Many early recordings of individual choruses and arias from "Messiah" reflect the performance styles then fashionable—large forces, slow tempi and liberal reorchestration. Typical examples are choruses conducted by Sir Henry Wood, recorded in 1926 for Columbia with the 3,500-strong choir and orchestra of the Crystal Palace Handel Festival, and a contemporary rival disc from HMV featuring the Royal Choral Society under Malcolm Sargent, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. The first near-complete recording of the whole work (with the cuts then customary) was conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1928. It represented an effort by Beecham to "provide an interpretation which, in his opinion, was nearer the composer's intentions", with smaller forces and faster tempi than had become traditional.
Recordings
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah (Handel) | Recordings
Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Wood with the 3,500-strong choir and orchestra of the Crystal Palace Handel Festival
who wrote the hallelujah chorus from handel messiah
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George Frideric Handel
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what is it?
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It is an English-language oratorio, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the Coverdale Psalter, the version of the "Psalms" included with the "Book of Common Prayer".
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when was it composed?
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1741
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how many parts does it have?
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3 parts
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was it ever recorded?
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In 1926
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by whom?
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According to the musicologist Donald Burrows, much of the text is so allusive as to be largely incomprehensible to those ignorant of the biblical accounts. For the benefit of his audiences Jennens printed and issued a pamphlet explaining the reasons for his choices of scriptural selections.
Messiah (Handel) | Synopsis
Among recordings of older-style performances are Beecham's 1959 recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with orchestration commissioned from Sir Eugene Goossens and completed by the English composer Leonard Salzedo, Karl Richter's 1973 version for DG, and David Willcocks's 1995 performance based on Prout's 1902 edition of the score, with a 325-voice choir and 90-piece orchestra.
Messiah (Handel) | Recordings
Many early recordings of individual choruses and arias from "Messiah" reflect the performance styles then fashionable—large forces, slow tempi and liberal reorchestration. Typical examples are choruses conducted by Sir Henry Wood, recorded in 1926 for Columbia with the 3,500-strong choir and orchestra of the Crystal Palace Handel Festival, and a contemporary rival disc from HMV featuring the Royal Choral Society under Malcolm Sargent, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. The first near-complete recording of the whole work (with the cuts then customary) was conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1928. It represented an effort by Beecham to "provide an interpretation which, in his opinion, was nearer the composer's intentions", with smaller forces and faster tempi than had become traditional.
Messiah (Handel) | Recordings
A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.
Messiah (Handel) | Introduction
In 1954 the first recording based on Handel's original scoring was conducted by Hermann Scherchen for Nixa, quickly followed by a version, judged scholarly at the time, under Sir Adrian Boult for Decca. By the standards of 21st-century performance, however, Scherchen's and Boult's tempi were still slow, and there was no attempt at vocal ornamentation by the soloists. In 1966 and 1967 two new recordings were regarded as great advances in scholarship and performance practice, conducted respectively by Colin Davis for Philips and Charles Mackerras for HMV. They inaugurated a new tradition of brisk, small scale performances, with vocal embellishments by the solo singers.
Messiah (Handel) | Recordings
For example, in 1928, Beecham conducted a recording of "Messiah" with modestly sized forces and controversially brisk tempi, although the orchestration remained far from authentic. In 1934 and 1935, the BBC broadcast performances of "Messiah" conducted by Adrian Boult with "a faithful adherence to Handel's clear scoring." A performance with authentic scoring was given in Worcester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival in 1935. In 1950 John Tobin conducted a performance of "Messiah" in St Paul's Cathedral with the orchestral forces specified by the composer, a choir of 60, a counter-tenor alto soloist, and modest attempts at vocal elaboration of the printed notes, in the manner of Handel's day.
Messiah (Handel) | 20th century and beyond
His contralto soloist, Muriel Brunskill, later commented, "His tempi, which are now taken for granted, were revolutionary; he entirely revitalised it". Nevertheless, Sargent retained the large scale tradition in his four HMV recordings, the first in 1946 and three more in the 1950s and 1960s, all with the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Beecham's second recording of the work, in 1947, "led the way towards more truly Handelian rhythms and speeds", according to the critic Alan Blyth. In a 1991 study of all 76 complete "Messiahs" recorded by that date, the writer Teri Noel Towe called this version of Beecham's "one of a handful of truly stellar performances".
Messiah (Handel) | Recordings
The Prout version sung with many voices remained popular with British choral societies, but at the same time increasingly frequent performances were given by small professional ensembles in suitably sized venues, using authentic scoring. Recordings on LP and CD were preponderantly of the latter type, and the large scale "Messiah" came to seem old-fashioned. The cause of authentic performance was advanced in 1965 by the publication of a new edition of the score, edited by Watkins Shaw. In the "Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", David Scott writes, "the edition at first aroused suspicion on account of its attempts in several directions to break the crust of convention surrounding the work in the British Isles." By the time of Shaw's death in 1996, "The Times" described his edition as "now in universal use".
Messiah (Handel) | 20th century and beyond
There is no convincing evidence that the king was present, or that he attended any subsequent performance of "Messiah"; the first reference to the practice of standing appears in a letter dated 1756, three years prior to Handel's death. London's initially cool reception of "Messiah" led Handel to reduce the season's planned six performances to three, and not to present the work at all in 1744—to the considerable annoyance of Jennens, whose relations with the composer temporarily soured. At Jennens's request, Handel made several changes in the music for the 1745 revival: "Their sound is gone out" became a choral piece, the soprano song "Rejoice greatly" was recomposed in shortened form, and the transpositions for Cibber's voice were restored to their original soprano range.
Messiah (Handel) | London, 1743–59
Between 1742 and 1754 he continued to revise and recompose individual movements, sometimes to suit the requirements of particular singers. The first published score of "Messiah" was issued in 1767, eight years after Handel's death, though this was based on relatively early manuscripts and included none of Handel's later revisions.
