Messiah (Handel) 1

Messiah (Handel)

George Frideric Handel

Wikipedia Book

Messiah (HWV 56)[1] is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with ascriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the Psalms included with the Bookof Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly ayear later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one ofthe best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.[2]</ref>Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions ofItalian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s, in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was hissixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are noimpersonations of characters and very little direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on JesusChrist as Messiah. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation tothe shepherds, the only "scene" taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends withthe "Hallelujah" chorus. In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in Heaven.Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individualnumbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giantorchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by (among others)Mozart. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel'soriginal intentions, although "big Messiah" productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issuedon 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.

Messiah (Handel) 2

Background

The statue erected in Handel'shonour, in Vauxhall Gardens,

London

George Frideric Handel (German: Georg Friedrich Händel; pronounced[ˈhɛndəl]) (born in Germany, 1685), became a prominent German-BritishBaroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organconcertos. Handel received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italybefore settling in London in 1712. He became a naturalised British subject in1727.

By 1741, Handel's pre-eminence in British music was evident from the honourshe had accumulated, including a pension from the court of King George II, theoffice of Composer of Musick for the Chapel Royal, and—most unusually for aliving person—a statue erected in his honour, in Vauxhall Gardens.[3] Within alarge and varied musical output, Handel was a vigorous champion of Italianopera, which he had introduced to London in 1711 with Rinaldo. He hadsubsequently written and presented more than 40 such operas in London'stheatres. By the early 1730s public taste was beginning to change, and thepopular success of John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch's The Beggar'sOpera (first performed in 1728) had heralded a spate of English-languageballad-operas that mocked the pretensions of Italian opera.[4] With box-officereceipts falling, Handel's productions were increasingly reliant on privatesubsidies from the nobility, and such funding became harder to obtain after the

launch in 1730 of the "Opera of the Nobility", a rival company to his own. Handel overcame this challenge, but hespent large sums of his own money to do so.[5]

Future prospects for Italian operas in London declined during the 1730s; Handel remained committed to the genre,but began to introduce English-language oratorios as occasional alternatives to his staged works.[6] As a young manin Rome in 1707–08 he had written two Italian oratorios at a time when opera performances in the city weretemporarily forbidden under papal decree.[7] His first venture into English oratorio had been Esther which waswritten and performed for a private patron in about 1718. In 1732 Handel brought a revised and expanded version ofEsther to the King's Theatre, Haymarket, where members of the royal family attended a glittering premiere on 6May. Its success encouraged Handel to write two more oratorios (Deborah and Athalia), and all three oratorios wereperformed to large and appreciative audiences at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in mid-1733. Undergraduatesreportedly sold their furniture to raise the money for the five-shilling tickets.[8]

In 1735 Handel received the text for a new oratorio named Saul from its librettist Charles Jennens, a wealthylandowner with musical and literary interests.[9] Because Handel's main creative concern was still with opera, he didnot write the music for Saul until 1738, in preparation for his 1738–39 theatrical season. The work opened at theKing's Theatre in January 1739 to a warm reception, and was quickly followed by the less successful oratorio Israelin Egypt (which may also have come from Jennens).[10] Although Handel continued to write and present operas, thetrend towards English-language productions became irresistible as the decade ended, and after three performances ofhis last Italian opera Deidamia in January and February 1741, he abandoned the genre.[11] In July 1741 Jennens senthim a new libretto for an oratorio, and in a letter dated 10 July to his friend Edward Holdsworth, Jennens wrote: "Ihope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his formerCompositions, as the Subject excells every other subject. The Subject is Messiah".

Messiah (Handel) 3

SynopsisIn the Christian tradition, the figure of the "Messiah" or redeemer is identified with the person of Jesus, known by hisfollowers as the Christ or "Jesus Christ". Handel's Messiah has been described by the early-music scholar RichardLuckett as "a commentary on [Jesus Christ's] Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension", beginning with God'spromises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven.[12] In contrast with most ofHandel's oratorios, the singers in Messiah do not assume dramatic roles, there is no single, dominant narrative voice,and very little use is made of quoted speech. In his libretto, Jennens's intention was not to dramatise the life andteachings of Jesus, but to acclaim the "Mystery of Godliness", using a compilation of extracts from the Authorized(King James) Version of the Bible, and from the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer (which areworded slightly differently from their King James counterparts).[13]

The three-part structure of the work approximates to that of Handel's three-act operas, with the "parts" subdivided byJennens into "scenes". Each scene is a collection of individual numbers or "movements" which take the form ofrecitatives, arias and choruses.[] There are two instrumental numbers, the opening Sinfony[14]</ref> in the style of aFrench overture, and the pastoral Pifa, often called the "pastoral symphony", at the mid-point of Part I.[15]

In Part I, the Messiah's coming and the Virgin Birth are predicted by the Old Testament prophets. The annunciationto the shepherds of the birth of the Christ is represented in the words of St Luke's Gospel. Part II covers Christ'sPassion and his death, his Resurrection and Ascension, the first spreading of the Gospel through the world, and adefinitive statement of God's glory summarised in the "Hallelujah". Part III begins with the promise of Redemption,followed by a prediction of the Day of Judgment and the "general Resurrection", ending with the final victory oversin and death and the acclamation of Christ.[16] According to the musicologist Donald Burrows, much of the text isso allusive as to be largely incomprehensible to those ignorant of the biblical accounts. For the benefit of hisaudiences, Jennens printed and issued a pamphlet explaining the reasons for his choices of scriptural selections.

Writing history

Libretto

A portrait of Charles Jennens fromaround 1740

Charles Jennens was born around 1700, into a prosperous landowning familywhose lands and properties in Warwickshire and Leicestershire he eventuallyinherited. His religious and political views—he opposed the Act of Settlement of1701 which secured the accession to the British throne for the House ofHanover—prevented him from receiving his degree from Balliol College,Oxford, or from pursuing any form of public career. His family's wealth enabledhim to live a life of leisure while devoting himself to his literary and musicalinterests.[17] Although the musicologist Watkins Shaw dismisses Jennens as "aconceited figure of no special ability", Donald Burrows has written: "of Jennens'smusical literacy there can be no doubt". He was certainly devoted to Handel'smusic, having helped to finance the publication of every Handel score sinceRodelinda in 1725.[] By 1741, after their collaboration on Saul, a warmfriendship had developed between the two, and Handel was a frequent visitor tothe Jennens family estate at Gopsall.

