Messiah (Handel)

Messiah (HWV 56)[1][n 1] is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by

Messiah
George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the
King James Bible, and from the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Oratorio by George Frideric
Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its Handel
London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the
oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most
frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established
through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s
in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre.
Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no
impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text is an
extended reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I Title page of Handel's autograph
with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the score
shepherds, the only "scene" taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates Text Charles Jennens,
on the Passion and ends with the "Hallelujah" chorus. In Part III he covers the from the King James
resurrection of the deadand Christ's glorification in heaven. Bible and the Book
of Common Prayer
Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional
settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work Composed 22 August 1741 –
was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and 14 September 1741:
choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by London
(among others) Mozart. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been Movements 53 in three parts
towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel's original intentions, although "big Vocal SATB choir and solo
Messiah" productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued
Instrumental 2 trumpets · timpani · 2
on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.
oboes · 2 violins · viola
· basso continuo

Contents
1 Background
2 Synopsis
3 Writing history
3.1 Libretto
3.2 Composition
4 Premiere and early performances
4.1 Dublin, 1742
4.2 London, 1743–59
5 Later performance history
5.1 18th century
5.2 19th century
5.3 20th century and beyond
6 Music
6.1 Organisation and numbering of movements
 6.2 Overview
6.3 Part I
6.4 Part II
6.5 Part III
7 Recordings
8 Editions
9 See also
10 Notes and references
11 Sources
12 External links

Background
The composer George Frideric Handel, born in Halle, Germany in 1685, took up permanent
residence in London in 1712, and became a naturalised British subject in 1727.[3] By 1741 his
pre-eminence in British music was evident from the honours he had accumulated, including a
pension from the court of King George II, the office of Composer of Musick for the Chapel
Royal, and—most unusually for a living person—a statue erected in his honour in Vauxhall
Gardens.[4] Within a large and varied musical output, Handel was a vigorous champion of
Italian opera, which he had introduced to London in 1711 with Rinaldo. He subsequently
[3]
wrote and presented more than 40 such operas in London's theatres.

By the early 1730s public taste for Italian opera was beginning to fade. The popular success of
John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch's The Beggar's Opera (first performed in 1728) had
heralded a spate of English-language ballad-operas that mocked the pretensions of Italian
opera.[5] With box-office receipts falling, Handel's productions were increasingly reliant on
private subsidies from the nobility. 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 he spent large sums of his own money in doing so.[6]
The statue erected in
Handel's honour, in Vauxhall Although prospects for Italian opera were declining, Handel remained committed to the genre,
Gardens, London but as alternatives to his staged works he began to introduce English-language oratorios.[7] In
Rome in 1707–08 he had written two Italian oratorios at a time when opera performances in
the city were temporarily forbidden under papal decree.[8] His first venture into English
oratorio had been Esther, which was written and performed for a private patron in about 1718.[7] In 1732 Handel brought a revised
and expanded version of Esther to the King's Theatre, Haymarket, where members of the royal family attended a glittering premiere
on 6 May. Its success encouraged Handel to write two more oratorios (Deborah and Athalia). All three oratorios were performed to
large and appreciative audiences at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in mid-1733. Undergraduates reportedly sold their furniture to
raise the money for the five-shilling tickets.[9]

In 1735 Handel received the text for a new oratorio named Saul from its librettist Charles Jennens, a wealthy landowner with musical
and literary interests.[10] Because Handel's main creative concern was still with opera, he did not write the music for Saul until 1738,
in preparation for his 1738–39 theatrical season. The work, after opening at the King's Theatre in January 1739 to a warm reception,
was quickly followed by the less successful oratorio Israel in Egypt (which may also have come from Jennens).[11] Although Handel
continued to write operas, the trend towards English-language productions became irresistible as the decade ended. After three
performances of his last Italian operaDeidamia in January and February 1741, he abandoned the genre.[12] In July 1741 Jennens sent
him a new libretto for an oratorio; in a letter dated 10 July to his friend Edward Holdsworth, Jennens wrote: "I hope [Handel] will lay
out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other
subject. The Subject is Messiah".[13]
Synopsis
In Christian theology, the Messiah is the saviour of the Jewish people and humankind. The Messiah who is called Christ, is identified
with the person of Jesus, known by his followers as the Christ or "Jesus Christ". Handel's Messiah has been described by the early-
music scholar Richard Luckett as "a commentary on [Jesus Christ's] Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension", beginning with
God's promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven.[14] In contrast with most of Handel'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 and teachings of Jesus, but to acclaim the
"Mystery of Godliness",[15] using a compilation of extracts from the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible, and from the
Psalms included in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.[16]

The three-part structure of the work approximates to that of Handel's three-act operas, with the "parts" subdivided by Jennens into
"scenes". Each scene is a collection of individual numbers or "movements" which take the form of recitatives, arias and choruses.[15]
There are two instrumental numbers, the opening Sinfony[n 2] in the style of a French overture, and the pastoral Pifa, often called the
"pastoral symphony", at the mid-point of Part I.[18]

In Part I, the Messiah's coming and thevirgin birth are predicted by the Old Testament prophets. The annunciation to the shepherdsof
the birth of the Christ is represented in the words of Luke's gospel. Part II covers Christ's passion and his death, his resurrection and
ascension, the first spreading of the gospel through the world, and a definitive 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 over sin and death and the acclamation of Christ.[19] According to the musicologist
Donald Burrows, much of the text is so allusive as to be largely incomprehensible to those ignorant of the biblical accounts.[15] For
[20]
the benefit of his audiences Jennens printed and issued a pamphlet explaining the reasons for his choices of scriptural selections.

