| PROGRAM NOTES |
THE MASTERWORK CHORUS PROGRAM NOTES
Few would dispute that George Frideric Handel was one of the greatest
composers of his generation, but his modern-day popular fame rests on a
small number of works. He is best known as the inventor of the English
oratorio, and the most famous of those is Messiah, one of the
best-loved choral-orchestral works in history. Though he contributed to
every genre then current and was one of the great composers of Italian
opera, this one piece has cemented his reputation in the modern mind
and has become an annual ritual for an untold number of concert goers.
Handel was not a native Englishman. Born in Halle, Germany in 1685,
Handel was early inspired by Italian opera in Berlin and moved to
Hamburg to pursue it. Only 18 upon his arrival, he quickly came to
realize that his professional future depended on greater international
exposure, and he resolved to finance a trip to Italy for himself. At
21, he traveled to Italy and immediately made his name as an organist
and as a composer of both sacred music and opera. Handel returned to
Germany in 1710, his fame already spreading, and was appointed
Kapellmeister to the electoral court in Hanover. Before the end of the
year, however, he had made a trip to London to oversee the performance
of one of his operas. That trip proved to be the first of several and
eventually led to a complete relocation to England.
In London, Handel rode the waves of popular opinion, composing Italian
operas for a fickle public. His support sometimes wavered, but his
successes were significant and installed him as an important force in
the city's musical universe. His stature was further increased by his
appointment to the Chapel Royal, and an opera company with royal
patronage was created to advance the cause of Italian opera in England.
The venture eventually failed, however, and Handel was faced with an
unsure future, both artistically and commercially.
In 1741, Handel planned a series of oratorios and other concert works
in Dublin. The invitation from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to
present a concert in Dublin to benefit local charities came at a good
time for Handel, who was tiring of the contentious London audiences. He
had been experimenting with the oratorio form, creating a few using the
English language instead of Italian. Combining his strengths in
dramatic music and in choral composition, the idea of a uniquely
English oratorio style began to take shape through his compositions.
Before leaving London for Ireland, one of his collaborators, Charles
Jennens, presented Handel with a libretto for an oratorio based on Old
and New Testament scriptures. The text was an unusual creation, a
retelling of the story of Christ through indirect reference. With the
exception of the Nativity, none of the story was directly narrated.
Instead, the libretto utilized Old Testament prophesies that were
vindicated by Christ's life, triumph over death, and ascension into
heaven. Parts I and II covered the earthly life of Christ, and Part III
served as a reflection on the redemption won by Christ's death.
Handel set this text to music in a blizzard of activity, composing the
entire Messiah between August 22nd and September 14th, 1741. His notes
indicate that Part I took six days, Part II nine days, and Part III six
days, leaving three days to complete the orchestration for the 259
pages of score. The work is unique in his output, the only biblical
oratorio to use texts from both the New Testament and the Old. It is
also unusual in that almost all of the music was composed specifically
for this piece, unlike most of Handel's other large-scale works which
were often a combination of new composition and existing sections from
other works.
Handel packed this new score (along with the scores of seven other
major works and a small organ) and headed for Ireland. There he was
warmly received, presenting first a very successful series of six
subscription concerts and then a follow-up series of an additional six,
without performing the oratorio he had composed especially for the
trip. After five months in Dublin, Handel finally announced a major
public performance of his new oratorio that would provide proceeds for
the residents of a debtors' prison and a hospital. The city was heavily
involved in the preparations, as can be noted by the fact that tickets
were not available at Handel's residence, as they had been for the
subscription series, but at the music hall itself. The choirs of both
local cathedrals were invited to participate and the local orchestra
was hired. A large crowd was expected and so the women were asked not
to wear hoops and the men, swords, so as to make room for an extra 100
audience members. In the end, nearly 700 attended the premiere
performance of Messiah, with Handel directing from the harpsichord.
Public reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. The premiere
was the high point of the Dublin season. Proceeds from the concert
provided for the release of 142 inmates from debtors' prison and there
was popular demand for a repeat performance. After ten months away,
Handel returned to London refreshed and confident in the future of what
he called "the Oratorio way."
Once back in England, though, Handel was concerned about possible
public reaction to his new work before its London premiere. Supporters
of opera had already criticized his earlier efforts at oratorio and
there was widespread resistance to the use of biblical texts outside of
church. Omitting a title and announcing the work as
“a New Sacred Oratorio,†Handel hoped to
present the work without causing offense. His efforts were in vain. The
oratorio was decried as blasphemous even before its opening and was a
public failure at its first London performance. A sacred text depicting
(even indirectly) Christ performed by operatic singers in a playhouse
was too much for many Londoners, especially without the association
with charitable causes the work enjoyed in Dublin. No score was
published in Handel's lifetime. Even Jennens complained that the poor
reception was due in part to the low quality of the music Handel had
produced to accompany his libretto. (Jennens had expected Handel to
spend at least a year composing the score.)
Despite this reception, Handel persevered with the English oratorio,
seeing in it great promise for his own artistic growth and for
commercial gain. The Messiah, though itself not a success in London,
was the first in a string of significant English oratorios that
reestablished Handel's fame as a composer of great power and
popularity. He never composed another opera.
In 1750, nine years before the composer's death, Handel conducted The
Messiah as part of a benefit for the Foundling Hospital. The success of
this concert lead to an annual tradition lasting through the remaining
years of Handel's life and beyond, steadily increasing in popularity.
Thus began the unbroken tradition of annual Messiah performances that
extended eventually throughout the world. When Haydn attended a
performance in 1791, the performing forces numbered over 500. Clearly
the work had taken hold of the popular imagination by then and has
since become immortal through the enthusiasm of singers and audience
members alike for the singular musical experience of Handel's Messiah.
CITATION
"Program Notes" Anonymous. 2007. The Masterwork Chorus. <http://www.masterwork.org/Concerts/messiah> |
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