Jennens's letter to Holdsworth of 10 July 1741, in which he first mentions Messiah, suggests that the text was a recent work, probably assembled earlier that summer. As a devout Anglican and believer in scriptural authority, part of Jennens's intention was to challenge advocates of Deism, who rejected the doctrine of divine intervention in human affairs. Shaw describes the text as "a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief", and despite his reservations on Jennens's character, concedes that the finished wordbook "amounts to little short of a

Messiah (Handel) 4

work of genius".[] There is no evidence that Handel played any active role in the selection or preparation of the text,such as he did in the case of Saul; it seems, rather, that he saw no need to make any significant amendment toJennens's work.[]

CompositionThe music for Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. Having received Jennens's text some timeafter 10 July 1741, Handel began work on it on 22 August. His records show that he had completed Part I in outlineby 28 August, Part II by 6 September and Part III by 12 September, followed by two days of "filling up" to producethe finished work on 14 September. The autograph score's 259 pages show some signs of haste such as blots,scratchings-out, unfilled bars and other uncorrected errors, but according to the music scholar Richard Luckett thenumber of errors is remarkably small in a document of this length.[18]

Title page of Handel's autograph score

At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—SoliDeo Gloria, "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken with thespeed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal storythat Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine inspiration in which,as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, "he saw all heaven before him".Burrows points out that many of Handel's operas, of comparable lengthand structure to Messiah, were composed within similar timescalesbetween theatrical seasons. The effort of writing so much music in soshort a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries;Handel commenced his next oratorio, Samson, within a week offinishing Messiah, and completed his draft of this new work in amonth.[19][20] In accordance with his frequent practice when writing

new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in Messiah, in this case drawing on two recentlycompleted Italian duets and one written twenty years previously. Thus, Se tu non lasci amore from 1722 became thebasis of "O Death, where is thy sting?"; "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" were drawn from Quel fior chealla'ride (July 1741), "Unto us a child is born" and "All we like sheep" from Nò, di voi non vo' fidarmi (July1741).[21][22] Handel's instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention,where the use of certain instruments and combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by thecomposer; later copyists would fill in the details.[23]

Before the first performance Handel made numerous revisions to his manuscript score, in part to match the forcesavailable for the 1742 Dublin premiere; it is probable that his work was not performed as originally conceived in hislifetime.[24] Between 1742 and 1754 he continued to revise and recompose individual movements, sometimes to suitthe requirements of particular singers. The first published score of Messiah was issued in 1767, eight years afterHandel's death, though this was based on relatively early manuscripts and included none of Handel's laterrevisions.[25]

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Premiere and early performances

Dublin, 1742

The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street,Dublin, where Messiah was first performed

Handel's decision to give a season of concerts in Dublin in the winterof 1741–42 arose from an invitation from the Duke of Devonshire,then serving as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.[26] A violinist friend ofHandel's, Matthew Dubourg, was in Dublin as the Lord Lieutenant'sbandmaster; he would look after the tour's orchestral requirements.Whether Handel originally intended to perform Messiah in Dublin isuncertain; he did not inform Jennens of any such plan, for the latterwrote to Holdsworth on 2 December 1741: "... it was somemortification to me to hear that instead of performing Messiah here hehas gone into Ireland with it."[27] After arriving in Dublin on 18November 1741, Handel arranged a subscription series of six concerts,to be held between December 1741 and February 1742 at the GreatMusic Hall, Fishamble Street. These concerts were so popular that asecond series was quickly arranged; Messiah figured in neither series.

In early March Handel began discussions with the appropriatecommittees for a charity concert, to be given in April, at which he intended to present Messiah. He sought and wasgiven permission from St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals to use their choirs for this occasion.[28][29] Theseforces amounted to 16 men and 16 boy choristers; several of the men were allocated solo parts. The women soloistswere Christina Maria Avoglio, who had sung the main soprano roles in the two subscription series, and SusannahCibber, an established stage actress and contralto who had sung in the second series.[30] To accommodate Cibber'svocal range, the recitative "Then shall the eyes of the blind" and the aria "He shall feed his flock" were transposeddown to F major. The performance, also in the Fishamble Street hall, was originally announced for 12 April, but wasdeferred for a day "at the request of persons of Distinction". The orchestra in Dublin comprised strings, twotrumpets, and timpani; the number of players is unknown. Handel had his own organ shipped to Ireland for theperformances; a harpsichord was probably also used.

The three charities that were to benefit were prisoners' debt relief, the Mercer's Hospital, and the CharitableInfirmary. In its report on a public rehearsal, the Dublin News-Letter described the oratorio as "... far surpass[ing]anything of that Nature which has been performed in this or any other Kingdom".[31] Seven hundred people attendedthe premiere on 13 April. So that the largest possible audience could be admitted to the concert, gentlemen wererequested to remove their swords, and ladies were asked not to wear hoops in their dresses. The performance earnedunanimous praise from the assembled press: "Words are wanting to express the exquisite delight it afforded to theadmiring and crouded Audience". A Dublin clergyman, Rev. Delaney, was so overcome by Susanna Cibber'srendering of "He was despised" that reportedly he leapt to his feet and cried: "Woman, for this be all thy sinsforgiven thee!"[32][33]</ref> The takings amounted to around £400, providing about £127 to each of the threenominated charities and securing the release of 142 indebted prisoners.[]

Handel remained in Dublin for four months after the premiere. He organised a second performance of Messiah on 3June, which was announced as "the last Performance of Mr Handel's during his Stay in this Kingdom". In this secondMessiah, which was for Handel's private financial benefit, Cibber reprised her role from the first performance,though Avoglio may have been replaced by a Mrs Maclaine;[34] details of other performers are not recorded.[35]

Messiah (Handel) 6

London, 1743–59The warm reception accorded to Messiah in Dublin was not repeated in London when Handel introduced the work atthe Covent Garden theatre on 23 March 1743. Avoglio and Cibber were again the chief soloists; they were joined bythe tenor John Beard, a veteran of Handel's operas, the bass Thomas Rheinhold and two other sopranos, Kitty Cliveand Miss Edwards.[36] The first performance was overshadowed by views expressed in the press that the work'ssubject matter was too exalted to be performed in a theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses such as Cibberand Clive. In an attempt to deflect such sensibilities, in London Handel had avoided the name Messiah and presentedthe work as the "New Sacred Oratorio".[37] As was his custom, Handel rearranged the music to suit his singers. Hewrote a new setting of "And lo, the angel of the Lord" for Clive, never used subsequently. He added a tenor song forBeard: "Their sound is gone out", which had appeared in Jennens's original libretto but had not been in the Dublinperformances.[38]

The custom of standing for the "Hallelujah" chorus originates from a belief that, at the London premiere, KingGeorge II did so, which would have obliged all to stand. There is no convincing evidence that the king was present,or that he attended any subsequent performance of Messiah; the first reference to the practice of standing appears ina letter dated 1756.[39][40]

The chapel of the London's Foundling Hospital,the venue for regular charity performances of

Messiah from 1750

London's initially cool reception of Messiah led Handel to reduce theseason's planned six performances to three, and not to present the workat all in 1744—to the considerable annoyance of Jennens, whoserelations with the composer temporarily soured. At Jennens's request,Handel made several changes in the music for the 1745 revival: "Theirsound is gone out" became a choral piece, the soprano song "Rejoicegreatly" was recomposed in shortened form, and the transpositions forCibber's voice were restored to their original soprano range.[] Jennenswrote to Holdsworth on 30 August 1745: "[Handel] has made a fineEntertainment of it, though not near so good as he might & ought tohave done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of thegrosser faults in the composition ..." Handel directed two performances

at Covent Garden in 1745, on 9 and 11 April,[41] and then set the work aside for four years.[42]

The 1749 revival at Covent Garden, under the proper title of Messiah, saw the appearance of two female soloistswho were henceforth closely associated with Handel's music: Giulia Frasi and Caterina Galli. In the following yearthese were joined by the male alto Gaetano Guadagni, for whom Handel composed new versions of "But who mayabide" and "Thou art gone up on high". The year 1750 also saw the institution of the annual charity performances ofMessiah at London's Foundling Hospital, which continued until Handel's death and beyond.[43] The 1754performance at the hospital is the first for which full details of the orchestral and vocal forces survive. The orchestraincluded fifteen violins, five violas, three cellos, two double-basses, four bassoons, four oboes, two trumpets, twohorns and drums. In the chorus of nineteen were six trebles from the Chapel Royal; the remainder, all men, werealtos, tenors and basses. Frasi, Galli and Beard led the five soloists, who were required to assist thechorus.[44][45]</ref> For this performance the transposed Guadagni arias were restored to the soprano voice.[46] By1754 Handel was severely afflicted by the onset of blindness, and in 1755 he turned over the direction of the Messiahhospital performance to his pupil, J.C. Smith.[47] He apparently resumed his duties in 1757 and may have continuedthereafter.[48] The final performance of the work at which Handel was present was at Covent Garden on 6 April1759, eight days before his death.