Writing history

Libretto
Charles Jennens was born around 1700, into a prosperous landowning family whose lands and
properties in Warwickshire and Leicestershire he eventually inherited.[21] His religious and
political views—he opposed the Act of Settlement of 1701 which secured the accession to the
British throne for the House of Hanover—prevented him from receiving his degree from
Balliol College, Oxford, or from pursuing any form of public career. His family's wealth
enabled him to live a life of leisure while devoting himself to his literary and musical
interests.[22] Although the musicologist Watkins Shaw dismisses Jennens as "a conceited
figure of no special ability",[23] Donald Burrows has written: "of Jennens's musical literacy
there can be no doubt". He was certainly devoted to Handel's music, having helped to finance
the publication of every Handel score since Rodelinda in 1725.[24] By 1741, after their
collaboration on Saul, a warm friendship had developed between the two, and Handel was a
A portrait of Charles
frequent visitor to the Jennens family estate atGopsall.[21] Jennens from around 1740

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,
Jennens intended to challenge advocates of Deism, who rejected the doctrine of divine intervention in human affairs.[14] 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 work of genius".[23] 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
[13]
need to make any significant amendment to Jennens's work.
Composition
The music for Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. Having received Jennens's text some time after 10 July 1741,
Handel began work on it on 22 August. His records show that he had completed Part I in outline by 28 August, Part II by 6
September and Part III by 12 September, followed by two days of "filling up" to produce the 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 the number of errors is remarkably small in a document of this length.[25] The
original manuscript forMessiah is now held in the British Library's music collection.[26]

At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—Soli Deo Gloria, "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken
with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine
inspiration in which, as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, "he saw all heaven before him".[25] Burrows points out that many of
Handel's operas, of comparable length and structure toMessiah, were composed within similar timescales between theatrical seasons.
The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries; Handel commenced his
next oratorio, Samson, within a week of finishing Messiah, and completed his draft of this new work in a month.[27][28] In
accordance with his frequent practice when writing new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in Messiah, in this case
drawing on two recently completed Italian duets and one written twenty years previously. Thus, Se tu non lasci amore from 1722
became the basis of "O Death, where is thy sting?"; "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" were drawn from Quel fior che
alla'ride (July 1741), "Unto us a child is born" and "All we like sheep" from Nò, di voi non vo' fidarmi (July 1741).[29][30] Handel's
instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention, where the use of certain instruments and
[31]
combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by the composer; later copyists would fill in the details.

Before the first performance Handel made numerous revisions to his manuscript score, in part to match the forces available for the
1742 Dublin premiere; it is probable that his work was not performed as originally conceived in his lifetime.[32] Between 1742 and
1754 he continued to revise and recompose individual movements, sometimes to suit the requirements of particular singers.[33] The
first published score of Messiah was issued in 1767, eight years after Handel's death, though this was based on relatively early
[34]
manuscripts and included none of Handel's later revisions.

Premiere and early performances

Dublin, 1742
Handel's decision to give a season of concerts in Dublin in the winter of 1741–42
arose from an invitation from the Duke of Devonshire, then serving as Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland.[35] A violinist friend of Handel's, Matthew Dubourg, was in
Dublin as the Lord Lieutenant's bandmaster; he would look after the tour's orchestral
requirements.[36] Whether Handel originally intended to perform Messiah in Dublin
is uncertain; he did not inform Jennens of any such plan, for the latter wrote to
Holdsworth on 2 December 1741: "... it was some mortification to me to hear that
instead of performing Messiah here he has gone into Ireland with it."[37] After
arriving in Dublin on 18 November 1741, Handel arranged a subscription series of
six concerts, to be held between December 1741 and February 1742 at the Great
Music Hall, Fishamble Street. These concerts were so popular that a second series
was quickly arranged;Messiah figured in neither series.[35]
The Great Music Hall in Fishamble
In early March Handel began discussions with the appropriate committees for a Street, Dublin, where Messiah was
charity concert, to be given in April, at which he intended to present Messiah. He first performed
sought and was given permission from St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals to
use their choirs for this occasion.[38][39] These forces amounted to 16 men and 16
boy choristers; several of the men were allocated solo parts. The women soloists were Christina Maria Avoglio, who had sung the
main soprano roles in the two subscription series, and Susannah Cibber, an established stage actress and contralto who had sung in
the second series.[39][40] To accommodate Cibber's vocal range, the recitative "Then shall the eyes of the blind" and the aria
"He shall
feed his flock" were transposed down to F major.[32][41] The performance, also in the Fishamble Street hall, was originally
announced for 12 April, but was deferred for a day "at the request of persons of Distinction".[35] The orchestra in Dublin comprised
strings, two trumpets, and timpani; the number of players is unknown. Handel had his own organ shipped to Ireland for the
[42]
performances; a harpsichord was probably also used.

