, more
of Messiah’s text is drawn from the Old
Testament than the New, and, apart from
the Nativity story, the Gospel histories
are seldom used. Thus, the emphasis
falls on the broader meaning of Christ’s
redemption of the human race rather than
on the details of Jesus’ life.
Part II meditates on human sinfulness,
the Messiah’s rejection and suffering and
his sacrifice to redeem humankind; it
concludes with that famous song of praise
and triumph, the “Hallelujah” Chorus.
Finally moving into the New Testament,
Part III tells of the Messiah’s vanquishing
of death and the promise of everlasting joy
for the believer.