Messiah (Handel) 7

Later performance history

18th century

1787 advertisement for Messiah at WestminsterAbbey with 800 performers

During the 1750s Messiah was performed increasingly at festivals andcathedrals throughout the country.[49] Individual choruses and ariaswere occasionally extracted for use as anthems or motets in churchservices, or as concert pieces, a practice that grew in the 19th centuryand has continued ever since.[50] After Handel's death, performanceswere given in Florence (1768), New York (excerpts, 1770), Hamburg(1772), and Mannheim (1777), where Mozart first heard it. For theperformances in Handel's lifetime and in the decades following hisdeath, the musical forces used in the Foundling Hospital performanceof 1754 are thought by Burrows to be typical.[51] A fashion forlarge-scale performances began in 1784, in a series of commemorativeconcerts of Handel's music given in Westminster Abbey under thepatronage of King George III. A plaque on the Abbey wall records that"The Band consisting of DXXV [525] vocal & instrumental performerswas conducted by Joah Bates Esqr." In a 1955 article, Sir MalcolmSargent, a proponent of large-scale performances, wrote, "Mr Bates ...had known Handel well and respected his wishes. The orchestraemployed was two hundred and fifty strong, including twelve horns,twelve trumpets, six trombones and three pairs of timpani (some madeespecially large)." In 1787 further performances were given at theAbbey; advertisements promised, "The Band will consist of EightHundred Performers".

In continental Europe, performances of Messiah were departing from Handel's practices in a different way: his scorewas being drastically reorchestrated to suit contemporary tastes. In 1786, Johann Adam Hiller presented Messiahwith updated scoring in Berlin Cathedral. In 1788 Hiller presented a performance of his revision with a choir of 259and an orchestra of 87 strings, 10 bassoons, 11 oboes, 8 flutes, 8 horns, 4 clarinets, 4 trombones, 7 trumpets, timpani,harpsichord and organ. In 1789, Mozart was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten and the Gesellschaft derAssociierten to re-orchestrate several works by Handel, including Messiah.[52][53]</ref> Writing for a small-scaleperformance, he eliminated the organ continuo, added parts for flutes, clarinets, trombones and horns, recomposedsome passages and rearranged others. The performance took place on 6 March 1789 in the rooms of Count JohannEsterházy, with four soloists and a choir of 12.[54][55] and between the year of Mozart's death (1791) and 1800, therewere four known performances of Mozart's re-orchestrated Messiah in Vienna: 5 April 1795, 23 March 1799, 23December 1799 and 24 December 1799.</ref> Mozart's arrangement, with minor amendments from Hiller, waspublished in 1803, after his death.[56]</ref> The musical scholar Moritz Hauptmann described the Mozart additionsas "stucco ornaments on a marble temple". Elements of this version later became familiar to British audiences,incorporated into editions of the score by editors including Ebenezer Prout.

Messiah (Handel) 8

19th century

The Handel Festival at The Crystal Palace, 1857

In the 19th century, approaches to Handel in German andEnglish-speaking countries diverged further. In Leipzig in1856, the musicologist Friedrich Chrysander and theliterary historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus founded theDeutsche Händel-Gesellschaft with the aim of publishingauthentic editions of all Handel's works. At the sametime, performances in Britain and the United Statesmoved away from Handel's performance practice withincreasingly grandiose renditions. Messiah was presentedin New York in 1853 with a chorus of 300 and in Bostonin 1865 with more than 600. In Britain a "Great HandelFestival" was held at the Crystal Palace in 1857,performing Messiah and other Handel oratorios, with a

chorus of 2,000 singers and an orchestra of 500.

In the 1860s and 1870s ever larger forces were assembled. Bernard Shaw, in his role as a music critic, commented,"The stale wonderment which the great chorus never fails to elicit has already been exhausted";[57] he later wrote,"Why, instead of wasting huge sums on the multitudinous dullness of a Handel Festival does not somebody set up athoroughly rehearsed and exhaustively studied performance of the Messiah in St James's Hall with a chorus oftwenty capable artists? Most of us would be glad to hear the work seriously performed once before we die."[58] Theemployment of huge forces necessitated considerable augmentation of the orchestral parts. Many admirers of Handelbelieved that the composer would have made such additions, had the appropriate instruments been available in hisday. Shaw argued, largely unheeded, that "the composer may be spared from his friends, and the function of writingor selecting 'additional orchestral accompaniments' exercised with due discretion."[59]

One reason for the popularity of huge-scale performances was the ubiquity of amateur choral societies. Theconductor Sir Thomas Beecham wrote that for 200 years the chorus was "the national medium of musical utterance"in Britain. However, after the heyday of Victorian choral societies, he noted a "rapid and violent reaction againstmonumental performances ... an appeal from several quarters that Handel should be played and heard as in the daysbetween 1700 and 1750".[60] At the end of the century, Sir Frederick Bridge and T. W. Bourne pioneered revivals ofMessiah in Handel's orchestration, and Bourne's work was the basis for further scholarly versions in the early 20thcentury.

Messiah (Handel) 9

20th century and beyond

Ebenezer Prout in 1899

Although the huge-scale oratorio tradition was perpetuated by such largeensembles as the Royal Choral Society, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and theHuddersfield Choral Society in the 20th century, there were increasing calls forperformances more faithful to Handel's conception. At the turn of the century,The Musical Times wrote of the "additional accompaniments" of Mozart andothers, "Is it not time that some of these 'hangers on' of Handel's score were sentabout their business?" In 1902, the musicologist Ebenezer Prout produced a newedition of the score, working from Handel's original manuscripts rather than fromcorrupt printed versions with errors accumulated from one edition toanother.[61]</ref> However, Prout started from the assumption that a faithfulreproduction of Handel's original score would not be practical:

[T]he attempts made from time to time by our musical societies togive Handel's music as he meant it to be given must, howeverearnest the intention, and however careful the preparation, beforedoomed to failure from the very nature of the case. With ourlarge choral societies, additional accompaniments of some kind are a necessity for an effectiveperformance; and the question is not so much whether, as how they are to be written.

