MESSIAH
HANDEL’S MESSIAH
Acclaimed as the greatest musical masterpiece ever composed in England (though not by an Englishman, as George Frideric Handel was Saxon by birth, not Anglo-Saxon), the oratorio Messiah has been a popular favourite from the time of its first performance on the 13th of April in 1742, before an Irish audience, in Dublin. There were seven hundred people packed into the hall (to increase the space, they were requested not to wear hoops or swords for the occasion). The Dublin Journal enthused about ‘the exquisite delight’ that the sublime music and the elevated words afforded ‘to the admiring crowded audience’.
The date, in April, is perhaps surprising: we are used to hearing it in the Christmas season, not at Easter; but before we start accusing the Irish of blundering, we need to be told that Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens thought it belonged at the end of Lent or in Passion week. In my lifetime I can recall Messiah performances in Autumn rather than Summer, in Australasia; but in the British Isles the season at Eastertide is Spring, which certainly suits the drama of the birth, death, resurrection, and reappearance of ‘the King of Glory’, the Messiah.
The word messiah is another typical English failure to pronounce foreign words, in this case a Hebrew and Aramaic term meaning ‘anointed’, particularly referring to the expected saviour (the Lord’s anointed one’) who would come and rescue his people Israel from their oppressors, as King David had saved them from the Philistines (from which the word Palestinians is derived, by the way). In the Christian New Testament scriptures, maashiyakh was translated into Greek as khristos, ‘anointed’, and this passed into English as ‘christ’. We should say ‘Jesus the Christ’ and ‘Jesus the Messiah’, but ‘Christ’ has become a surname rather than a title. And notice that the oratorio’s name/title is simply Messiah (though it really ought to be called ‘The Messiah’!).
Strange to tell, the first performance in England was given a cool reception. It was presented in the Covent Garden Theatre (an opera house), and the soloists included two women of the theatre (opera singers); this was deemed to be unseemly for a sacred work in which the central Christian beliefs were portrayed. For many years Handel had pleased the music-lovers of London with his Italian operas (he composed fifty); but fashions changed, and religious oratorios, with no staging or costumes, became the order of the day (his total was twenty-three). In 1741 he composed Messiah in the short period from 22 August to 14 September (considered by some to be a miracle of divine inspiration, but a few of the tunes were recycled from other works); and in October he produced Samson (though the spectacular ‘Let the bright Seraphim’ was still lacking).
In February-March 1743, the lusty Samson had eight outings, while Messiah had three. At one of these, King George II stood during the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, acknowledging that he was in the presence of a greater ruler than himself (the King of kings and Lord of lords); and this is said to be the origin of the custom whereby audiences stand to attention at this point (the end of Part 2).
With regard to the vocal forces employed by Handel, we know from accounts of the performance at the Foundling Hospital in 1754 that the choir had less than twenty singers, all male, with boy sopranos for the treble line, and men singing the alto, tenor, and bass parts. There were five soloists, including three women (two sopranos and a contralto); on this occasion there were no castrato voices; and the soloists sang the choruses as well as their own pieces. Note that in their rendition of Messiah in December 2006, the Palmerston North Choral Society choir was joined by more than a dozen boy sopranos from Huntley School; also worth noting is the fact that some of the tenors were women.
Handel wrote at the end of the score: S.D.G. (To God alone be the glory).
Brian Colless PhD ThD
See further:
The Meaning of the Text of Messiah