.[39] In its report

The three charities that were to benefit were prisoners' debt relief, the Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary
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".[43] Seven hundred people attended the premiere on 13 April.
[44] So that the largest possible

audience could be admitted to the concert, gentlemen were requested to remove their swords, and ladies were asked not to wear
hoops in their dresses.[39] The performance earned unanimous praise from the assembled press: "Words are wanting to express the
exquisite delight it afforded to the admiring and crouded Audience".[44] A Dublin clergyman, Rev. Delaney, was so overcome by
Susanna Cibber's rendering of "He was despised" that reportedly he leapt to his feet and cried: "Woman, for this be all thy sins
forgiven thee!"[45][n 3] The takings amounted to around £400, providing about £127 to each of the three nominated charities and
securing the release of 142 indebted prisoners.[36][44]

Handel remained in Dublin for four months after the premiere. He organised a second performance of Messiah on 3 June, which was
announced as "the last Performance of Mr Handel's during his Stay in this Kingdom". In this second
Messiah, 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;[47] details of other performers are not recorded.[48]

London, 1743–59
The warm reception accorded to Messiah in Dublin was not repeated in London when Handel introduced the work at the Covent
Garden theatre on 23 March 1743. Avoglio and Cibber were again the chief soloists; they were joined by the tenor John Beard, a
veteran of Handel's operas, the bass Thomas Rheinhold and two other sopranos, Kitty Clive and Miss Edwards.[49] The first
performance was overshadowed by views expressed in the press that the work's subject matter was too exalted to be performed in a
theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses such as Cibber and Clive. In an attempt to deflect such sensibilities, in London Handel
had avoided the name Messiah and presented the work as the "New Sacred Oratorio".[50] As was his custom, Handel rearranged the
music to suit his singers. He wrote a new setting of "And lo, the angel of the Lord" for Clive, never used subsequently. He added a
tenor song for Beard: "Their sound is gone out", which had appeared in Jennens's original libretto but had not been in the Dublin
performances.[51]

The custom of standing for the "Hallelujah" chorus originates from a belief that, at the London premiere, King George 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 in a letter dated 1756, three years prior to Handel's
death.[52][53]

London's initially cool reception of Messiah led Handel to reduce the season's planned six performances to three, and not to present
the work at all in 1744—to the considerable annoyance of Jennens, whose relations with the composer temporarily soured.[50] At
Jennens's request, Handel made several changes in the music for the 1745 revival: "Their sound is gone out" became a choral piece,
the soprano song "Rejoice greatly" was recomposed in shortened form, and the transpositions for Cibber's voice were restored to their
original soprano range.[33] Jennens wrote to Holdsworth on 30 August 1745: "[Handel] has made a fine Entertainment of it, though
not near so good as he might & ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grosser faults in the
composition ..." Handel directed two performances at Covent Garden in 1745, on 9 and 11 April,[54] and then set the work aside for
four years.[55]

The 1749 revival at Covent Garden, under the proper title of Messiah, saw the appearance of two female soloists who were
henceforth closely associated with Handel's music: Giulia Frasi and Caterina Galli. In the following year these were joined by the
male alto Gaetano Guadagni, for whom Handel composed new versions of "But who may abide" and "Thou art gone up on high".

The chapel of the London's
Foundling Hospital, the venue for
regular charity performances of
Messiah from 1750
The year 1750 also saw the institution of the annual charity performances of
Messiah at London's Foundling Hospital, which continued until Handel's death and
beyond.[56] The 1754 performance at the hospital is the first for which full details of
the orchestral and vocal forces survive. The orchestra included fifteen violins, five
violas, three cellos, two double-basses, four bassoons, four oboes, two trumpets, two
horns and drums. In the chorus of nineteen were six trebles from the Chapel Royal;
the remainder, all men, were altos, tenors and basses. Frasi, Galli and Beard led the
five soloists, who were required to assist the chorus.[57][n 4] For this performance
the transposed Guadagni arias were restored to the soprano voice.[59] By 1754
Handel was severely afflicted by the onset of blindness, and in 1755 he turned over
the direction of the Messiah hospital performance to his pupil, J.C. Smith.[60] He
apparently resumed his duties in 1757 and may have continued thereafter.[61] The
final performance of the work at which Handel was present was at Covent Garden
on 6 April 1759, eight days before his death.[60]