Prout continued the practice of adding flutes, clarinets and trombones to Handel's orchestration, but he restoredHandel's high trumpet parts, which Mozart had omitted (evidently because playing them was a lost art by 1789).There was little dissent from Prout's approach, and when Chrysander's scholarly edition was published in the sameyear, it was received respectfully as "a volume for the study" rather than a performing edition, being an editedreproduction of various of Handel's manuscript versions. An authentic performance was thought impossible: TheMusical Times correspondent wrote, "Handel's orchestral instruments were all (excepting the trumpet) of a coarserquality than those at present in use; his harpsichords are gone for ever ... the places in which he performed the'Messiah' were mere drawing-rooms when compared with the Albert Hall, the Queen's Hall and the Crystal Palace.In Australia, The Register protested at the prospect of performances by "trumpery little church choirs of 20 voices orso".In Germany, Messiah was not so often performed as in Britain;[62] when it was given, medium-sized forces were thenorm. At the Handel Festival held in 1922 in Handel's native town, Halle, his choral works were given by a choir of163 and an orchestra of 64. In Britain, innovative broadcasting and recording contributed to reconsideration ofHandelian performance. For example, in 1928, Beecham conducted a recording of Messiah with modestly sizedforces and controversially brisk tempi, although the orchestration remained far from authentic. In 1934 and 1935, theBBC broadcast performances of Messiah conducted by Adrian Boult with "a faithful adherence to Handel's clearscoring." A performance with authentic scoring was given in Worcester Cathedral as part of the Three ChoirsFestival in 1935. In 1950 John Tobin conducted a performance of Messiah in St Paul's Cathedral with the orchestralforces specified by the composer, a choir of 60, a counter-tenor alto soloist, and modest attempts at vocal elaborationof the printed notes, in the manner of Handel's day.[63] The Prout version sung with many voices remained popularwith British choral societies, but at the same time increasingly frequent performances were given by smallprofessional ensembles in suitably sized venues, using authentic scoring. Recordings on LP and CD werepreponderantly of the latter type, and the large scale Messiah came to seem old-fashioned.[64]

Messiah (Handel) 10

Messiah staged at the English National Opera, 2009

The cause of authentic performance wasadvanced in 1965 by the publication of anew edition of the score, edited by WatkinsShaw. In the Grove Dictionary of Music andMusicians, David Scott writes, "the editionat first aroused suspicion on account of itsattempts in several directions to break thecrust of convention surrounding the work inthe British Isles." By the time of Shaw'sdeath in 1996, The Times described hisedition as "now in universal use".[65] Morerecent editions have included those edited

by Donald Burrows (Edition Peters, 1987) and Clifford Bartlett (Oxford University Press, 1999).</ref>

Messiah remains Handel's best-known work, with performances particularly popular during the Christmas season;writing in December 1993, the music critic Alex Ross refers to that month's 21 performances in New York alone as"numbing repetition". Against the general trend towards authenticity, the work has been staged in opera houses, bothin London (2009) and in Paris (2011).[66] The Mozart score is revived from time to time, and in Anglophonecountries "singalong" performances with many hundreds of performers are popular.[67] Although performancesstriving for authenticity are now usual, it is generally agreed that there can never be a definitive version of Messiah;the surviving manuscripts contain radically different settings of many numbers, and vocal and instrumentalornamentation of the written notes is a matter of personal judgment, even for the most historically informedperformers. The Handel scholar Winton Dean has written:

[T]here is still plenty for scholars to fight over, and more than ever for conductors to decide forthemselves. Indeed if they are not prepared to grapple with the problems presented by the score theyought not to conduct it. This applies not only to the choice of versions, but to every aspect of baroquepractice, and of course there are often no final answers.

Music

Organisation and numbering of movementsThe numbering of the movements shown here is in accordance with the Novello vocal score (1959), edited byWatkins Shaw, which adapts the numbering earlier devised by Ebenezer Prout. Other editions count the movementsslightly differently; the Bärenreiter edition of 1965, for example, does not number all the recitatives and runs from 1to 47.[68] The division into parts and scenes is based on the 1743 word-book prepared for the first Londonperformance.[69] The scene headings are given as Burrows summarised the scene headings by Jennens.

Messiah (Handel) 11

Part I

Scene 1: Isaiah's prophecy of salvation

1. Sinfony (instrumental)

2. Comfort ye my people (tenor)

3. Ev'ry valley shall be exalted (tenor)

4. And the glory of the Lord (chorus)

Scene 2: The coming judgment

5. Thus saith the Lord of hosts (bass)

6. But who may abide the day of Hiscoming (alto)

7. And he shall purify the sons of Levi(chorus)

Scene 3: The prophecy of Christ's birth

8. Behold, a virgin shall conceive (alto)

9. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion(alto and chorus)

10. For behold, darkness shall cover theearth (bass)

11. The people that walked in darknesshave seen a great light (bass)

12. For unto us a child is born (chorus)

Part II

Scene 1: Christ's Passion

22. Behold the Lamb of God (chorus)

23. He was despised and rejected ofmen (alto)

24. Surely he has borne our griefs andcarried our sorrows (chorus)

25. And with his stripes we are healed(chorus)

26. All we like sheep have gone astray(chorus)

27. All they that see him laugh him toscorn (tenor)

28. He trusted in God that he woulddeliver him (chorus)

29. Thy rebuke hath broken his heart(tenor or soprano)

30. Behold and see if there be anysorrow (tenor or soprano)

Scene 2: Christ's Death and Resurrection

31. He was cut off (tenor or soprano)

32. But thou didst not leave his soul inhell (tenor or soprano)

Scene 3: Christ's Ascension

33. Lift up your heads, O ye gates(chorus)

Part III

Scene 1: The promise of eternal life

45. I know that my Redeemer liveth(soprano)

46. Since by man came death (chorus)

Scene 2: The Day of Judgment

47. Behold, I tell you a mystery (bass)

48. The trumpet shall sound (bass)

Scene 3: The final conquest of sin

49. Then shall be brought to pass(alto)

50. O death, where is thy sting (altoand tenor)

51. But thanks be to God (chorus)

52. If God be for us, who can beagainst us (soprano)

Scene 4: The acclamation of the Messiah

53. Worthy is the Lamb (chorus)

Amen (chorus)

Scene 4: The annunciation to the shepherds

13. Pifa ("pastoral symphony":instrumental)

14a. There were shepherds abiding in thefields (soprano)

14b. And lo, the angel of the Lord(soprano)

15. And the angel said unto them(soprano)

16. And suddenly there was with theangel (soprano)

17. Glory to God in the highest (chorus)

Scene 5: Christ's healing and redemption

18. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion(soprano)

19. Then shall the eyes of the blind beopened (soprano)

20. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd(alto and soprano)

21. His yoke is easy (chorus)

Scene 4: Christ's reception in Heaven

34. Unto which of the angels (tenor)

35. Let all the angels of God worshipHim (chorus)

Scene 5: The beginnings of Gospel preaching

36. Thou art gone up on high (soprano)

37. The Lord gave the word (chorus)

38. How beautiful are the feet(soprano)

39. Their sound is gone out (chorus)

Scene 6: The world's rejection of the Gospel

40. Why do the nations so furiouslyrage together (bass)

41. Let us break their bonds asunder(chorus)

42. He that dwelleth in heaven (tenor)

Scene 7: God's ultimate victory

43. Thou shalt break them with a rod ofiron (tenor)

44. Hallelujah (chorus)

Messiah (Handel) 12

Overview

The final bars of the "Hallelujah" chorus, fromHandel's manuscript

Handel's music for Messiah is distinguished from most of his otheroratorios by an orchestral restraint—a quality which the musicologistPercy M. Young observes was not adopted by Mozart and other laterarrangers of the music. The work begins quietly, with instrumental andsolo movements preceding the first appearance of the chorus, whoseentry in the low alto register is muted.[] A particular aspect of Handel'srestraint is his limited use of trumpets throughout the work. After theirintroduction in the Part I chorus "Glory to God", apart from the solo in"The trumpet shall sound" they are heard only in "Hallelujah" and thefinal chorus "Worthy is the Lamb".[] It is this rarity, says Young, thatmakes these brass interpolations particularly effective: "Increase themand the thrill is diminished".[70] In "Glory to God", Handel marked the

entry of the trumpets as da lontano e un poco piano, meaning "quietly, from afar"; his original intention had been toplace the brass offstage (in disparte) at this point, to highlight the effect of distance.[71] In this initial appearance thetrumpets lack the expected drum accompaniment, "a deliberate withholding of effect, leaving something in reservefor Parts II and III" according to Luckett.[72]