Messiah (Handel) | Composition
Messiah or Handel: Messiah features the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy (conductor), Richard Condie (choir director) and soloists Eileen Farrell, Martha Lipton, Davis Cunningham and William Warfield. The classic recording of George Frideric Handel's masterpiece was recorded during the Choir's 1958 concert tour and has been remastered for CD. This recording was selected by The National Recording Registry for the recorded sound section of the Library of Congress in 2004 as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically important." The choir and orchestra had a long history, going back to 1936. This recording was made in 1958 and has set a standard for classical music recordings.
Messiah (Mormon Tabernacle Choir album) | Introduction
Messiah (HWV 56), the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts, listed here in tables for their musical setting and biblical sources.
Structure of Handel's Messiah | Introduction
an appeal from several quarters that Handel should be played and heard as in the days between 1700 and 1750". At the end of the century, Sir Frederick Bridge and T. W. Bourne pioneered revivals of "Messiah" in Handel's orchestration, and Bourne's work was the basis for further scholarly versions in the early 20th century.
Messiah (Handel) | 19th century
In an attempt to deflect such sensibilities, in London Handel had avoided the name "Messiah" and presented the work as the "New Sacred Oratorio". As was his custom, Handel rearranged the music to suit his singers. He wrote a new setting of "And lo, the angel of the Lord" for Clive, never used subsequently. He added a tenor song for Beard: "Their sound is gone out", which had appeared in Jennens's original libretto but had not been in the Dublin performances. The custom of standing for the "Hallelujah" chorus originates from a belief that, at the London premiere, King George II did so, which would have obliged all to stand.
Messiah (Handel) | London, 1743–59
He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; "Messiah" was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only "scene" taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends with the "Hallelujah" chorus.
Messiah (Handel) | Introduction
Although the huge-scale oratorio tradition was perpetuated by such large ensembles as the Royal Choral Society, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Huddersfield Choral Society in the 20th century, there were increasing calls for performances more faithful to Handel's conception. At the turn of the century, "The Musical Times" wrote of the "additional accompaniments" of Mozart and others, "Is it not time that some of these 'hangers on' of Handel's score were sent about their business?" In 1902, the musicologist Ebenezer Prout produced a new edition of the score, working from Handel's original manuscripts rather than from corrupt printed versions with errors accumulated from one edition to another.
Messiah (Handel) | 20th century and beyond
Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the Coverdale Psalter, the version of the "Psalms" included with the "Book of Common Prayer". It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera.
Messiah (Handel) | Introduction
the places in which he performed the 'Messiah' were mere drawing-rooms when compared with the Albert Hall, the Queen's Hall and the Crystal Palace. In Australia, "The Register" protested at the prospect of performances by "trumpery little church choirs of 20 voices or so". In Germany, "Messiah" was not so often performed as in Britain; when it was given, medium-sized forces were the norm. At the Handel Festival held in 1922 in Handel's native town, Halle, his choral works were given by a choir of 163 and an orchestra of 64. In Britain, innovative broadcasting and recording contributed to reconsideration of Handelian performance.
Messiah (Handel) | 20th century and beyond
Jennens wrote to Holdsworth on 30 August 1745: "[Handel] has made a fine Entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might & ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grosser faults in the composition ..." Handel directed two performances at Covent Garden in 1745, on 9 and 11 April, and then set the work aside for four years.
Messiah (Handel) | London, 1743–59
In addition to those choral pieces mentioned above, Sargent recorded Handel's "Messiah" four times, in 1946, 1954 1959 and 1964. Though the advent of "authentic" period performance at first relegated Sargent's large scale and rescored versions to the shelf, they have been reissued and are now attracting favourable critical comment as being of historical interest in their own right. Sargent also conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Huddersfield Choral Society in recordings of Handel's "Israel in Egypt" and Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1947, both of which have been reissued on CD.
Malcolm Sargent | Other choral recordings
In Christian theology, the Messiah is the saviour of humankind. The Messiah who is called Christ, is identified with the person of Jesus, known by his followers as the Christ or "Jesus Christ". Handel's "Messiah" has been described by the early-music scholar Richard Luckett as "a commentary on [Jesus Christ's] Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension", beginning with God's promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven. In contrast with most of Handel's oratorios, the singers in "Messiah" do not assume dramatic roles; there is no single, dominant narrative voice; and very little use is made of quoted speech.
Messiah (Handel) | Synopsis
The autograph score's 259 pages show some signs of haste such as blots, scratchings-out, unfilled bars and other uncorrected errors, but according to the music scholar Richard Luckett the number of errors is remarkably small in a document of this length. The original manuscript for "Messiah" is now held in the British Library's music collection. It is scored for 2 trumpets, timpani, 2 oboes, 2 violins, viola, and basso continuo. At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—', "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine inspiration in which, as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, "he saw all heaven before him".
Messiah (Handel) | Composition
In the 19th century, approaches to Handel in German and English-speaking countries diverged further. In Leipzig in 1856, the musicologist Friedrich Chrysander and the literary historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus founded the Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft with the aim of publishing authentic editions of all Handel's works. At the same time, performances in Britain and the United States moved away from Handel's performance practice with increasingly grandiose renditions. "Messiah" was presented in New York in 1853 with a chorus of 300 and in Boston in 1865 with more than 600. In the 1860s and 1870s ever larger forces were assembled. Bernard Shaw, in his role as a music critic, commented, "The stale wonderment which the great chorus never fails to elicit has already been exhausted"; he later wrote, "Why, instead of wasting huge sums on the multitudinous dullness of a Handel Festival does not somebody set up a thoroughly rehearsed and exhaustively studied performance of the Messiah in St James's Hall with a chorus of twenty capable artists? Most of us would be glad to hear the work seriously performed once before we die." The employment of huge forces necessitated considerable augmentation of the orchestral parts.