Later performance history

18th century
During the 1750s Messiah was performed increasingly at festivals and cathedrals
throughout the country.[62] Individual choruses and arias were occasionally
extracted for use as anthems or motets in church services, or as concert pieces, a
practice that grew in the 19th century and has continued ever since.[63] After
Handel's death, performances were given in Florence (1768), New York (excerpts,
1770), Hamburg (1772), and Mannheim (1777), where Mozart first heard it.[64] For
the performances in Handel's lifetime and in the decades following his death, the
musical forces used in the Foundling Hospital performance of 1754 are thought by
Burrows to be typical.[65] A fashion for large-scale performances began in1784, in a
series of commemorative concerts of Handel's music given in Westminster Abbey
under the patronage of King George III. A plaque on the Abbey wall records that
"The Band consisting of DXXV [525] vocal & instrumental performers was
conducted by Joah Bates Esqr."[66] In a 1955 article, Sir Malcolm Sargent, a
proponent of large-scale performances, wrote, "Mr Bates ... had known Handel well
and respected his wishes. The orchestra employed was two hundred and fifty strong,
including twelve horns, twelve trumpets, six trombones and three pairs of timpani
(some made especially large)."[67] In 1787 further performances were given at the
Abbey; advertisements promised, "The Band will consist of Eight Hundred
Performers".[68] 1787 advertisement forMessiah at
Westminster Abbey with 800
In continental Europe, performances of Messiah were departing from Handel's performers
practices in a different way: his score was being drastically reorchestrated to suit
contemporary tastes. In 1786, Johann Adam Hiller presented Messiah with updated
scoring in Berlin Cathedral.[69] In 1788 Hiller presented a performance of his revision with a choir of 259 and an orchestra of 87
strings, 10 bassoons, 11 oboes, 8 flutes, 8 horns, 4 clarinets, 4 trombones, 7 trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and organ.[69] In 1789,
Mozart was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten and the Gesellschaft der Associierten to re-orchestrate several works by
Handel, including Messiah.[70][n 5] Writing for a small-scale performance, he eliminated the organ continuo, added parts for flutes,
clarinets, trombones and horns, recomposed some passages and rearranged others. The performance took place on 6 March 1789 in
the rooms of Count Johann Esterházy, with four soloists and a choir of 12.[72][n 6] Mozart's arrangement, with minor amendments
from Hiller, was published in 1803, after his death.[n 7] The musical scholar Moritz Hauptmann described the Mozart additions as
"stucco ornaments on a marble temple".[77] Mozart himself was reportedly circumspect about his changes, insisting that any
alterations to Handel's score should not be interpreted as an effort to improve the music.[78] Elements of this version later became
Ebenezer Prout.[72]
familiar to British audiences, incorporated into editions of the score by editors including

19th century
In the 19th century, approaches to Handel in German and English-speaking
countries diverged further. In Leipzig in 1856, the musicologist Friedrich
Chrysander and the literary historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus founded the
Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft with the aim of publishing authentic editions of
all Handel's works.[64] At the same time, performances in Britain and the United
States moved away from Handel's performance practice with increasingly
grandiose renditions. Messiah was presented in New York in 1853 with a chorus
of 300 and in Boston in 1865 with more than 600. [79][80] In Britain a "Great
Handel Festival" was held atthe Crystal Palace in 1857, performing Messiah and
The Handel Festival atThe Crystal
Palace, 1857 other Handel oratorios, with a chorus of 2,000 singers and an orchestra of
500.[81]

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";[82] he later wrote, "Why, instead of wasting
huge sums on the multitudinous dullness of a Handel Festival does not somebody set up a thoroughly rehearsed and exhaustively
studied performance of the Messiah in St James's Hall with a chorus of twenty capable artists? Most of us would be glad to hear the
work seriously performed once before we die."[83] The employment of huge forces necessitated considerable augmentation of the
orchestral parts. Many admirers of Handel believed that the composer would have made such additions, had the appropriate
instruments been available in his day.[84] Shaw argued, largely unheeded, that "the composer may be spared from his friends, and the
[85]
function of writing or selecting 'additional orchestral accompaniments' exercised with due discretion."

One reason for the popularity of huge-scale performances was the ubiquity of amateur choral societies. The conductor 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 against monumental performances ... an appeal from several quarters
that Handel should be played and heard as in the days between 1700 and 1750".[86] At the end of the century, Sir Frederick Bridge
and T. W. Bourne pioneered revivals of Messiah in Handel's orchestration, and Bourne's work was the basis for further scholarly
versions in the early 20th century.[87]

20th century and beyond

Although the huge-scale oratorio tradition was perpetuated by such large ensembles as the Royal Choral Society, the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir and the Huddersfield Choral Society in the 20th century,[88] there were increasing calls for performances more
faithful to Handel's conception. At the turn of the century, The Musical Times wrote of the "additional accompaniments" of Mozart
and others, "Is it not time that some of these 'hangers on' of Handel's score were sent about their business?"[89] In 1902, the
musicologist Ebenezer Prout produced a new edition of the score, working from Handel's original manuscripts rather than from
corrupt printed versions with errors accumulated from one edition to another.[n 8] However, Prout started from the assumption that a
faithful reproduction of Handel's original score would not be practical:

[T]he attempts made from time to time by our musical societies to give Handel's music as he meant it to be given
must, however earnest the intention, and however careful the preparation, be foredoomed to failure from the very
nature of the case. With our large choral societies, additional accompaniments of some kind are a necessity for an
effective performance; and the question is not somuch whether, as how they are to be written.[75]
Prout continued the practice of adding flutes, clarinets and trombones to Handel's
orchestration, but he restored Handel's high trumpet parts, which Mozart had omitted
(evidently because playing them was a lost art by 1789).[75] There was little dissent from
Prout's approach, and when Chrysander's scholarly edition was published in the same year, it
was received respectfully as "a volume for the study" rather than a performing edition, being
an edited reproduction of various of Handel's manuscript versions.[90] An authentic
performance was thought impossible: The Musical Times correspondent wrote, "Handel's
orchestral instruments were all (excepting the trumpet) of a coarser quality 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.[90] In Australia, The Register protested at the prospect of
[91]
performances by "trumpery little church choirs of 20 voices or so".