Although Messiah is not in any particular key, Handel's tonal scheme has been summarised by the musicologistAnthony Hicks as "an aspiration towards D major", the key musically associated with light and glory. As the oratoriomoves forward with various shifts in key to reflect changes in mood, D major emerges at significant points,primarily the "trumpet" movements with their uplifting messages. It is the key in which the work reaches itstriumphant ending.[73] In the absence of a predominant key, other integrating elements have been proposed. Forexample, the musicologist Rudolf Steglich has suggested that Handel used the device of the "ascending fourth" as aunifying motif; this device most noticeably occurs in the first two notes of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" and onnumerous other occasions. Nevertheless, Luckett finds this thesis implausible, and asserts that "the unity of Messiahis a consequence of nothing more arcane than the quality of Handel's attention to his text, and the consistency of hismusical imagination".[74] Allan Kozinn, The New York Times music critic, finds "a model marriage of music andtext ... From the gentle falling melody assigned to the opening words ("Comfort ye") to the sheer ebullience of the"Hallelujah" chorus and the ornate celebratory counterpoint that supports the closing "Amen", hardly a line of textgoes by that Handel does not amplify".

Part I

No. 2. Recit. accompanied (Tenor): Comfort ye my people

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The opening Sinfony is composed in E minor for strings, and is Handel's first use in oratorio of the French overture form. Jennens commented that the Sinfony contains "passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah"; Handel's early biographer Charles Burney merely found it "dry and uninteresting". A change of key to E major leads to the first prophecy, delivered by the tenor whose vocal line in the opening recitative "Comfort ye" is entirely independent of the strings accompaniment. The music proceeds through various key changes as the prophecies unfold, culminating in the G major chorus "For unto us a child is born", in which the choral exclamations

Messiah (Handel) 13

(which include an ascending fourth in "the Mighty God") are imposed on material drawn from Handel's Italiancantata Nò, di voi non vo'fidarmi. Such passages, says the music historian Donald Jay Grout, "reveal Handel thedramatist, the unerring master of dramatic effect".[75]

The pastoral interlude that follows begins with the short instrumental movement, the Pifa, which takes its name fromthe shepherd-bagpipers, or pifferare, who played their pipes in the streets of Rome at Christmas time. Handel wrotethe movement in both 11-bar and extended 32-bar forms; according to Burrows, either will work in performance.The group of four short recitatives which follow it introduce the soprano soloist—although often the earlier aria "Butwho may abide" is sung by the soprano in its transposed G minor form.[76] The final recitative of this section is in Dmajor and heralds the affirmative chorus "Glory to God". The remainder of Part I is largely carried by the soprano inB flat, in what Burrows terms a rare instance of tonal stability.[77] The aria "He shall feed his flock" underwentseveral transformations by Handel, appearing at different times as a recitative, an alto aria and a duet for alto andsoprano before the original soprano version was restored in 1754. The appropriateness of the Italian source materialfor the setting of the solemn concluding chorus "His yoke is easy" has been questioned by the music scholar SedleyTaylor, who calls it "a piece of word-painting ... grieviously out of place", though he concedes that the four-partchoral conclusion is a stroke of genius that combines beauty with dignity.[78]

Part II

No. 23. Air (Alto): He was despised

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The second Part begins in G minor, a key which, in Hogwood's phrase, brings a mood of "tragic presentiment" to thelong sequence of Passion numbers which follows. The declamatory opening chorus "Behold the Lamb of God", infugal form, is followed by the alto solo "He was despised" in E flat major, the longest single item in the oratorio, inwhich some phrases are sung unaccompanied to emphasise Christ's abandonment. Luckett records Burney'sdescription of this number as "the highest idea of excellence in pathetic expression of any English song".[79] Thesubsequent series of mainly short choral movements cover Christ's Passion, Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection, atfirst in F minor, with a brief F major respite in "All we like sheep". Here, Handel's use of Nò, di voi non vo'fidarmihas Sedley Taylor's unqualified approval: "[Handel] bids the voices enter in solemn canonical sequence, and hischorus ends with a combination of grandeur and depth of feeling such as is at the command of consummate geniusonly".[80]

No. 44. Chorus: Hallelujah

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The sense of desolation returns, in what Hogwood calls the "remote and barbarous" key of B flat minor, for the tenor recitative "All they that see him".[81] The sombre sequence finally ends with the Ascension chorus "Lift up your heads", which Handel initially divides between two choral groups, the altos serving both as the bass line to a soprano choir and the treble line to the tenors and basses.[82] For the 1754 Foundling Hospital performance Handel added two horns, which join in when the chorus unites towards the end of the number. After the celebratory tone of Christ's

Messiah (Handel) 14

reception into heaven, marked by the choir's D major acclamation "Let all the angels of God worship him", the"Whitsun" section proceeds through a series of contrasting moods—serene and pastoral in "How beautiful are thefeet", theatrically operatic in "Why do the nations so furiously rage"—towards the Part II culmination of"Hallelujah". This, as Young points out, is not the climactic chorus of the work, although one cannot escape its"contagious enthusiasm".[83] It builds from a deceptively light orchestral opening, through a short, unison cantusfirmus passage on the words "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth", to the reappearance of the long-silent trumpetsat "And He shall reign for ever and ever". Commentators have noted that the musical line for this third subject isbased on Wachet auf, Philipp Nicolai's popular Lutheran chorale.[84]

Part III

First page of the concluding chorus "Worthy isthe Lamb": From Handel's manuscript

The opening soprano solo in E major, "I know that my Redeemerliveth" is one of the few numbers in the oratorio that has remainedunrevised from its original form.[85] its simple unison violinaccompaniment and its consoling rhythms apparently brought tears toBurney's eyes.[86] It is followed by a quiet chorus that leads to thebass's declamation in D major: "Behold, I tell you a mystery", then thelong aria "The trumpet shall sound", marked pomposo ma non allegro("dignified but not fast"). Handel originally wrote this in da capo form,but shortened it to dal segno, probably before the first performance.[87]

The extended, characteristic trumpet tune that precedes andaccompanies the voice is the only significant instrumental solo in theentire oratorio. Handel's awkward, repeated stressing of the fourth

syllable of "incorruptible" may have been the source of the 18th century poet William Shenstone's comment that he"could observe some parts in Messiah wherein Handel's judgements failed him; where the music was not equal, orwas even opposite, to what the words required".[88] After a brief solo recitative, the alto is joined by the tenor for theonly duet in Handel's final version of the music, "O death, where is thy sting?" The melody is adapted from Handel's1722 cantata Se tu non lasci amore, and is in Luckett's view the most successful of the Italian borrowings. The duetruns straight into the chorus "But thanks be to God".