Messiah (Handel) | 19th century
During the second half of the eighteenth century the estate was owned by Charles Jennens (a librettist and friend of George Frideric Handel). It is reputed that in 1741 Handel composed part of "Messiah", his famous oratorio, inside a garden temple at Gopsall. Some texts however challenge this theory and posit there is no evidence to confirm Handel stayed on the estate in 1741, although he was a frequent visitor. The temple was built after "Messiah" had already been completed. The organ that Handel specified for Charles Jennens in 1749 is now to be found in St James' Church, Great Packington.
Gopsall | Handel’s "Messiah"
The libretto by Charles Jennens is drawn from the Bible: mostly from the Old Testament of the King James Bible, but with several psalms taken from the Book of Common Prayer. Regarding the text, Jennens commented: "...the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah ...". "Messiah" differs from Handel's other oratorios in that it does not contain an encompassing narrative, instead offering contemplation on different aspects of the Christian Messiah:
Structure of Handel's Messiah | Oratorio
The composer George Frideric Handel, born in Halle, Germany in 1685, took up permanent residence in London in 1712, and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. By 1741 his pre-eminence in British music was evident from the honours he had accumulated, including a pension from the court of King George II, the office of Composer of Musick for the Chapel Royal, and—most unusually for a living person—a statue erected in his honour in Vauxhall Gardens. Within a large and varied musical output, Handel was a vigorous champion of Italian opera, which he had introduced to London in 1711 with "Rinaldo".
Messiah (Handel) | Background
In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven. Handel wrote "Messiah" for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by (among others) Mozart ("Der Messias"). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel's original intentions, although "big "Messiah"" productions continue to be mounted.
Messiah (Handel) | Introduction
Many admirers of Handel believed that the composer would have made such additions, had the appropriate instruments been available in his day. Shaw argued, largely unheeded, that "the composer may be spared from his friends, and the function of writing or selecting 'additional orchestral accompaniments' exercised with due discretion." One reason for the popularity of huge-scale performances was the ubiquity of amateur choral societies. The conductor Sir Thomas Beecham wrote that for 200 years the chorus was "the national medium of musical utterance" in Britain. However, after the heyday of Victorian choral societies, he noted a "rapid and violent reaction against monumental performances ...
Messiah (Handel) | 19th century
A fashion for large-scale performances began in 1784, in a series of commemorative concerts of Handel's music given in Westminster Abbey under the patronage of King George III. A plaque on the Abbey wall records that "The Band consisting of DXXV [525] vocal & instrumental performers was conducted by Joah Bates Esqr." In a 1955 article, Sir Malcolm Sargent, a proponent of large-scale performances, wrote, "Mr Bates ... had known Handel well and respected his wishes. The orchestra employed was two hundred and fifty strong, including twelve horns, twelve trumpets, six trombones and three pairs of timpani (some made especially large)." In 1787 further performances were given at the Abbey; advertisements promised, "The Band will consist of Eight Hundred Performers".
Messiah (Handel) | 18th century
The performance took place on 6 March 1789 in the rooms of Count Johann Esterházy, with four soloists and a choir of 12. Mozart's arrangement, with minor amendments from Hiller, was published in 1803, after his death. The musical scholar Moritz Hauptmann described the Mozart additions as "stucco ornaments on a marble temple". Mozart himself was reportedly circumspect about his changes, insisting that any alterations to Handel's score should not be interpreted as an effort to improve the music. Elements of this version later became familiar to British audiences, incorporated into editions of the score by editors including Ebenezer Prout.
Messiah (Handel) | 18th century
The music for "Messiah" was completed in 24 days of swift composition. Having received Jennens's text some time after 10 July 1741, Handel began work on it on 22 August. His records show that he had completed Part I in outline by 28 August, Part II by 6 September and Part III by 12 September, followed by two days of "filling up" to produce the finished work on 14 September. This rapid pace was seen by Jennens not as a sign of ecstatic energy but rather as "careless neglicence", and the relations between the two men would remain strained, since Jennens "urged Handel to make improvements" while the composer stubbornly refused.
Messiah (Handel) | Composition
He was certainly devoted to Handel's music, having helped to finance the publication of every Handel score since "Rodelinda" in 1725. By 1741, after their collaboration on "Saul", a warm friendship had developed between the two, and Handel was a frequent visitor to the Jennens family estate at Gopsall. Jennens's letter to Holdsworth of 10 July 1741, in which he first mentions "Messiah", suggests that the text was a recent work, probably assembled earlier that summer. As a devout Anglican and believer in scriptural authority, Jennens intended to challenge advocates of Deism, who rejected the doctrine of divine intervention in human affairs.
Messiah (Handel) | Libretto
If God be for us, who can be against us The scene closes with the assurance "If God be for us, who can be against us". As a contrast to the following choral conclusion of the oratorio, it is sung by the soprano. Towards the end, Handel quotes the characteristic intervals beginning Martin Luther's chorale "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir" several times, leading into the final chorus.
Messiah Part III | 52
The final recitative of this section is in D major and heralds the affirmative chorus "Glory to God". The remainder of Part I is largely carried by the soprano in B flat, in what Burrows terms a rare instance of tonal stability. The aria "He shall feed his flock" underwent several transformations by Handel, appearing at different times as a recitative, an alto aria and a duet for alto and soprano before the original soprano version was restored in 1754. The appropriateness of the Italian source material for the setting of the solemn concluding chorus "His yoke is easy" has been questioned by the music scholar Sedley Taylor, who calls it "a piece of word-painting ...