In Germany, Messiah was not so often performed as in Britain;[92] when it was given,
medium-sized forces were the norm. At the Handel Festival held in 1922 in Handel's native Ebenezer Prout in 1899
town, Halle, his choral works were given by a choir of 163 and an orchestra of 64.[93] In
Britain, innovative broadcasting and recording contributed to reconsideration of Handelian
performance. For example, in 1928, Beecham conducted a recording of Messiah with modestly sized forces and controversially brisk
tempi, although the orchestration remained far from authentic.[94] In 1934 and 1935, the BBC broadcast performances of Messiah
conducted by Adrian Boult with "a faithful adherence to Handel's clear scoring."[95] A performance with authentic scoring was given
in Worcester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival in 1935.[96] In 1950 John Tobin conducted a performance of Messiah in
St Paul's Cathedral with the orchestral forces specified by the composer, a choir of 60, a counter-tenor alto soloist, and modest
attempts at vocal elaboration of the printed notes, in the manner of Handel's day.[97] The Prout version sung with many voices
remained popular with British choral societies, but at the same time increasingly frequent performances were given by small
professional ensembles in suitably sized venues, using authentic scoring. Recordings on LP and CD were preponderantly of the latter
type, and the large scale Messiah came to seem old-fashioned.[98]

The cause of authentic performance was advanced in 1965 by the

publication of a new edition of the score, edited by Watkins Shaw. In
the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, David Scott writes,
"the edition at first aroused suspicion on account of its attempts in
several directions to break the crust of convention surrounding the
work in the British Isles."[99] By the time of Shaw's death in 1996,
The Times described his edition as "now in universal use".[100][n 9]

Messiah remains Handel's best-known work, with performances

Messiah staged at the English National Opera,
particularly popular during the Advent season;[46] writing in
2009
December 1993, the music critic Alex Ross refers to that month's 21
performances in New York alone as "numbing repetition".[102]
Against the general trend towards authenticity, the work has been staged in opera houses, both in London (2009) and in Paris
(2011).[103] The Mozart score is revived from time to time,[104] and in Anglophone countries "singalong" performances with many
hundreds of performers are popular.[105] Although performances striving 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 instrumental ornamentation of the written notes is a matter of personal judgment, even for the most historically
informed performers.[106] 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 for themselves. Indeed if
they are not prepared to grapple with the problems presented by the score they ought not to conduct it. This applies
not only to the choice of versions, but to every aspect of baroque practice, and of course there are often no final
answers.[101]
Music
Organisation and numbering of movements
The numbering of the movements shown here is in accordance with the Novello vocal score (1959), edited by Watkins Shaw, which
adapts the numbering earlier devised by Ebenezer Prout. Other editions count the movements slightly differently; the Bärenreiter
edition of 1965, for example, does not number all the recitatives and runs from 1 to 47.[107] The division into parts and scenes is
based on the 1743 word-book prepared for the first London performance.[108] The scene headings are given as Burrows summarised
the scene headings by Jennens.[15]
Part I
Scene 1: Isaiah's prophecy of salvation Scene 1: Christ's Passion
1. Sinfony (instrumental)
2. Comfort ye my people
(tenor)
3. Ev'ry valley shall be
exalted (air for tenor)
4. And the glory of the
Lord (anthem chorus)
Scene 2: The coming judgment
5. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts (accompanied
recitative for bass)
6. But who may abide the
day of His coming
(soprano, alto or bass)
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 (air for alto
and chorus)
10. For behold, darkness
shall cover the earth
(bass)
11. The people that
walked in darkness have
seen a great light (bass)
12. For unto us a child is
born (duet chorus)
Scene 4: The annunciation to the
shepherds
13. Pifa ("pastoral
symphony": instrumental)
Part II Part III
Scene 1: The promise of eternal
life
22. Behold the Lamb of God
(chorus) 45. I know that my
23. He was despised and Redeemer liveth
rejected of men (alto) (soprano)
24. Surely he has borne our 46. Since by man
griefs and carried our sorrows came death (chorus)
(chorus)
25. And with his stripes we are Scene 2: The Day of Judgment
healed (fugue chorus)
26. All we like sheep have 47. Behold, I tell you a
gone astray (duet chorus) mystery (bass)
27. All they that see him laugh 48. The trumpet shall
him to scorn (secco recitative sound (bass)
for tenor)
28. He trusted in God that he Scene 3: The final conquest of sin
would deliver him (fugue
chorus) 49. Then shall be
29. Thy rebuke hath broken brought to pass (alto)
his heart (tenor or soprano) 50. O death, where is
30. Behold and see if there be thy sting (alto and
any sorrow (tenor or soprano) tenor)
51. But thanks be to
Scene 2: Christ's Death and Resurrection God (chorus)
52. If God be for us,
31. He was cut off (tenor or who can be against us
soprano) (soprano)
32. But thou didst not leave his
soul in hell (tenor or soprano) Scene 4: The acclamation of the
Messiah
Scene 3: Christ's Ascension
53. Worthy is the
33. Lift up your heads, O ye Lamb (chorus)
gates (chorus)
Amen
Scene 4: Christ's reception in Heaven (chorus)
34. Unto which of the angels
(tenor)
35. Let all the angels of God
worship Him (chorus)
 14a. There were
shepherds abiding in the preaching
fields (secco recitative for
soprano)
14b. And lo, the angel of
the Lord (accompanied
recitative for soprano)
15. And the angel said
unto them (secco
recitative for soprano)
16. And suddenly there
was with the angel
(accompanied recitative Scene 6: The world's rejection of the Gospel
for soprano)
17. Glory to God in the
highest (chorus)
Scene 5: Christ's healing and
redemption
18. Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion (soprano) Scene 7: God's ultimate victory
19. Then shall the eyes of
the blind be opened
(secco recitative for
soprano or alto)
20. He shall feed his flock
like a shepherd (alto
and/or soprano)
21. His yoke is easy (duet
chorus)
Scene 5: The beginnings of Gospel
36. Thou art gone up on high
(soprano, alto, or bass)
37. The Lord gave the word
(chorus)
38. How beautiful are the feet
(soprano, alto, or chorus)
39. Their sound is gone out
(tenor or chorus)
40. Why do the nations so
furiously rage together (bass)
41. Let us break their bonds
asunder (chorus)
42. He that dwelleth in heaven
(tenor)
43. Thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron (tenor)
44. Hallelujah (anthem and
fugue chorus)

