George Frederick Handel composed
Messiah: A Sacred Oratorio during a 3-week period
in the summer of 1741, beginning on August 22nd
with completion on September 14th, in the
genre of English theater concert oratorio that he
developed. The music was set to the text of a libretto
comprised of Scripture verses compiled by Charles
Jennens
 from the 1611 Authorized Version of the English
Bible, the Great Bible of 1539, and the Book of Common
Prayer. It was presented in three acts of about 3 hours
duration with 2 intermissions, as would have been
expected by audiences of the time attending an evening
entertainment of one of Handel’s Italian Operas. Part 1
concerns the prophecies of the coming of the Christ and
His birth. Part 2 deals with the events of Christ’s
crucifixion, His suffering and death, and His
resurrection and Second Coming. Part 3 is a commentary
on the role of Christ as the Savior.
The late 1730’s and early
1740’s were proving to be very turbulent in Handel’s
career. Two unsuccessful attempts at reviving Italian
Opera in Britain were accompanied by a marked decline in
the composer’s health. However, after collaborating with
Jennens on Saul and Belshazzar, Handel’s
star as Britain’s premier composer would soon rise again
with the completion of Messiah, although not
without further controversy concerning its performance
in London.
Messiah
was first performed in the Music Hall on Fishamble
Street in Dublin, Ireland on Monday the 12th
of April 1742. It is not known if Handel completed
Messiah specifically for performance during his trip
to Ireland, or if he had originally intended it for the
following season in London. The fact that the Deans and
Chapters of the Cathedrals would not supply their
permission for official participation of the Cathedral
choirs until the performance of Messiah became a
charitable event foreshadowed the controversy to come in
London and also began the long-standing traditions of
Messiah performances being charitable events and
using volunteer choirs for the chorus.
The Dublin Journal,
March 23-27, 1742:
For the relief of the
prisoners in the several gaols, and for the
Support of Mercer’s Hospital in
Stephen’s-street, and of the Charitable
Infirmary on the Inns Quay, on Monday the 12th
of April, will be performed at the Musick Hall
in Fishamble Street, Mr. Handel’s new Grand
Oratorio call’d the Messiah, in which the
Gentlemen of the Choirs of both Cathedrals will
assist, with some Concertoes on the Organ, by
Mr. Handel. Tickets to be had at the Musick
Hall, and at Mr. Neal’s in Christ-Church-Yard,
at half a Guinea each.
N. B. No Person will be
admitted to the Rehearsal without a Rehearsal
Ticket, which will be given gratis with the
Ticket for the Performance when pay’d for.
The performances were extremely
well received and so successful that subsequent ads
asked that ladies refrain from wearing hoops and
gentlemen not wear swords in order to make more room in
the Hall.
Handel returned to London,
leaving Dublin on August 13, 1742. At this time it is
evident through surviving correspondence that his
relationship with Charles Jennens was cooling somewhat.
Jennens was annoyed with Handel, it is thought
primarily, because he did not open his London season
with a performance of Messiah and the short
length of time he took in its composition. Jennens felt
he should have expended at least a year on it because of
its sacred significance. There was also some
disagreement on Jennen’s part over how Handel handled
some of the treatment of the libretto and its musical
interpretation.
Finally, on Wednesday, March
23, 1743, Handel performed the Messiah in London
at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. He must have been
aware of the controversy surrounding its performance
evidenced by the fact that the ads in The Daily
Advertiser and The London Daily Post listed
the title of the performance only as ‘A New Sacred
Oratorio’. It seems that the uproar was not about the
Messiah itself, but whether a sacred piece of music
should be performed in a secular venue.
The following Letter
may to many of my Readers, especially those of a
gay and polite Taste, seem too rigid a Censure
on a Performance, which is so universally
approv’d: However, I could not suppress it, as
there is so well-intended a Design and pious
Zeal runs through the whole, and nothing
derogatory said of Mr. Handel’s Merit. Of what
good Consequences it will produce, I can only
say – Valeat Quontum valere potest.
To the
Author of the Universal Spectator.
Sir,
My…Purpose…is to
consider, and, if possible, induce others to
consider, the Impropriety of Oratorios, as they
are now perform’d.
