Lexington Singers (LexSing)

Handel: Messiah

Background

George Frideric Handel was born 23 February 1685 at Halle and died 14 April 1759 at London. Handel is probably on everybody's top 10 list. He enjoyed great fame during his lifetime and that popularity has not waned in the slightest to the present day. When we examine his catalog, we find an astonishing array of works, numbering in the thousands, but just how many can the overage music lover name? How many would be familiar? In fact, Handel is much like Bizet, not in style or time, but for the fact that they are both known for a relatively few number of works from their vast catalogs.

Those that we know, however, are distinguished by their quality and perfection of style. Bizet's masterpiece, of course, is the incomparable opera Carmen. While there are other wonderful works in his catalog (the brilliant Symphony in C was heard recently at these concerts), it is this opera that has gained him lasting popularity.

Handel, like his 19th century counterpart, achieves his fame primarily from the thousands of performances annually of Messiah, the timeless oratorio written in 1741. Many consider it to be the ultimate in religious writing, yet it was conceived as an "entertainment," and its first performance in Dublin was for charity, "for the relief of the prisoners in the several gaols (the British variant for jail), and for the support of Mercer's Hospital in Stephen's-Street and of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inn's Quay."

In my travels this past summer, my wife and I visited the site of the first performance of Messiah. We were both impressed by the acoustics of the church, and realized how perfectly suited this venue was for the original performance!

In memory, Messiah comes to us in vivid colors, powerful sonorities, and huge elemental effects. Our imagination is fully realized by this Baroque master, however, through very moderate means, since his original scoring (used tonight) was set for pairs of oboes, trumpets, continuo of organ and harpsichord, plus string choir.

Handel was capable of using massive forces. For example, in his Fireworks Music, the score calls for 40 trumpets, 20 horns, 16 oboes, 16 bassoons, eight kettledrums, and (like his later counterpart Tchaikovsky) a cannon! Messiah depends on its idea and simplicity to achieve power, and one has to continually remember that the ensemble on stage is a small, well balanced orchestra together with chorus and soloists.

While Handel had many detractors during his lifetime (mostly entrepreneurs in fierce competition for ticket buyers for the new "public concerts" which were the rage in London), he also had his staunch supporters. Perhaps his strongest came after his death in the person of Ludwig van Beethoven, who spoke highly of his colleague. "Handel is the unattained master of all masters. Go to him and learn how to produce great effects with scant deploy of means." Before he died, Beethoven was given a complete set of his works, on which he commented: "I have wished to own them for a long time because Handel is the greatest, the most solid of composers; from him I still can learn something. Fetch the books over to me!" After studying them, he remarked, "In the future, I shall write after the manner of my grand master Handel."

The well-known story has it that Handel composed Messiah, from the selection of the Biblical verses to the complete score, in just 28 days! For the most part, he refused food and drink, working feverishly from dawn through the night. On the day it was finished, Handel said "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself."

Originally created as a three-part Easter oratorio, the first section of the work is frequently heard during the Christmas season. The annual Philharmonic performance with the Lexington Singers and soloists has become a popular tradition in our series. We perform all the music from the Christmas portion (Part the First) plus the tenor recitative and aria "He that dwelleth in heaven" and "He Shalt break them with a rod of iron" and the "Hallelujah" chorus (Part the Second). Completing the evening is the bass recitative and aria "Behold, I tell you a mystery" and "The trumpet shall sound" plus the choruses "Worthy is the Lamb" and the final 'Amen" (Part The Third).

One need only hear a single chorus from tonight's oratorio to realize Handel's ability to master the elemental effect, a composer who could thunder forth with the barest of harmonic materials to create a life-long memory in the hearts and minds of any audience. That is simply why we can, some 261 years later, assume that our audiences can mentally sing-a-long to the sumptuous chorus, "Hallelujah!" and be assured that everyone will remember it, and be changed by it.

While this oratorio is a cherished musical monument to Handel's Christian faith, it has transcended a single man's religious beliefs to find a permanent place in the repertoire of every chorus, regardless of orientation. In 1975, the combined forces performed the greater portion of the complete Messiah. The scoring of the work calls for pairs of oboes, trumpets, organ, harpsichord, timpani, and string choir. The work receives an annual performance by these forces every December.