Overview
Handel's music for Messiah is distinguished from most of his other oratorios by an
orchestral restraint—a quality which the musicologist Percy M. Young observes was
not adopted by Mozart and other later arrangers of the music.[109] The work begins
quietly, with instrumental and solo movements preceding the first appearance of the
chorus, whose entry in the low alto register is muted.[41] A particular aspect of
Handel's restraint is his limited use of trumpets throughout the work. After their
introduction in the Part I chorus "Glory to God", apart from the solo in "The trumpet
shall sound" they are heard only in "Hallelujah" and the final chorus "Worthy is the
Lamb".[109] It is this rarity, says Young, that makes these brass interpolations
The final bars of the "Hallelujah"
particularly effective: "Increase them and the thrill is diminished".[110] In "Glory to
chorus, from Handel's manuscript
God", Handel marked the entry of the trumpets as da lontano e un poco piano,
meaning "quietly, from afar"; his original intention had been to place the brass
offstage (in disparte) at this point, to highlight the effect of distance.[30][111] In this initial appearance the trumpets lack the expected
drum accompaniment, "a deliberate withholding of ef [112]
fect, leaving something in reserve for Parts II and III" according to Luckett.

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 oratorio moves 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 its triumphant ending.[113] In the absence of a predominant key, other integrating
elements have been proposed. For example, the musicologist Rudolf Steglich has suggested that Handel used the device of the
"ascending fourth" as a unifying motif; this device most noticeably occurs in the first two notes of "I know that my Redeemer liveth"
and on numerous other occasions. Nevertheless, Luckett finds this thesis implausible, and asserts that "the unity of Messiah is a
consequence of nothing more arcane than the quality of Handel's attention to his text, and the consistency of his musical
imagination".[114] Allan Kozinn, The New York Times music critic, finds "a model marriage of music and text ... From the gentle
falling melody assigned to the opening words ("Comfort ye") to the sheer ebullience of the "Hallelujah" chorus and the ornate
[115]
celebratory counterpoint that supports the closing "Amen", hardly a line of text goes by that Handel does not amplify".

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

Problems playing this file? See media help.

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";[114] Handel's
early biographer Charles Burney merely found it "dry and uninteresting".[41] 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 (which include an ascending fourth in "the Mighty God") are imposed on material drawn
from Handel's Italian cantataNò, di voi non vo'fidarmi.[41] Such passages, says the music historian Donald Jay Grout, "reveal Handel
the dramatist, the unerring master of dramatic effect".[116]

The pastoral interlude that follows begins with the short instrumental movement, the Pifa, which takes its name from the shepherd-
bagpipers, or pifferari, who played their pipes in the streets of Rome at Christmas time.[111] Handel wrote the movement in both 11-
bar and extended 32-bar forms; according to Burrows, either will work in performance.[33] The group of four short recitatives which
follow it introduce the soprano soloist—although often the earlier aria "But who may abide" is sung by the soprano in its transposed
G minor form.[117] The final recitative of this section is in D major and heralds the af
firmative chorus "Glory to God". The remainder
of Part I is largely carried by the soprano in B flat, in what Burrows terms a rare instance of tonal stability.[118] The aria "He shall
feed his flock" underwent several transformations by Handel, appearing at different times as a recitative, an alto aria and a duet for
alto and soprano before the original soprano version was restored in 1754.[41] The appropriateness of the Italian source material for
the setting of the solemn concluding chorus "His yoke is easy" has been questioned by the music scholar Sedley Taylor, who calls it
"a piece of word-painting ... grieviously out of place", though he concedes that the four-part choral conclusion is a stroke of genius
that combines beauty with dignity.[119]

Part II
The second Part begins in G minor, a key which, in Hogwood's No. 23. Air (Alto): He was despised
phrase, brings a mood of "tragic presentiment" to the long sequence of
0:00
Passion numbers which follows.[45] The declamatory opening chorus
"Behold the Lamb of God", in fugal form, is followed by the alto solo
"He was despised" in E flat major, the longest single item in the Problems playing this file? See media help.
oratorio, in which some phrases are sung unaccompanied to
emphasise Christ's abandonment.[45] Luckett records Burney's description of this number as "the highest idea of excellence in
pathetic expression of any English song".[120] The subsequent series of mainly short choral movements cover Christ's Passion,
Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection, at first in F minor, with a brief F major respite in "All we like sheep". Here, Handel's use of Nò,
di voi non vo'fidarmi has Sedley Taylor's unqualified approval: "[Handel] bids the voices enter in solemn canonical sequence, and his
[121]
chorus ends with a combination of grandeur and depth of feeling such as is at the command of consummate genius only".
The sense of desolation returns, in what Hogwood calls the "remote No. 44. Chorus: Hallelujah
and barbarous" key of B flat minor, for the tenor recitative "All they
0:00
that see him".[45][122] 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 Problems playing this file? See media help.
soprano choir and the treble line to the tenors and basses.[123] For the
1754 Foundling Hospital performance Handel added two horns, which join in when the chorus unites towards the end of the
number.[45] After the celebratory tone of Christ's 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 the feet", 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".[124] It builds from a deceptively light orchestral opening,[45] through a short, unison cantus firmus passage on the
words "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth", to the reappearance of the long-silent trumpets at "And He shall reign for ever and
ever". Commentators have noted that the musical line for this third subject is based on Wachet auf, Philipp Nicolai's popular Lutheran
chorale.[45][125]