Before I speak against
them (that I may not be thought to do it out of
Prejudice or Party) it may not be improper to
declare, that I am a profess’d Lover of Musick,
and in particular all Mr. Handel’s Performances,
being one of the few who never deserted him. I
am also a great Admirer of Church Musick, and
think no other equal to it, nor any Person so
capable to compose it, as Mr. Handel. To return:
An Oratorio either is an Act of Religion, or it
is not; if it is, I ask if the Playhouse is a
fit Temple to perform it in, or a Company of
Players fit Ministers of God’s Word, for in that
Case such they are made…
In the other Case, if
it is not perform’d as an Act of Religion, but
for Diversion and Amusement only (and indeed I
believe few or none go to an Oratorio out of
Devotion), what a Prophanation of God’s Name and
Word is this, to make so light Use of them? …How
must it offend a devout Jew, to hear the great
Jehovah, the proper and most sacred Name of God
(a name a Jew, if not a Priest, hardly dare
pronounce) sung, I won’t say to a light Air (for
as Mr. Handel compos’d it, I dare say it is not)
but by a Set of People very unfit to perform so
solemn a Service. David said, "How can we sing
the Lord’s Song in a strange Land"; but sure he
would have thought it much stranger to have
heard it sung in a Playhouse.
But it seems the
Old Testament is not to be prophan’d alone, nor
God by the name of Jehovah only, but the New
must be join’d with it, and God by the most
sacred the most merciful Name of Messiah; for
I’m inform’d that an Oratorio call’d by that
Name has already been perform’d in Ireland, and
is soon to be perform’d here. What the Piece
itself is, I know not, and therefore shall say
nothing about it; but I must again ask, If the
Place and Performers are fit? As to the Pretence
that there are many Persons who will say their
Prayers there who will not go to Church, I
believe I may venture to say, that the Assertion
is false, without Exception; for I can never
believe that Persons who have so little regard
for Religion, as to think it not worth their
while to go to Church for it, will have any
Devotion on hearing a religious Performance in a
Playhouse.
…Philalethes
[The Universal
Spectator, March 19, 1743]
Not everyone felt the same
as Philalethes. Some felt religion should not be
excluded from the theater. As shown by a gentleman who
wrote the following after reading the piece in The
Universal Spectator.
On Mr. Handel’s
new Oratorio, perform’d at the Theatre Royal in Covent
Garden.
Cease, Zealots, cease to blame
these heav’nly Lays,
For Seraphs fit to sing Messiah’s Praise!
Nor, for your trivial Argument, assign,
‘The Theatre not fit for Praise Divine.’
These hallow’d Lays to Musick give new Grace,
To Virtue Awe, and sanctify the Place;
To Harmony, like his, Celestial Pow’r is giv’n,
T’exalt the Soul from Earth, and make, of Hell, a
Heav’n.
It must be remembered that
religion in Britain was going through a period almost as
turbulent, but not as violent in most respects, as the
Protestant Reformation had been some 180 years before.
Many were unhappy the House of Hanover was in the seat
of power in Britain and this kept Jennens out of
politics because he would not swear fealty to the
Hanoverians. He was strongly Church of England, which
put him at odds with Dissenters, Romanists, Quakers, and
Deists, and would not allow him to accept the Roman
Catholic Stuarts. Add the political rumblings of the
Jacobites in Scotland (Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived in
Scotland in July 1745 and was eventually defeated on
Culloden Moor in April 1746. He escaped back to France
in September of the same year and this would end the
Royal Stuarts’ attempts to regain the throne of Scotland
and England.) and the colonists in the New World (even
though the American War for Independence would not begin
for another 30+ years), it made for a very interesting
time both religiously and politically in London.
After the first few
performances of Messiah, Charles Jennens lost
some of his antagonism for Handel, although he was still
annoyed that Handel would not change some sections he
felt were weak. At the end of the 1743 season, Handel
had a return of poor health that was exacerbated by
disagreements with his copyist-manager John Christopher
Smith and Jennens, as well as the ‘clamour’ created by
the performances of Messiah itself.
Handel did not perform
Messiah during the 1744 season, but its revival and
performance during Lent at the Haymarket Theatre in 1745
did not experience the controversy it had in 1743.
Handel and Jennens appear to have patched up their
relationship during this period due in part to the death
of another of Handel’s librettists and changes he made
to Messiah at Jennens insistence. After 1746
Jennens no longer played an active role in the further
development of Messiah.
Messiah
was performed only once between 1745 and its second
revival at Covent Garden and the charitable performances
at the Foundling Hospital in 1749. Annual performances
at the Foundling Hospital just after Easter became a
tradition and Handel even left an autographed copy of
the Score to the hospital to use for future
performances, although at one point he had to set them
straight as they thought they were going to be given the
exclusive rights to Messiah.
Although Handel usually
employed soloists in greater number, Messiah and
Samson (completed just after Messiah, but
before going to Ireland) were the only Oratorios Handel
composed that were written so they could be performed
with just four soloists: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass.
Handel used these as well as mezzo-sopranos, contraltos,
boy sopranos, male altos, counter tenors, and castratos
(although these were becoming rarer in this period of
time as fewer were eager to make the sacrifice
required).