Messiah (Handel) | Part I
The first published score of 1767, together with Handel's documented adaptations and recompositions of various movements, has been the basis for many performing versions since the composer's lifetime. Modern performances which seek authenticity tend to be based on one of three 20th-century performing editions. These all use different methods of numbering movements: The edition edited by Friedrich Chrysander and Max Seiffert for the Deutsche Händel-Gesellschaft (Berlin, 1902) is not a general performing edition, but has been used as a basis of scholarship and research. In addition to Mozart's well-known reorchestration, arrangements for larger orchestral forces exist by Goossens and Andrew Davis; both have been recorded at least once, on the RCA and Chandos labels respectively.
Messiah (Handel) | Editions
Handel's music for "Messiah" is distinguished from most of his other oratorios by an orchestral restraint—a quality which the musicologist Percy M. Young observes was not adopted by Mozart and other later arrangers of the music. The work begins quietly, with instrumental and solo movements preceding the first appearance of the chorus, whose entry in the low alto register is muted. A particular aspect of Handel's restraint is his limited use of trumpets throughout the work. After their introduction in the Part I chorus "Glory to God", apart from the solo in "The trumpet shall sound" they are heard only in "Hallelujah" and the final chorus "Worthy is the Lamb".
Messiah (Handel) | Overview
Thus, ' from 1722 became the basis of "O Death, where is thy sting?"; "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" were drawn from ' (July 1741), "Unto us a child is born" and "All we like sheep" from ' (July 1741). Handel's instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention, where the use of certain instruments and combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by the composer; later copyists would fill in the details. Before the first performance Handel made numerous revisions to his manuscript score, in part to match the forces available for the 1742 Dublin premiere; it is probable that his work was not performed as originally conceived in his lifetime.
Messiah (Handel) | Composition
The statement returns a final time after a rest, marked Adagio, giving the soloist the opportunity to express it in a cadenza. A prestissimo postlude concludes the dramatic scene. Handel rewrote this dramatic scene in London in 1750 for the castrato Gaetano Guadagni, after he had initially set the text as a recitative for bass.
Messiah Part I | 6
Since by man came death The text for the chorus "Since by man came death" continues Paul's thoughts, juxtaposing death and resurrection twice. Consequently, Handel twice uses a Grave a cappella setting in A minor with chromatic lines, opposed to an Allegro with orchestra in C major in most simple harmony, switching back and forth between these extremes.
Messiah Part III | 46
"Messiah" (HWV 56), the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. The wordbook (also called libretto or text) was supplied by Charles Jennens. This article covers Part I and describes the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his virgin birth by several prophets, namely Isaiah. His birth is still rendered in words by Isaiah, followed by the annunciation to the shepherds as the only scene from a Gospel in the oratorio, and reflections on the Messiah's deeds. Part II covers the Passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the later spreading of the Gospel.
Messiah Part I | Introduction
Charles Jennens was born around 1700, into a prosperous landowning family whose lands and properties in Warwickshire and Leicestershire he eventually inherited. His religious and political views—he opposed the Act of Settlement of 1701 which secured the accession to the British throne for the House of Hanover—prevented him from receiving his degree from Balliol College, Oxford, or from pursuing any form of public career. His family's wealth enabled him to live a life of leisure while devoting himself to his literary and musical interests. Although the musicologist Watkins Shaw dismisses Jennens as "a conceited figure of no special ability", Donald Burrows has written: "of Jennens's musical literacy there can be no doubt".
Messiah (Handel) | Libretto
However, Prout started from the assumption that a faithful reproduction of Handel's original score would not be practical: Prout continued the practice of adding flutes, clarinets and trombones to Handel's orchestration, but he restored Handel's high trumpet parts, which Mozart had omitted (evidently because playing them was a lost art by 1789). There was little dissent from Prout's approach, and when Chrysander's scholarly edition was published in the same year, it was received respectfully as "a volume for the study" rather than a performing edition, being an edited reproduction of various of Handel's manuscript versions. An authentic performance was thought impossible: "The Musical Times" correspondent wrote, "Handel's orchestral instruments were all (excepting the trumpet) of a coarser quality than those at present in use; his harpsichords are gone for ever ...
Messiah (Handel) | 20th century and beyond
Mozart's version of Handel's "Messiah" was first published in 1803, edited by Johann Adam Hiller. It was instrumental in making "Messiah" Handel's most widely known oratorio. In 1884, Robert Franz published a mixed German-and-English version of "Messiah", based on Handel's original, Mozart's arrangement, and his own amendments. He tried to purge the score of Hiller's "unallowable" additions, in which he was helped by having access to Hiller's manuscript. However, few scholars of either Mozart or Handel's music have been supporters of Franz's version.
Der Messias | Reception
The following orchestration was recorded by Chrysander in the Händel-Gesellschaft edition of 1866:
Judas Maccabaeus (Handel) | Orchestration
Handel originally wrote the entire aria for soprano solo in B flat.
Messiah Part I | 20
The most famous collaboration is Jennens' libretto for "Messiah", drawn entirely from the Bible, about 60 per cent from the Old Testament (with occasional small alterations). Musicologist Watkins Shaw describes it as "a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief", and which "amounts to little short of a work of genius". Some attribute "Messiah"'s emphasis on the Old Testament – and choice of the Old Testament title "Messiah" – to Jennens' theological beliefs. Jennens was less than wholly approving of the musical setting, writing to Edward Holdsworth: "I shall show you a collection I gave Handel, called "Messiah", which I value highly.