Part III
The opening soprano solo in E major, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is one of
the few numbers in the oratorio that has remained unrevised from its original
form.[126] Its simple unison violin accompaniment and its consoling rhythms
apparently brought tears to Burney's eyes.[127] It is followed by a quiet chorus that
leads to the bass's declamation in D major: "Behold, I tell you a mystery", then the
long aria "The trumpet shall sound", marked pomposo ma non allegro ("dignified
but not fast").[126] Handel originally wrote this in da capo form, but shortened it to
dal segno, probably before the first performance.[128] The extended, characteristic
trumpet tune that precedes and accompanies the voice is the only significant
First page of the concluding chorus instrumental solo in the entire oratorio. Handel's awkward, repeated stressing of the
"Worthy is the Lamb": From Handel's fourth syllable of "incorruptible" may have been the source of the 18th-century poet
manuscript
William Shenstone's comment that he "could observe some parts in Messiah wherein
Handel's judgements failed him; where the music was not equal, or was even
opposite, to what the words required".[126][129] After a brief solo recitative, the alto is joined by the tenor for the only duet in
Handel's final version of the music, "O death, where is thy sting?" The melody is adapted from Handel's 1722 cantata Se tu non lasci
amore, and is in Luckett's view the most successful of the Italian borrowings.[127] The duet runs straight into the chorus "But thanks
be to God".[126]

The reflective soprano solo "If God be for us" (originally written for alto) quotes Luther's chorale Aus tiefer Not. It ushers in the D
major choral finale: "Worthy is the Lamb", leading to the apocalyptic "Amen" in which, says Hogwood, "the entry of the trumpets
marks the final storming of heaven".[126] Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring, wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the
composer "rising still higher" than in "that vast effort of genius, the Hallelujah chorus".[127] Young writes that the "Amen" should, in
[130]
the manner of Palestrina, "be delivered as though through the aisles and ambulatories of some great church".

Recordings
Many early recordings of individual choruses and arias from Messiah reflect the performance styles then fashionable—large forces,
slow tempi and liberal reorchestration. Typical examples are choruses conducted by Sir Henry Wood, recorded in 1926 for Columbia
with the 3,500-strong choir and orchestra of the Crystal Palace Handel Festival, and a contemporary rival disc from HMV featuring
the Royal Choral Society under Malcolm Sargent, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall.[131]
The first near-complete recording of the whole work (with the cuts then customary)[n 10] 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.[94] His contralto soloist, Muriel Brunskill, later commented, "His
tempi, which are now taken for granted, were revolutionary; he entirely revitalised it".[88] Nevertheless, Sargent retained the large
scale tradition in his four HMV recordings, the first in 1946 and three more in the 1950s and 1960s, all with the Huddersfield Choral
Society and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.[88] Beecham's second recording of the work, in 1947, "led the way towards more
truly Handelian rhythms and speeds", according to the critic Alan Blyth.[88] In a 1991 study of all 76 complete Messiahs recorded by
[88]
that date, the writer Teri Noel Towe called this version of Beecham's "one of a handful of truly stellar performances".

In 1954 the first recording based on Handel's original scoring was conducted by Hermann Scherchen for Nixa,[n 11] quickly followed
by a version, judged scholarly at the time, under Sir Adrian Boult for Decca.[132] 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.[132] In 1966
and 1967 two new recordings were regarded as great advances in scholarship and performance practice, conducted respectively by
Colin Davis for Philips and Charles Mackerras for HMV. They inaugurated a new tradition of brisk, small scale performances, with
vocal embellishments by the solo singers.[n 12] Among recordings of older-style performances are Beecham's 1959 recording with
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with orchestration commissioned from Sir Eugene Goossens and completed by the English
composer Leonard Salzedo,[88] Karl Richter's 1973 version for DG,[135] and David Willcocks's 1995 performance based on Prout's
[136]
1902 edition of the score, with a 325-voice choir and 90-piece orchestra.

By the end of the 1970s the quest for authenticity had extended to the use of period instruments and historically correct styles of
playing them. The first of such versions were conducted by the early music specialists Christopher Hogwood (1979) and John Eliot
Gardiner (1982).[137] The use of period instruments quickly became the norm on record, although some conductors, among them Sir
Georg Solti (1985), continued to favour modern instruments. 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 24 singers and an orchestra of 31 players; Handel is known to have used a chorus of 19 and an orchestra of 37.[138]
[n 13]
Performances on an even smaller scale have followed.