Until 1750, at which point his
failing eyesight prevented it, Handel constantly made
revisions to Messiah: re-compositions,
transpositions, additions, and deletions to accommodate
changing soloists, the skills of the musicians, and the
venue in which it was performed.
Even before Handel’s death,
Messiah was beginning to circulate and have
performances apart from Handel, although it is assumed
that these were with his blessing; in Oxford, Cambridge,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Dublin, Salisbury,
Bristol, and Bath to name a few. These performances were
probably derived from a few manuscript scores until a
full score was finally published in 1767 and made
Messiah available to the general public.
As time wore on, and
Commemorative performances grew in size in both the
number of choral voices and orchestra, and with changes
in available instrumentation, the instrumental parts
were strengthened with the addition of oboes, bassoons,
and French horns (these were added by Handel himself)
and eventually flutes, clarinets, trombones, tympani (up
to 4 sets), and trumpets. Most of the wind instruments
were added by Director Johann Adam Hiller in Berlin in
1786, and by Mozart in Vienna in 1789 to adapt
Messiah to the orchestral conventions of the time on
the Continent. Mozart made the most dramatic changes by
translating it into German, filling in string parts and
revising trumpet parts to better match the improved
instruments of the day. Mozart’s version does not apply
itself well directly to English due to various artistic
decisions he made in translation. His version was
published in Leipzig in 1803 and later "completed" by
Robert Franz in 1885. In 1902, Ebenezer Prout attempted
to re-establish Handel’s minutiae but he was reluctant
to withdraw the additional accompaniment (these being
sometimes printed in small type so as not to be played
in the event an organ was being used).
Throughout the Nineteenth
Century these Commemorative performances were sometimes
as large as 10,000 musicians comprising both the chorus
and orchestra. Obviously, musical groups of this size
were logistically unwieldy; requiring huge venues,
multiple conductors, and at times the sheer size must
have detracted from the quality of the performance.
After the advent of World War I, the huge Commemorative
performances went out of fashion and the smaller choral
groups and choral society presentations common today
became more the norm and allowed for better logistical
and quality control.
As you can see, today’s
Messiah is as much different, as it is the same,
from the Messiah of Handel’s day. There have been
attempts to reconstruct a definitive score that reflects
Handel’s original composition, however, because of all
of the revisions Handel himself made, as well as a
scarcity of records from the period; this has proven to
be an almost impossible task. However, Messiah
continues to be as much a source of beauty and spiritual
inspiration as it was when Handel first composed it some
260 years ago.
Today, The Sarasota Choral
Society performs Messiah as published by G.
Schirmer. The Choral Society annually performs what is
known as the Christmas version of the Messiah,
which is comprised of those sections that deal with the
prophecies and the birth of Christ including the
‘Hallelujah Chorus’, to "kick-off" the celebrations of
the Holiday Season. (Dates and venue occasionally vary
due to logistics and availability).
Many people have asked why we
do not perform the "full" Messiah at this time.
Traditionally, the "full" Messiah is performed in
a period just before or after Easter where the full
import and meaning of the work becomes even more
appropriate and can be more fully appreciated. Also,
unfortunate but true, some of today’s concert-goers seem
to find a three and a half hour performance a little
tedious and are not quite so willing to purchase tickets
for the full performance. And ticket sales are what
enable The Sarasota Choral Society to continue providing
Sarasota and Bradenton’s largest and longest running
production of Handel’s Messiah, as that is
currently, along with member dues, our only source of
income.
Whether you are a fan of
Handel, are moved by sacred music, or just enjoy
listening to magnificent classical music professionally
presented, we invite you to join us at our next
presentation of Handel’s Messiah. Or if you
prefer a more active participation, join us in the
chorus as a Sarasota Choral Society member. Information
on both may be found in the appropriate sections of this
website or click on one of the links to contact us
directly.
Vince A. Vance, President
The Sarasota Choral Society
September 2003
Bibliography
Burrows, Donald,
Handel Messiah, Cambridge Music Handbooks,
Cambridge University Press, (1991).
Hogwood, Christopher,
Handbook included with the recording ‘Handel
MESSIAH’, Foundling Hospital Version 1754, The Decca
Record Co., Ltd. London, (1980 & 1991).
Ed.:
This recording is about as close to what would have been
heard in Handel’s day, as you will find. The Academy of
Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood and
played on authentic instruments of the period with the
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Judith
Nelson, Emma Kirkby, Carolyn Watkinson, Paul Elliott,
and David Thomas featured as soloists.
For more details on Handel and
Messiah: A Sacred Oratorio read the books listed
in the bibliographies found throughout this website. |