Charles Jennens | Collaboration with Handel
These concerts were so popular that a second series was quickly arranged; "Messiah" figured in neither series. In early March Handel began discussions with the appropriate committees for a charity concert, to be given in April, at which he intended to present "Messiah". He sought and was given permission from St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals to use their choirs for this occasion. These forces amounted to 16 men and 16 boy choristers; several of the men were allocated solo parts. The women soloists were Christina Maria Avoglio, who had sung the main soprano roles in the two subscription series, and Susannah Cibber, an established stage actress and contralto who had sung in the second series.
Messiah (Handel) | Dublin, 1742
Handel set his music to a libretto that Charles Jennens had compiled from the Bible (mostly the Old Testament). Jennens commented that: "the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah ...". "Messiah" differs from Handel's other oratorios in that it does not contain an encompassing narrative, instead offering contemplation on different aspects of the Christian Messiah. The libretto follows the liturgical year: Part I corresponding to Advent, Christmas, and the life of Jesus; Part II to Lent, Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost; and Part III to the end of the church year—dealing with the end of time. The birth and death of Jesus are told in the words of the prophet Isaiah, the most prominent source of the libretto.
Der Messias | Text
Lift up your heads "Lift up your heads" is a line from Psalm 24 (). Since the text has questions ("Who is the King of Glory?") and answers ("He is the King of Glory"), Handel divides the choir in the first section to a high, announcing group (sopranos I and II, alto) and a low, questioning group (alto, tenor, bass).
Messiah Part II | 33
It builds from a deceptively light orchestral opening, through a short, unison cantus firmus passage on the words "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth", to the reappearance of the long-silent trumpets at "And He shall reign for ever and ever". Commentators have noted that the musical line for this third subject is based on "Wachet auf", Philipp Nicolai's popular Lutheran chorale.
Messiah (Handel) | Part II
Mozart first heard Handel's "Messiah" in London in 1764 or 1765, and then in Mannheim in 1777. The first performance, in English, in Germany was in 1772 in Hamburg. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the first to perform the oratorio in German: he presented it in 1775 in Hamburg, with a libretto translated by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Christoph Daniel Ebeling, followed by repeat performances in that city in 1777 and 1778. In 1885, Johann Adam Hiller's arrangement of "Messiah" was performed by 302 vocalists and instrumentalists in Berlin. The score of Handel's "Messiah" was first published in London in 1767.
Der Messias | History
The warm reception accorded to "Messiah" in Dublin was not repeated in London. Indeed, even the announcement of the performance as a "new Sacred Oratorio" drew an anonymous commentator to ask if "the "Playhouse" is a fit "Temple" to perform it". Handel introduced the work at the Covent Garden theatre on 23 March 1743. Avoglio and Cibber were again the chief soloists; they were joined by the tenor John Beard, a veteran of Handel's operas, the bass Thomas Rheinhold and two other sopranos, Kitty Clive and Miss Edwards. The first performance was overshadowed by views expressed in the press that the work's subject matter was too exalted to be performed in a theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses such as Cibber and Clive.
Messiah (Handel) | London, 1743–59
For the 1754 Foundling Hospital performance Handel added two horns, which join in when the chorus unites towards the end of the number. After the celebratory tone of Christ's reception into heaven, marked by the choir's D major acclamation "Let all the angels of God worship him", the "Whitsun" section proceeds through a series of contrasting moods—serene and pastoral in "How beautiful are the feet", theatrically operatic in "Why do the nations so furiously rage"—towards the Part II culmination of "Hallelujah". This, as Young points out, is not the climactic chorus of the work, although one cannot escape its "contagious enthusiasm".
Messiah (Handel) | Part II
The libretto by Jennens is drawn from the Bible: mostly from the Old Testament of the King James Bible, but with several psalms taken from the Book of Common Prayer. Regarding the text, Jennens commented: "...the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah ...". "Messiah" differs from Handel's other oratorios in that it does not contain an encompassing narrative, instead offering contemplation on different aspects of the Christian Messiah:
Messiah Part I | Messiah, the oratorio
The numbering of the movements shown here is in accordance with the Novello vocal score (1959), edited by Watkins Shaw, which adapts the numbering earlier devised by Ebenezer Prout. Other editions count the movements slightly differently; the Bärenreiter edition of 1965, for example, does not number all the recitatives and runs from 1 to 47. The division into parts and scenes is based upon the 1743 word-book prepared for the first London performance. The scene headings are given as Burrows summarized the scene headings by Jennens. Scene 1: Isaiah's prophecy of salvation Scene 2: The coming judgment
Messiah (Handel) | Organization and numbering of movements
To accommodate Cibber's vocal range, the recitative "Then shall the eyes of the blind" and the aria "He shall feed his flock" were transposed down to F major. The performance, also in the Fishamble Street hall, was originally announced for 12 April, but was deferred for a day "at the request of persons of Distinction". The orchestra in Dublin comprised strings, two trumpets, and timpani; the number of players is unknown. Handel had his own organ shipped to Ireland for the performances; a harpsichord was probably also used. The three charities that were to benefit were prisoners' debt relief, the Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary.
Messiah (Handel) | Dublin, 1742
Shaw describes the text as "a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief", and despite his reservations on Jennens's character, concedes that the finished wordbook "amounts to little short of a work of genius". There is no evidence that Handel played any active role in the selection or preparation of the text, such as he did in the case of "Saul"; it seems, rather, that he saw no need to make any significant amendment to Jennens's work.
Messiah (Handel) | Libretto
"Messiah" (HWV 56), the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part II in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds and reflects the Messiah's deeds on earth. Part II covers the Passion in nine movements including the oratorio's longest movement, an air for alto "He was despised", then mentions death, resurrection, ascension, and reflects the spreading of the Gospel and its rejection.