Several reconstructions of early performances have been recorded: the 1742 Dublin version by Scherchen in 1954, and again in 1959,
and by Jean-Claude Malgoire in 1980[141] There are several recordings of the 1754 Foundling Hospital version, including those
under Hogwood (1979), Andrew Parrott (1989), and Paul McCreesh.[142][143] In 1973 David Willcocks conducted a set for HMV in
which all the soprano arias were sung in unison by the boys of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge,[144] and in 1974, for DG,
[88]
Mackerras conducted a set of Mozart's reorchestrated version, sung in German.

Editions
The first published score of 1767, together with Handel's documented adaptations and recompositions of various movements, has
been the basis for many performing versions since the composer's lifetime. Modern performances which seek authenticity tend to be
[107] These all use different methods of numbering movements:
based on one of three 20th-century performing editions.

The Novello Edition, edited by Watkins Shaw, first published as a vocal score in 1959, revised and issued 1965. This
[107]
uses the numbering first used in the Prout edition of 1902.
The Bärenreiter Edition, edited by John T
obin, published in 1965, which forms the basis of theMessiah numbering in
Bernd Baselt's catalogue (HWV) of Handel's works, published in 1984. [107]

The Peters Edition, edited by Donald Burrows, vocal score published 1972, which uses an adaptation of the
numbering devised by Kurt Soldan.[107]
The Van Camp Edition, edited by Leonard Van Camp, published by Roger Dean Publishin g, 1993 rev. 1995 (now
Lorenz pub.).
The Oxford University Press edition by Clifford Bartlett, 1998.[145]
The Carus-Verlag Edition, edited by Ton Koopman and Jan H. Siemons, published in 2009(using the HWV
numbering).
The edition edited by Friedrich Chrysander and Max Seiffert for the Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft (Berlin, 1902) is not a general
[107]
performing edition, but has been used as a basis of scholarship and research.
In addition to Mozart's well-known reorchestration, arrangements for larger orchestral forces exist by Goossens and Andrew Davis;
both have been recorded at least once, on theRCA[146] and Chandos[147] labels respectively.

See also
Letters and writings of George Frideric Handel

Notes and references

Notes

1. Since its earliest performances the work has often been referred to, incorrectly
, as "The Messiah". The article is
absent from the proper title.[2]
[17]
2. The description "Sinfony" is taken from Handel's autograph score.
3. It is possible that Delaney was alluding to the fact that Cibber was, at that time, involved in a scandalous divorce
suit.[46]
4. Anthony Hicks gives a slightly different instrumentation: 14violins and 6 violas.[58]
5. 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 Klopstockand
Christoph Daniel Ebeling.[71]

6. A repeat performance was given in theEsterháza court on 7 April 1789,[73] and between the year of Mozart's death
(1791) and 1800, there were four known performances of Mozart's re-orchestrated Messiah in Vienna: 5 April 1795,
23 March 1799, 23 December 1799 and 24 December 1799. [74]

7. 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" meaningafter rather than in Mozart's arrangement. Prout noted that a Mozart edition of
another Handel work, Alexander's Feast published in accordance with Mozart's manuscript, was printed as "mit
neuer Bearbeitung von W. A. Mozart" ("with new arrangement by W. A. Mozart)."[75] When Mozart's original
[76]
manuscript subsequently came to light it was found that Hiller's changes were not extensive.
8. 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.[75]
9. In 1966 an edition by John Tobin was published.[101] More recent editions have included those edited by Donald
Burrows (Edition Peters, 1987) and Clifford Bartlett (Oxford University Press, 1999).
10. 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
[132]
sting?", "But thanks be to God"; and "If God be for us".
11. This recording was monophonic and issued on commercial CD by PR T in 1986; Scherchen re-recorded Messiah in
stereo in 1959 using Vienna forces; this was issued on LP by Westminster and on commercial CD by Deutsche
Grammophon in 2001. Both recordings have appeared on other labels in both LP and CD formats. A copyright-free
transfer of the 1954 version (digitized from original vinyl discs by Nixa Records) is available onouTube:
Y part 1 (http
s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhb3s4E8-CA), part 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfQnICqY3j4), part 3 (http
s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M48k_QBXKeU).
[133] the Mackerras set uses similarly
12. The Davis set uses a chorus of 40 singers and an orchestra of 39 players;
[134]
sized forces, but with fewer strings and more wind players.
[139] In 1993, the
13. A 1997 recording under Harry Christophers employed a chorus of 19 and an orchestra of 20.
[140]
Scholars Baroque Ensemble released a version with 14 singers including soloists.

References

1. Also catalogued as HG xlv; and HHA i/17.Hicks, Anthony (2001). Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John, eds. The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians. x (2 ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 785.
 2. Myers, Paul (Transcription of broadcast) (December 1999). "Handel's Messiah" (http://music.minnesota.publicradio.o
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11. Luckett, pp. 38–41
12. Burrows (1991), pp. 6–7
13. Burrows (1991), pp. 10–11
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16. Luckett, p. 73
17. Burrows (1991), p. 84
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41. Hogwood, pp. 17–21
42. Butt, John. Programme notes: Gloucester, Three Choirs Festival, 30 July 2013.
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External links
For the full text, scriptural references and sound samples, seeMessiah on Wikisource
Messiah (Handel): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)
Handel's Messiah at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities

Der Messias, ed. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 572

: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-
Ausgabe

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