Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/91

Contributor - Dawn Martins

Title - Handel's Messiah - The People's Choice

Topic - Music

Would you have come to the concert? It was a benefit performance held in Dublin on April 13, 1742, for prisoners and for two hospitals. The composer was a bankrupt individual desperately trying to make up for some of his lost fame and fortune. And the work to be premiered, although it followed a Biblical narrative and was sung by two church choirs, was meant purely for entertainment. Could a score written in twenty-four days and based largely upon a frivolous Italian duet previously discarded by the composer be worth attending?

And then there was the concert hall. It was meant to hold 600 people. But 700 were squeezed in, "the ladies having been induced to come without their hoops, and the gentlemen without their swords." Perhaps because they barely had room to breathe, the reaction of the audience was positive but not overly enthusiastic.

And yet, about a year later, the reaction of an English monarch to part of this oratorio set an enduring and remarkable precedent. For the oratorio was Handel's Messiah, and when the magnificent echoes of the "Hallelujah Chorus" rang out, the "thick-witted George H found himself so deeply affected by Handel's music (or so eager to shift his position) that he started to his feet with all the spontaneous verve a sixty year old gout-ridden monarch would muster." Of course his courtiers followed suit, and the rest of the audience, who, custom dictated, could not remain seated while their monarch stood, also rose in body. Thus began a practice which has persisted to the present day both in England and in America when "thousands who can scarcely distinguish F sharp from middle C punctiously observe a custom established by a stupid Hanoverian King and his worldly court two hundred years ago."

Why? Why should this composition which had such a dubious beginning become the most famous oratorio of all time?

One answer can be found in the person of Handel himself, a man who Beethoven said was "the greatest of us all". From humble beginnings as the son of a barber surgeon in Germany, Handel rose to become the court composer for King George I in England. So feverishly did he work at this position that he suffered a paralytic stroke and had a nervous collapse in 1737. Yet five years later he was able to present the oratorio which, above all his compositions, was to gain him the description of "great". Perhaps it was not only typical of the composer's passion for his work, but even fitting that his death should result from his collapse at the end of a concert of The Messiah in 1774. He lived only a few days after.

The Messiah, then, was forged in the flames of genius. But its popularity also arose from the fact that it was written in English at a time in history when Englishmen were tired of the pretentious Italian operas which, to them, typified the aristocracy. Here was beautiful music sung in a language they could understand, with its theme taken from the Bible they knew, and Old Testament figures going forth in the name of God to conquer a foreign land just as the British were compelled to go forth and conquer new empires. And those choruses, which Handel wrote for so well, did they not epitomize the growing middle class? Did not the large choirs bursting forth in Choruses simply beg the public to "sing along"? No matter what your place was in society, you could enjoy Handel.

But no matter what the language that oratorio had been written in, the music of The Messiah was in itself unforgettable. Think of your favourites: the first chorus "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed", with its striking rhythm and majestic choral work; "For unto us a Child is born", with its jubilant vitality ending in the awesome "Wonderful Counsellor"; the flowing peace of the aria "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd" with its comforting image of Christ as the gentle shepherd; the unrestrained exuberance of the "Hallelujah Chorus", a work known and beloved by millions; and finally the crystal lyricism of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" which opens the third part of The Messiah and is one of Handel's finest arias. All of these contain eminently memorable and easily retained melodies, so that we have a collection which, were they spoken of in the modern idiom, would be termed "hits". The audience knows them; the audience remembers them; the audience is inspired by them; the audience loves them. The Messiah entwines itself in our memories.

Now, two hundred and fifty years after that first crowded concert, The Messiah still speaks to us. What a joyous message for this festive season! For it proclaims the ultimate victory - Christ's victory over death. A servant who came upon Handel just as he completed The Messiah found him in tears. "I did think," said the composer, "I did see all Heaven before me, and the Great God himself." And so do we all.

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