Messiah Part II | Introduction
The signal of a fourth has been observed by musicologist Rudolf Steglich as a unifying motif of the oratorio. Handel breaks the beginning of the text up to a stammering "He was despised, – despised and rejected, – rejected of men, ... – despi-sed – rejected", the words interspersed with rests as long as the words, as if exhausted. Soft sighing motifs of the violins, an echo of the singing, drop into these rests. Hogwood interprets the unaccompanied passages as emphasizing "Christ's abandonment". The middle section is also full of dramatic rests, but now the voice is set on a ceaseless agitated pattern of fast dotted notes in the instruments, illustrating the hits of the smiters in text from the third song (), where the words appear in the first person: "He gave his back – to the smiters – ...
Messiah Part II | 23
It was recorded for television and distribution on DVD, and BBC Radio 3 also broadcast a recording of this performance on New Year's Day 2010.
Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) | Recording
The opening soprano solo in E major, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is one of the few numbers in the oratorio that has remained unrevised from its original form. Its simple unison violin accompaniment and its consoling rhythms apparently brought tears to Burney's eyes. It is followed by a quiet chorus that leads to the bass's declamation in D major: "Behold, I tell you a mystery", then the long aria "The trumpet shall sound", marked ' ("dignified but not fast"). Handel originally wrote this in da capo form, but shortened it to dal segno, probably before the first performance.
Messiah (Handel) | Part III
Its success encouraged Handel to write two more oratorios ("Deborah" and "Athalia"). All three oratorios were performed to large and appreciative audiences at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in mid-1733. Undergraduates reportedly sold their furniture to raise the money for the five-shilling tickets.
Messiah (Handel) | Background
"Messiah" (HWV 56), the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part III in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds as a scene from the Gospel of Luke, and reflects the Messiah's deeds on Earth. Part II covers the Passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the later spreading of the Gospel. Part III concentrates on Paul's teaching of the and Christ's glorification in heaven.
Messiah Part III | Introduction
In continental Europe, performances of "Messiah" were departing from Handel's practices in a different way: his score was being drastically reorchestrated to suit contemporary tastes. In 1786, Johann Adam Hiller presented "Messiah" with updated scoring in Berlin Cathedral. In 1788 Hiller presented a performance of his revision with a choir of 259 and an orchestra of 87 strings, 10 bassoons, 11 oboes, 8 flutes, 8 horns, 4 clarinets, 4 trombones, 7 trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and organ. In 1789, Mozart was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten and the to re-orchestrate several works by Handel, including "Messiah" ("Der Messias"). Writing for a small-scale performance, he eliminated the organ continuo, added parts for flutes, clarinets, trombones and horns, recomposed some passages and rearranged others.
Messiah (Handel) | 18th century
During the 1750s "Messiah" was performed increasingly at festivals and cathedrals throughout the country. Individual choruses and arias were occasionally extracted for use as anthems or motets in church services, or as concert pieces, a practice that grew in the 19th century and has continued ever since. After Handel's death, performances were given in Florence (1768), New York (excerpts, 1770), Hamburg (1772), and Mannheim (1777), where Mozart first heard it. For the performances in Handel's lifetime and in the decades following his death, the musical forces used in the Foundling Hospital performance of 1754 are thought by Burrows to be typical.
Messiah (Handel) | 18th century
He trusted in God, that He would deliver Him What they say is given to the chorus as a strict fugue in C minor: "He trusted in God, that He would deliver Him, if He delight in Him." Jonathan Keates observes that Handel depicts the mocking, menacing crowd here, comparable to the turbae in Bach's Passions.
Messiah Part II | 28
He has made a fine entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grossest faults in the composition; but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the "Messiah.""
Charles Jennens | Collaboration with Handel
After two more instrumental measures, a four-part-setting develops to imitation and counterpoint of more and more independent voices, ending on a rest of a full measure. Finally, Amen is repeated two more times, Adagio. A contemporary critic, conditioned by John Brown who objected to operatic features in oratorios such as recitatives, long ritornellos, and ornamented vocal lines, commented on Handel's display of musical inventiveness and "contrapuntal skill": "The fugue too, on Amen, is entirely absurd, and without reason: at most, Amen is only a devout fiat, and ought never, therefore, to have been frittered, as it is, by endless divisions on A— and afterwards men." But Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring, wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the composer "rising still higher" than in "that vast effort of genius, the Hallelujah chorus".
Messiah Part III | 53
In Part I, the Messiah's coming and the virgin birth are predicted by the Old Testament prophets. The annunciation to the shepherds of the birth of the Christ is represented in the words of Luke's gospel. Part II covers Christ's passion and his death, his resurrection and ascension, the first spreading of the gospel through the world, and a definitive statement of God's glory summarised in the "Hallelujah". Part III begins with the promise of redemption, followed by a prediction of the day of judgment and the "general resurrection", ending with the final victory over sin and death and the acclamation of Christ.
Messiah (Handel) | Synopsis
In 1991, Warren was hired to arrange and produce an interpretation of the 1741 oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel that incorporated African-American music. He arranged and produced seven of the sixteen tracks of "", which included spirituals, blues, ragtime, swing, jazz fusion, rhythm and blues, gospel, and hip-hop. The album received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album and the Dove Award for Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year. "Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration" has been officially recognized by Handel House, the George F. Handel museum in London, England.
Mervyn Warren | Interpreting Handel
The duet runs straight into the chorus "But thanks be to God". The reflective soprano solo "If God be for us" (originally written for alto) quotes Luther's chorale "". It ushers in the D major choral finale: "Worthy is the Lamb", leading to the apocalyptic "Amen" in which, says Hogwood, "the entry of the trumpets marks the final storming of heaven". Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring, wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the composer "rising still higher" than in "that vast effort of genius, the Hallelujah chorus". Young writes that the "Amen" should, in the manner of Palestrina, "be delivered as though through the aisles and ambulatories of some great church".