The reflective soprano solo "If God be for us" (originally written for alto) quotes Luther's chorale Aus tiefer Not. Itushers in the D major choral finale: "Worthy is the Lamb", leading to the apocalyptic "Amen" in which, saysHogwood, "the entry of the trumpets marks the final storming of heaven". Handel's first biographer, JohnMainwaring, wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the composer "rising still higher" than in "that vast effort ofgenius, the Hallelujah chorus". Young writes that the "Amen" should, in the manner of Palestrina, "be delivered asthough through the aisles and ambulatories of some great church".[89]

RecordingsMany early recordings of individual choruses and arias from Messiah reflect the performance styles thenfashionable—large forces, slow tempi and liberal reorchestration. Typical examples are choruses conducted by SirHenry Wood, recorded in 1926 for Columbia with the 3,500-strong choir and orchestra of the Crystal Palace HandelFestival, and a contemporary rival disc from HMV featuring the Royal Choral Society under Malcolm Sargent,recorded at the Royal Albert Hall.The first near-complete recording of the whole work (with the cuts then customary)[90] was conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1928. It represented an effort by Beecham to "provide an interpretation which, in his opinion, was nearer the composer's intentions", with smaller forces and faster tempi than had become traditional. His contralto soloist, Muriel Brunskill, later commented, "His tempi, which are now taken for granted, were

Messiah (Handel) 15

revolutionary; he entirely revitalised it". Nevertheless, Sargent retained the large scale tradition in his four HMVrecordings, the first in 1946 and three more in the 1950s and 1960s, all with the Huddersfield Choral Society and theLiverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Beecham's second recording of the work, in 1947, "led the way towards moretruly Handelian rhythms and speeds", according to the critic Alan Blyth. In a 1991 study of all 76 complete Messiahsrecorded by that date, the writer Teri Noel Towe called this version of Beecham's "one of a handful of truly stellarperformances".In 1954 the first recording based on Handel's original scoring was conducted by Hermann Scherchen for Nixa usingLondon forces[91]; it was quickly followed by another version, judged scholarly at the time, under Sir Adrian Boultfor Decca. By the standards of 21st-century performance, however, Scherchen's and Boult's tempi were still slow,and there was no attempt at vocal ornamentation by the soloists.[] In 1966 and 1967 two new recordings wereregarded as great advances in scholarship and performance practice, conducted respectively by Colin Davis forPhilips and Charles Mackerras for HMV. They inaugurated a new tradition of brisk, small scale performances, withvocal embellishments by the solo singers.[92] the Mackerras set uses similarly sized forces, but with fewer strings andmore wind players.</ref> Among the last notable recordings of older-style performances were Beecham's final,extravagantly reorchestrated version made for RCA Victor in 1959; one conducted by Karl Richter for DG in 1973,though it used authentic orchestration;[93]</ref> and a third based on Prout's 1902 edition of the score, with a325-voice choir and 90-piece orchestra conducted by Sir David Willcocks in 1995.By the end of the 1970s the quest for authenticity had extended to the use of period instruments and historicallycorrect styles of playing them. The first of such versions were conducted by the early music specialists ChristopherHogwood (1979) and John Eliot Gardiner (1982). The use of period instruments quickly became the norm on record,although conductors such as Sir Georg Solti (1985) and Sir Neville Marriner (1993) continued to favour moderninstruments. Gramophone magazine and The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music highlighted two versions,conducted respectively by Trevor Pinnock (1988) and Richard Hickox (1992). The latter employs a chorus of 24singers and an orchestra of 31 players; Handel is known to have used a chorus of 19 and an orchestra of 37.[94]

Performances on an even smaller scale have followed.[95] In 1993, the Scholars Baroque Ensemble released aversion with 14 singers including soloists.</ref>Several reconstructions of early performances have been recorded: the 1742 Dublin version by Scherchen in 1954and again in 1959; and by Jean-Claude Malgoire in 1980 and several recordings of the 1754 Foundling Hospitalversion, including those under Hogwood (1979), Andrew Parrott (1989), and Paul McCreesh. Unorthodoxadaptations have included a late 1950s recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein of his own edition whichregrouped and reordered the numbers into a "Christmas section" and an "Easter section".[96]</ref> In 1973 DavidWillcocks conducted a set for HMV in which all the soprano arias were sung in unison by the boys of the Choir ofKing's College, Cambridge, and in 1974, for DG, Mackerras conducted a set of Mozart's reorchestrated version, sungin German.

EditionsThe first published score of 1767, together with Handel's documented adaptations and recompositions of variousmovements, has been the basis for many performing versions since the composer's lifetime. Modern performanceswhich seek authenticity tend to be based on one of three 20th-century performing editions. These all use differentmethods of numbering movements:•• The Novello Edition, edited by Watkins Shaw, first published as a vocal score in 1959, revised and issued 1965.

This uses the numbering first used in the Prout edition of 1902.• The Bärenreiter Edition, edited by John Tobin, published in 1965, which forms the basis of the Messiah

numbering in Bernd Baselt's catalogue (HWV) of Handel's works, published in 1984.•• The Peters Edition, edited by Donald Burrows, vocal score published 1972, which uses an adaptation of the

numbering devised by Kurt Soldan.

Messiah (Handel) 16

•• The Oxford University Press edition by Clifford Bartlett, 1998The edition edited by Friedrich Chrysander and Max Seiffert for the Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft (Berlin, 1902) isnot a general performing edition, but has been used as a basis of scholarship and research.

Notes and referencesNotes[1] Also catalogued as HG xlv; and HHA i/17.[2] Since its earliest performances the work has often been referred to, incorrectly, as "The Messiah". The article is absent from the proper

title.<ref>[3][3] Luckett, p. 17 (see Sources section below)[4][4] Steen, p. 55[5] Steen, pp. 57–58[6][6] Burrows (1991), p. 4[7][7] Burrows (1991), p. 3[8][8] Luckett, p. 30[9][9] Luckett, p. 33[10] Luckett, pp. 38–41[11] Burrows (1991), pp. 6–7[12] Luckett, pp. 76–77[13][13] Luckett, p. 73 (see Sources section below)[14] The description "Sinfony" is taken from Handel's autograph score.<ref>Burrows (1991), p. 84[15] Burrows (1991), pp. 73–74[16] Luckett, pp. 79–80[17] Burrows (1991), pp. 9–10[18][18] Luckett, p. 86[19][19] Burrows (1991), pp. 8 and 12[20][20] Shaw, p. 18[21][21] Shaw, p. 13[22] Burrows (1991), pp. 61–62[23] Shaw, pp. 22–23[24][24] Burrows (1991), p. 22[25][25] Burrows (1991), p. 48[26] Shaw, pp. 24–26[27][27] Burrows (1991), p. 14[28] Luckett, pp. 117–19[29] Burrows (1991), pp. 17–19[30] Luckett, pp. 124–25[31][31] Luckett, p. 126[32] Hogwood, pp. 22–25[33] It is possible that Delaney was alluding to the fact that Cibber was, at that time, involved in a scandalous divorce suit.<ref name=

Smithsonian>[34][34] Shaw, p. 30[35][35] Luckett, p. 131[36] Shaw, pp. 31–34[37] Burrows (1991), pp. 24–27[38] Burrows (1991), pp. 30–31[39][39] Luckett, p. 175[40] Burrows (1991), pp. 28–29[41][41] Luckett, p. 153[42] Burrows (1991), pp. 34–35[43] Shaw, pp. 42–47[44] Shaw, pp. 49–50[45] Anthony Hicks gives a slightly different instrumentation: 14 violins and 6 violas.<ref>Hicks, p. 14[46][46] Hogwood, pp. 18 and 24[47] Shaw, pp. 51–52[48][48] Luckett, p. 176[49] Shaw, pp. 55–61

