|
Lyrics
Programme Notes
Handel’s Messiah (please
note the lack of any “The”) is not so much a piece of
music than a monument of western civilisation. There are
very few people who do not know some part of this work and
if people only know one piece of it chances are it’ll be
the Hallelujah! Chorus.
A popular piece for
amateur choirs from around the world Messiah was the idea
of Handel’s friend and amateur musician Charles Jennings
who took text from all over the Bible to tell the story of
Jesus’ life. It was first performed on 13th April, 1742 in
Neale’s Music Hall in Dublin in aid of local charities. It
was so well-received and the audiences so large that a
notice was published in the local papers asking the
ladies, “…come without Hoops, as it will greatly increase
the Charity by making room for more company”.
Messiah is unique amongst
Handel’s oratorios in using direct quotations from the
Bible (the Authorised English Bible of 1611) instead of
heavily edited versions of Old Testament epic stories.
Part One of Messiah acts as a prologue with the opening
section using Old Testament prophesies of the coming of
the Messiah while the second section tells of His birth
and the promises of His miraculous powers.
Part Two catalogues the
events around Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection from His
suffering at the beginning of the section to the joy of
His Resurrection – the Hallelujah Chorus. It is
traditional to stand in this chorus. This tradition is
said to have started with King George I who, depending on
which version of the story you believe was, a) so
impressed with the chorus that he rose to his feet in
salutation or, b) it sounded like the end of Messiah so he
got up to leave! Whatever the reason when the monarch rose
to their feet so did everybody else.
The text for Part Three is
taken mainly from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians and
Revelations to tell of Christ’s second coming and the
banishment of death. The whole piece ending with the
rousing “Worthy is the Lamb” chorus.
Written for a
relatively small chorus of about twenty Messiah grew and
grew. At Handel’s memorial service in 1784 the chorus
consisted of 275 singers – then the largest number of
singers ever assembled for a single performance (they
were accompanied by 250 musicians). By 1859 this had
grown to 2,765 singers for the Great Handel
Commemoration Festival and to a staggering 10,000
singers for Boston's Grand National Celebration of Peace
in 1869 (accompanied by 500 musicians).
To list the popular sections of Messiah here would mean
reproducing the programme running order from the front
page, so popular is it in the repertoire of so many
musical societies around the world.
|