Messiah (Handel) | Part III
Burrows points out that many of Handel's operas, of comparable length and structure to "Messiah", were composed within similar timescales between theatrical seasons. The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries; Handel commenced his next oratorio, "Samson", within a week of finishing "Messiah", and completed his draft of this new work in a month. In accordance with his frequent practice when writing new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in "Messiah", in this case drawing on two recently completed Italian duets and one written twenty years previously.
Messiah (Handel) | Composition
Allan Kozinn, "The New York Times" music critic, finds "a model marriage of music and text ... From the gentle falling melody assigned to the opening words ("Comfort ye") to the sheer ebullience of the "Hallelujah" chorus and the ornate celebratory counterpoint that supports the closing "Amen", hardly a line of text goes by that Handel does not amplify".
Messiah (Handel) | Overview
The last verse also appears in Handel's "Messiah", turned in the third person: "Come unto Him, all ye that labour", in the soprano section of "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd".
Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut, BWV 113 | History and words
When Handel composed "Messiah" in London, he was already a successful and experienced composer of Italian operas. He had started in 1713 to also compose sacred music on English texts, such as the "Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate". He set many oratorios on English libretti. In "Messiah" he used practically the same musical means as for those works, namely a structure based on chorus and solo singing. Only a few movements are a duet or a combination of solo and chorus. The solos are typically a combination of recitative and aria. The arias are called Air or Song, some of them have da capo form, but rarely in a strict sense, repeating a first section after a sometimes contrasting middle section.
Messiah Part III | Music
Although Columbia began recording in stereo in 1956, stereo LPs did not begin to be manufactured until 1958. One of Columbia's first stereo releases was an abridged and re-structured performance of Handel's "Messiah" by the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir conducted by Leonard Bernstein (recorded on December 31, 1956, on -inch tape, using an Ampex 300-3 machine). Bernstein combined the Nativity and Resurrection sections, and ended the performance with the death of Christ. As with RCA Victor, most of the early stereo recordings were of classical artists, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Leonard Bernstein, and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, who also recorded an abridged "Messiah" for Columbia.
Columbia Records | Stereo
This was a particularly memorable performance, and was immortalised in extensive highlights (13 sides) by one of the early 'live' recording endeavours of the Gramophone Company (HMV). In the 1926 season he sang Handel's "Messiah" and was greatly admired in it.
Joseph Hislop | Career
There were shepherds abiding in the field In a short recitative, the soprano tells "There were shepherds abiding in the field". Handel saved the soprano solo voice until this point in the narration, exactly as Bach had done in his "Christmas Oratorio".
Messiah Part I | 14
When Handel composed "Messiah" in London, he was already a successful and experienced composer of Italian operas. He had started in 1713 to also compose sacred music on English texts, such as the "Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate". He set many oratorios on English libretti. In "Messiah" he used practically the same musical means as for those works, namely a structure based on chorus and solo singing. Only a few movements are a duet or a combination of solo and chorus. The solos are typically a combination of recitative and aria. The arias are called Air or Song, some of them have da capo form, but rarely in a strict sense, repeating a first section after a sometimes contrasting middle section.
Messiah Part II | Music
The librettist arranged his compilation in "scenes", each concentrating on a topic.
Structure of Handel's Messiah | Scenes
The libretto by Charles Jennens is entirely drawn from the Bible, mostly from the King James Bible, whereas several psalms are taken from the Book of Common Prayer. The librettist commented: "... the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah ...". "Messiah" differs from Handel's other oratorios by telling no story, instead offering reflections on different aspects of the Christian Messiah. Christopher Hogwood comments:
Messiah Part III | Messiah, the oratorio
grievously out of place", though he concedes that the four-part choral conclusion is a stroke of genius that combines beauty with dignity.
Messiah (Handel) | Part I
I would have wished it had been Italian, that they might have sang with more ease to themselves, since ... it might as well have been Hebrew.
Esther (Handel) | Oratorio (1732)
The second Part begins in G minor, a key which, in Hogwood's phrase, brings a mood of "tragic presentiment" to the long sequence of Passion numbers which follows. The declamatory opening chorus "Behold the Lamb of God", in fugal form, is followed by the alto solo "He was despised" in E flat major, the longest single item in the oratorio, in which some phrases are sung unaccompanied to emphasise Christ's abandonment. Luckett records Burney's description of this number as "the highest idea of excellence in pathetic expression of any English song". The subsequent series of mainly short choral movements cover Christ's Passion, Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection, at first in F minor, with a brief F major respite in "All we like sheep".
Messiah (Handel) | Part II
The libretto by Charles Jennens is entirely drawn from the Bible, mostly from the King James Bible, whereas several psalms are taken from the Book of Common Prayer. The librettist commented: "... the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah ...". "Messiah" differs from Handel's other oratorios by telling no story, instead offering reflections on different aspects of the Christian Messiah. Christopher Hogwood comments:
Messiah Part II | Messiah, the oratorio
After his death, Handel's Italian operas fell into obscurity, except for selections such as the aria from "Serse", "Ombra mai fu". The oratorios continued to be performed but not long after Handel's death they were thought to need some modernisation, and Mozart orchestrated German versions of "Messiah" and other works. Throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Anglophone countries, his reputation rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions. The centenary of his death, in 1859, was celebrated by a performance of "Messiah" at The Crystal Palace, involving 2,765 singers and 460 instrumentalists, who played for an audience of about 10,000 people.
George Frideric Handel | Legacy
In 1963, "Time" magazine had called Dunn "the hero of the baroqueniks". Under Dunn in 1977, H+H made the first recording of Alfred Mann's 1963 edition of "Messiah", the only recording at the time in which the soloists joined in singing the choruses, following the practice of Handel's time. Dunn nevertheless performed an extensive repertory that extended to Stravinsky and contemporary composers. By the time he retired H&H was something of an anomaly, an ensemble that adopted historical performance practices for older music but played exclusively modern instruments. Christopher Hogwood succeeded Dunn in 1986, and under his direction the Society's orchestra began using period instruments in their performances.
