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Essay on George Fredrich Handel's Messiah
At Christmas, no music fills the air as often as George Frederic Handel's oratorio, Messiah. However, Handel intended this work for Lent and Easter, when he always gave his presentations of it. Handel began his musical career as a violinist and pianist with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. His first attempts at opera met with little success. But fate (or providence) smiled on him when, in 1710, he was appointed court conductor to the Elector of Hanover. When the Elector succeeded to the English throne, becoming King George 1, Handel became, as it were, an Englishman by adoption; he dedicated his Water Music for the King's procession up the Thames. (Schoelcher 294-95)
In the 1720s the King's Theatre in London's Haymarket was acquired to become the permanent home of the Royal Academy of Music, founded "to secure a constant supply of operas by Handel to be performed under his direction". And supply Handel did, first at the King's Theatre, then at Covent Garden, including Saul (1739), Israel in Egypt (1739), and many others. But nothing would rival the worldwide and enduring success of Messiah. The year was 1741. We know the precise day that Handel began composing Messiah - August 22, 1741; it was completed on September 12. Those who observed Handel at work during these three weeks described him as a man possessed. A servant said that he never slept. So frenzied was his composition that his fingers swelled until he could no longer hold a pen. (Streatfeild 183-5)
Part I of Messiah foretells the coming of the Lord; from the opening recitative "Comfort ye my people...Every valley shall be exalted", to the promise of the opening chorus: "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," a picture is given of a world in darkness waiting for the coming of a light.....
