George Frideric Handel's Messiah
A German Composer's Christmas and Easter Oratorio
Dec 15, 2006 Sarah Canice Funke
George Frideric Handel (1685-1789) was a German-born composer who immigrated to England in 1712. He composed several works in his adopted English tongue, with an excellent mastery of the language. Handel established his career in England writing opera. Italian and Italian-style opera was quite fashionable and even rather popular in mid-18th century England, and Handel accordingly produced several of his own. The Messiah, however, was composed at a time when he was suffering severe depression. Working quickly, Handel finished the two-and-a-half hour composition in the space of 24 days. The libretto, arranged by Charles Jennens, draws largely from the text of Scripture. The work is appropriate for both of the major Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter, but it is traditionally performed more frequently around the Christmas season.
The Messiah is classified as an oratorio, or a choral work that is similar to an opera but with a Scripturally-based text and performed without dramatic enactment. The work consists of three sections. The first part sets Scriptural texts of prophecy regarding the coming Messiah (Hebrew term for King). The second part sets Scriptural texts that demonstrate how Christ fulfilled those prophecies. The third part deals with the life of the Christian, who no longer looks for the Messiah's first coming, but instead for His return. Like many Baroque composers, Handel very often "paints" the text through musical gestures common for the time. Thus, one will hear a twisting, chromatic b minor melody line illustrating the text of the bass aria "The People Walking in Darkness;" when the melody arrives at the text "have seen a great light," the music shifts to a bright D major chord to illustrate a beam of light breaking into the darkness. The great Hallelujah Chorus itself is set in D major in order to represent the joy and triumph of heaven. The trumpets are also symbolic of heaven, utilizing the biblical association of trumpets with the second coming. Evoking every emotion from triumph, joy, pensiveness, melancholy, agitation, suffering, and comfort, the Messiah is one way to usher in this holiday season.
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