Handel and Haydn Society | Historically informed performance
The RMP has performed Handel's "Messiah" at least once every year since 1853, a world record for an unbroken sequence of annual performances of this oratorio.
Royal Melbourne Philharmonic | Conductors
Susan Hamilton (Esther), James Gilchrist (Ahasuerus), Nicholas Mulroy (Mordecai), Matthew Brook (Haman), Electra Lochhead (Israelite), Robin Blaze (Priest). Conductor John Butt, Dunedin Consort Orchestra and Chorus. Linn Records CKD 397, released 2012.
Esther (Handel) | First reconstructable version (Cannons), 1720
The Georgian era saw a German-born monarch and German-born composer define the English oratorio. George Frideric Handel, most famous today for his "Messiah" (1741), also wrote other oratorios based on themes from Greek and Roman mythology and Biblical topics. He is also credited with writing the first English language oratorio, "Esther". Handel's imitators included the Italian Lidarti who was employed by the Amsterdam Jewish community to compose a Hebrew version of "Esther".
Oratorio | Georgian Britain
Such passages, says the music historian Donald Jay Grout, "reveal Handel the dramatist, the unerring master of dramatic effect". The pastoral interlude that follows begins with the short instrumental movement, the "Pifa", which takes its name from the shepherd-bagpipers, or "pifferari", who played their pipes in the streets of Rome at Christmas time. Handel wrote the movement in both 11-bar and extended 32-bar forms; according to Burrows, either will work in performance. The group of four short recitatives which follow it introduce the soprano soloist—although often the earlier aria "But who may abide" is sung by the soprano in its transposed G minor form.
Messiah (Handel) | Part I
Dalley-Scarlett amassed a valuable library of some 5,000 items, including nearly 150 priceless first editions of George Frideric Handel and other eighteenth-century composers, which he used to inform his arrangements, now held by the Fisher Library, University of Sydney. He was a prolific writer for musical journals, and acted as music critic for the Australian Musical News 1934–1937 and the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 1945–1946 and 1952–1959, but his most lasting literary contributions were the article on Australia for Grove's Dictionary (5th edition) and an article on eighteenth century performance entitled "Handel's 'Messiah': How Can We Realise the Composer's Intentions?"
Robert Dalley-Scarlett | Scholarship
Hyperion Records label received the 2003 International Handel Recording Prize for their recording of "The Choice of Hercules".
The Choice of Hercules (Handel) | Recordings
By the time Handel composed "Messiah" in London he was already a successful and experienced composer of Italian operas, and had created sacred works based on English texts, such as the 1713 "Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate", and numerous oratorios on English libretti. For "Messiah", Handel used the same musical technique as for those works, namely a structure based on chorus and solo singing. Only two movements in "Messiah" are purely instrumental: the overture (written as "Sinfony" in Handel's autograph) and the Pifa (a pastorale introducing the shepherds in Bethlehem); and only a few movements are a duet or a combination of solo and chorus.
Messiah Part I | Music
In 1935, for the 250th anniversary of Handel's birth, he prepared a scholarly performing edition of "Messiah" based on a manuscript score given by the composer to the Foundling Hospital. The performance, conducted by Adrian Boult, Pitt's successor as director of music and also the founding conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, was a landmark in authentic performance style in Handel's music. Herbage was a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society's management committee, from 1940 until 1971. From 1940 to 1944 Herbage was Boult's second-in-command as assistant director of music, but he found himself better suited to building programmes than to being an administrator, and in 1944 he dropped his managerial role and returned to detailed programme planning.
Julian Herbage | Life and career
In 1915, Beecham began recording for the Columbia Graphophone Company. Electrical recording technology (introduced in 1925–26) made it possible to record a full orchestra with much greater frequency range, and Beecham quickly embraced the new medium. Longer scores had to be broken into four-minute segments to fit on 12-inch 78-rpm discs, but Beecham was not averse to recording piecemeal – his well-known 1932 disc of Chabrier's "España" was recorded in two sessions three weeks apart. Beecham recorded many of his favourite works several times, taking advantage of improved technology over the decades. From 1926 to 1932, Beecham made more than 70 discs, including an English version of Gounod's "Faust" and the first of three recordings of Handel's "Messiah".
Thomas Beecham | Recordings
A smaller UK record company, Pye Records, asked Mackerras to record Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks". 'We had to do that in the middle of the night, in order to get our twenty-six oboes together.' The recording, issued in 1959, was received with critical acclaim for attempting to reproduce the sound Handel would have heard, rather than the smoother orchestral arrangements usually played at that time. In the 1960s Mackerras made the first recording of the Italian version of Gluck's "Orfeo". For DG he conducted Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas", and for EMI a 'new-look' "Messiah", with scholarly texts, small forces and sprightly tempi.
Charles Mackerras | Recordings
Shortly after that he travelled to Dublin to put on the premiere of "Messiah", returning to London at the end of August 1742 and thoroughly revising "Samson".
Samson (Handel) | Background and Composition
A pinnacle of baroque choral music, (particularly oratorio), may be found in George Frideric Handel's works, notably "Messiah" and "Israel in Egypt". While the modern chorus of hundreds had to await the growth of Choral Societies and his centennial commemoration concert, we find Handel already using a variety of performing forces, from the soloists of the "Chandos Anthems" to larger groups (whose proportions are still quite different from modern orchestra choruses):
Choir | Baroque music
Handel revised the work several times for specific performances. The alternative movements are part of the Bärenreiter edition, the Novello numbers are given in parentheses.
Structure of Handel's Messiah | Alternative movements