Messiah (Handel) 17

[50][50] Burrows (1991), p. 49[51][51] Burrows (1994), p. 304[52][52] Steinberg, p. 152[53] Swieten provided Mozart with a London publication of Handel's original orchestration (published by Randal & Abell), as well as a German

translation of the English libretto, compiled and created by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Christoph Daniel Ebeling.<ref>[54][54] Robbins Landon, p. 338[55] A repeat performance was given in the Esterháza court on 7 April 1789,<ref>Steinberg, p. 150[56] Hiller was long thought to have revised Mozart's scoring substantially before the score was printed. Ebenezer Prout pointed out that the

edition was published as "F. G. [sic] Händels Oratorium Der Messias, nach W. A. Mozarts Bearbeitung" – "nach" meaning after rather than inMozart's arrangement. Prout noted that a Mozart edition of another Handel work, Alexander's Feast published in accordance with Mozart'smanuscript, was printed as "mit neuer Bearbeitung von W. A. Mozart" ("with new arrangement by W. A. Mozart)."Also catalogued as HGxlv; and HHA i/17. When Mozart's original manuscript subsequently came to light it was found that Hiller's changes were not extensive.<ref>

[57][57] Laurence (Vol. 1), p. 151[58] Laurence (Vol. 2), pp. 245–46[59][59] Laurence (Vol. 1), p, 95[60] Beecham, pp. 6–7[61] Many of the editions before 1902, including Mozart's, derived from the earliest printed edition of the score, known as the Walsh Edition,

published in 1767.<ref name=prout1>[62][62] (German text)[63][63] and[64] Larner, Gerald. "Which Messiah?", The Guardian, 18 December 1967, p. 5[65] In 1966 an edition by John Tobin was published.<ref name=dean>[66][66] and[67][67] and[68] Burrows (1991), pp. ix and 86–100[69] Burrows (1991), pp. 83–84[70][70] Young, p. 64[71][71] Luckett, p. 93[72][72] Luckett, p. 87[73] Hicks, pp. 10–11[74] Luckett, pp. 88–89[75] Grout & Palisca, p. 445[76][76] Burrows (1991), p. 87[77][77] Burrows (1991), p. 63[78][78] Taylor, p. 41[79][79] Luckett, p. 95[80] Taylor, pp. 42–43[81][81] Burrows (1991), p. 64[82][82] Luckett, p. 97[83][83] Young, p. 42[84] Luckett, pp. 102–04[85] Hogwood, pp. 26–28[86] Luckett, pp. 104–06[87][87] Burrows (1991), p. 99[88][88] Luckett, p. 191[89][89] Young, p. 45[90] The numbers customarily omitted were: from Part II, "Unto which of the angels"; "Let all the angels of God worship Him"; and "Thou art

gone up on high"; and from Part III, "Then shall be brought to pass"; "O death, where is thy sting?", "But thanks be to God"; and "If God befor us".Since its earliest performances the work has often been referred to, incorrectly, as "The Messiah". The article is absent from the propertitle.<ref>

[91][91] This recording was monophonic and issued on commercial CD by PRT in 1986; Scherchen re-recorded Messiah in stereo in 1959 usingVienna forces; this was issued on LP by Westminster and on commercial CD by Deutsche Grammophon in 2001. Both recordings haveappeared on other labels in both LP and CD formats.

[92] The Davis set uses a chorus of 40 singers and an orchestra of 39 players;<ref>[93] The Richter set follows the Peters edition of the score edited by Kurt Soldan (1939) and Arnold Schering (1967).<ref>[94] Bartlett, Clifford, Notes to Chandos CD 0522(2) (http:/ / www. chandos. net/ pdf/ CHAN 0522. pdf) (1992)[95] A 1997 recording under Harry Christophers employed a chorus of 19 and an orchestra of 20.<ref>Heighes, Simon. Notes to Hyperion CD

CDD 22019 (http:/ / www. hyperion-records. co. uk/ al. asp?al=CDD22019) (1997)

Messiah (Handel) 18

[96] In a review in The Gramophone, Andrew Porter referred to Jens Peter Larsen's observation that Messiah "is 'manifold in its splendours, yetcompletely balanced, a unity': not selected scenes from the life of Our Lord, but 'a representation of the fulfilment of Redemption through theRedeemer'. Part I is the prophecy and realisation of God's plan to send the Redeemer to earth ; Part II is the accomplishment of redemption;and Part III 'a Hymn of Thanksgiving for the final overthrow of Death'."<ref>

References

Sources• Armstrong, Karen (1996). A History of Jerusalem. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-255522-0.• Beecham, Sir Thomas (1959). Messiah – An Essay. London: RCA. OCLC  29047071 (http:/ / www. worldcat.

org/ oclc/ 29047071). CD 09026-61266-2• Burrows, Donald (1991). Handel: Messiah. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37620-3.• Burrows, Donald (1994). Handel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816470-X.• Grout, Donald; Palisca, Claude V. (1981). A History of Western Music (3rd ed.). London: J M Dent & Sons.

ISBN 0-460-04546-6.• Hicks, Anthony (1991). Handel: Messiah (CD). The Decca Recording Company Ltd. OCLC  25340549 (http:/ /

www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 25340549). (Origins and the present performance, Edition de L'Oiseau-Lyre 430488–2)

• Hogwood, Christopher (1991). Handel: Messiah (CD). The Decca Recording Company Ltd. (Notes on the music,Edition de L'Oiseau-Lyre 430 488–2)

• Laurence, Dan H. (ed.); Bernard Shaw (1981). Shaw's Music – The Complete Musical Criticism of Bernard Shaw,Volume 1 (1876–1890). London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-31270-8.

• Laurence, Dan H. (ed.); Bernard Shaw (1981). Shaw's Music – The Complete Musical Criticism of Bernard Shaw,Volume 2 (1890–1893). London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-31271-6.

• Luckett, Richard (1992). Handel's Messiah: A Celebration. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-05286-4.• Robbins Landon, H. C. (1990). The Mozart compendium: a guide to Mozart's life and music. London: Thames &

Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01481-7.• Sackville-West, Edward; Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1956). The Record Guide. London: Collins. OCLC 

500373060 (http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 500373060).• Shaw, Watkins (1963). The story of Handel's "Messiah". London: Novello. OCLC  1357436 (http:/ / www.

worldcat. org/ oclc/ 1357436).• Steen, Michael (2009). The Lives and Times of the Great Composers. London: Icon Books.

ISBN 978-1-84046-679-9.• Steinberg, Michael (2005). Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. New York: Oxford University Press.

ISBN 0-19-512644-0.• Taylor, Sedley (1906). The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by other Composers (http:/ / ia600202. us. archive.

org/ 17/ items/ indebtednessofha00tayluoft/ indebtednessofha00tayluoft. pdf). Cambridge (UK): CambridgeUniversity Press. OCLC  23474813 (http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 23474813).

• Young, Percy M. (1951). Messiah: A Study in Interpretation. London: Dennis Dobson Ltd. OCLC  643151100(http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 643151100).

Messiah (Handel) 19

External links• For the full text, scriptural references and sound samples, see Messiah on Wikisource• Messiah (Handel): Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project• Handel's Messiah (http:/ / scores. ccarh. org/ handel/ messiah/ ) at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in

the Humanities• Der Messias, ed. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 572: Score (http:/ / dme. mozarteum. at/ DME/ nma/ nma_cont.

php?vsep=206& gen=edition& l=1& p1=-1) and critical report (http:/ / dme. mozarteum. at/ DME/ nma/nma_cont. php?vsep=207& l=1& p1=-1) ‹See Tfd›(German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe

• Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob (https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE) on YouTube

Article Sources and Contributors 20

Article Sources and ContributorsMessiah (Handel)  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=577545671  Contributors: 345Kai, 5 albert square, ABCD, Aaron Walden, Achoo123, Achronon, Afernand74, Agentilini,Alanmaher, AlbertSM, Alfons2, Andycjp, Andyhusmith, Angeldeb82, Angr, AnonMoos, Anrnusna, Antandrus, Anthony Appleyard, Anturiaethwr, Arsonal, As56, Auntof6, Average brando,Bart133, Beetstra, Ben Ben, Benc, Bencherlite, Betacommand, Binky, Bluedudeguy, Bluerasberry, Bob103051, Bob12345612345, Bobnotts, Bonadea, Bonalaw, Bongwarrior, Boris Crépeau,Br'er Rabbit, Brad101, Breezereef, Brianboulton, BrokenSphere, Bruce Hall, Bww, C lipton, CHRISTismyROCK83, Caltas, Carguy128, CenturionZ 1, Ceoil, Charlene91349, Charles Matthews,CharlieRCD, Chester Markel, Chowbok, Chris the speller, Classical geographer, Clodomir17, Clq, Codyfinke6, Corydon76, Countersubject, Courcelles, Crisco 1492, Crochet, Crown Counsel,Crystalline Entity, DTOx, Darev, Darguz Parsilvan, David Martland, David Underdown, DavidBrooks, DavidRF, Davidships, Dbolton, Debresser, Deltabeignet, Demiurge, Derek Ross, Derekt75,Dimadick, DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered, Dismas, Dlohcierekim's sock, DocWatson42, Doops, Doric Loon, DoubleBlue, Download, E2eamon, Ed g2s, Elassint, Emre D., Esrever,Euchiasmus, Excirial, FDT, FT2, FallingGravity, Feeblor, Felixsmells, Fermion, Fidelio72, Finetooth, FlameHorse, Floozybackloves, Fluffernutter, Folantin, FordPrefect42, Frankie0607,FranksValli, Frans Fowler, Fred sienkiewicz, Freedml, Frodet, Furrykef, GFHandel, GS4119, Gaius Cornelius, Garyp01, Gdr, Gerda Arendt, Gilliam, Glenn4pr, Gloomshrub, Gnowor, Gnp,Gontroppo, Graham87, GrahamHardy, Grand51paul, Grinner, GuillaumeTell, Hadal, Headbomb, Heimstern, Hhanke, Hiplibrarianship, Iambret, Icairns, Incornsyucopia, Interchangeable,JDLAK, JaGa, Jackfork, JackofOz, Jappalang, Jeffrey08, Jennavecia, Jhendin, Jim1138, Jni, Jonathunder, Josve05a, Jsbach1685, Justin Tokke, Jwissick, JzG, Kalmbach, KathrynLybarger,Kennedy44, King of Hearts, Kwamikagami, La cucaracha del ooocho, Lahhtims, Law Lord, Leandrod, Litalex, LonelyBeacon, M.O.X, Magioladitis, Mandel, MarchOrDie, Mgdickson7, MichaelBednarek, Mild Bill Hiccup, Minimac, MisfitToys, Missmarple, Mitrius, MollyTheCat, Mr Stephen, Mrbortlein, Mungo Kitsch, MusicMaker5376, MusicaBaroque, Musicjug, Musikene, N2e,Nbwrites, Nevilley, Nikkimaria, NoahElhardt, NotPotable, Nrussotto, Nyttend, OLEF641, Ohconfucius, Ondewelle, Opus33, PFHLai, Penguinrn, Picapica, Piledhigheranddeeper, Pjoef, Pladask,Pol098, Pozcircuitboy, Pratyya Ghosh, PumpkinSky, Pyrrhus16, Quill, R'n'B, R. fiend, R36, RadioFan, Rastello, Raul654, Reganindr, Revth, RexxS, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Robdav69,Robert K S, Robert Merkel, RobertG, RodC, Ronhjones, SavedSounds, SchuminWeb, Seriousmellowhumble, Sgw1009, Silas S. Brown, Sjones23, Skarebo, SkerHawx, SkyWriter, Sparafucil,Square87, Ss8541hill, Ssilvers, Stardestroyer, Stfg, Stolkin, Subash.chandran007, Szalax, TBHecht, Tabletop, Taksen, Tannin, Tarquin, Tassedethe, Tbhotch, The Master of Mayhem, The Nut,TheGrimReaper NS, Themfromspace, Thue, Tide rolls, Tim riley, Tim!, Tom harrison, TomStar81, Tomcat7, Tony1, TonyTheTiger, Tregoweth, Tzartzam, Tznkai, Ucucha, Ugha, Ugog Nizdast,Updateman, Ursasapien, Valerius Tygart, Vcelloho, Vchimpanzee, Vee12, Vejvančický, Viajero, Voiceofriesen, Volunteer Sibelius Salesman, WDavis1911, Wahkeenah, Washburnmav,Wavelength, Wdfarmer, Weixifan, Welsh, Whjayg, Widgets-atb-school, Wiki3Languages, Wilde Jagd, WilliamSommerwerck, Willking1979, Wilus, Wjejskenewr, Woohookitty, X!, Xnuala,YChester, Yellowpurplezebra, Yip1982, ZPM, Zaokski, 474 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:George Frideric Handel by Balthasar Denner.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:George_Frideric_Handel_by_Balthasar_Denner.jpg  License: Public Domain Contributors: User:DcoetzeeFile:BLW Handel.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:BLW_Handel.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Kilom691, SailkoFile:Charles Jennens23.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Charles_Jennens23.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:SreeBotFile:Messiah-titlepage.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Messiah-titlepage.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: George Frideric Handel 1685–1759File:Musick-hall-dublin.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Musick-hall-dublin.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Tim rileyFile:Microcosm of London Plate 037 - Foundling Hospital.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Microcosm_of_London_Plate_037_-_Foundling_Hospital.jpg  License:Public Domain  Contributors: Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827) and Augustus Charles Pugin (1762–1832) (after) John Bluck (fl. 1791–1819), Joseph Constantine Stadler (fl. 1780–1812),Thomas Sutherland (1785–1838), J. Hill, and Harraden (aquatint engravers)File:Messiah-Westminster-Abbey-1787.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Messiah-Westminster-Abbey-1787.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: unknownFile:Crystal-palace-handel-1857.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Crystal-palace-handel-1857.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: unknownFile:Ebenezer-prout.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ebenezer-prout.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: unknownFile:ENO Messiah 2009 Crop.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:ENO_Messiah_2009_Crop.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0  Contributors:ENO_Messiah_2009.jpg: Tim Regan derivative work: Brianboulton at en.wikipediaFile:Hallelujah score 1741.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hallelujah_score_1741.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: George Frideric Handel 1685–1759.Original uploader was Brianboulton at en.wikipediaImage:Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg  License: unknown  Contributors: User:EubulidesFile:Worthy-is-the-lamb.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Worthy-is-the-lamb.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:SreeBot

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