It is most likely the most-heard piece of classical music on Earth, essentially the most sung, and essentially the most recorded. It is “Messiah,” by German-British opera composer George Frideric Handel.
“It has been in close to steady efficiency from 1742, when it premiered, all the best way as much as the current,” mentioned writer Charles King. “It is completely in all places. And you may’t say that about actually every other piece of significant music.”
Composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).
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King’s new e book, “Each Valley” (Doubleday), offers us the backstory of “Messiah” and its “Hallelujah Refrain,” which comes about two-thirds of the best way via Handel’s oratorio. “It is not the finale!” King mentioned. “Individuals begin on the point of depart, you already know, grabbing their keys and their parking validation, after which it is like, ‘Nope, sit down. There is a third extra of this factor left to go!'”
“Messiah” wasn’t really Handel’s concept. The phrases got here from a buddy named Charles Jennens. King suggests it ought to actually be referred to as Handel’s and Jennens’ “Messiah.”
“Charles Jennens was a rich landowner, however he additionally suffered from this sort of encasing sense of doom and despair – we’d now name it continual melancholy and even bipolar dysfunction,” King mentioned. “He begins to tug down books from the cabinets, and he begins to repeat down bits of scripture. He was additionally understanding, I believe, a sort of philosophy of residing.”
Conductor and author Jane Glover has carried out “Messiah” greater than 100 instances (most not too long ago, this month at Trinity Church in New York Metropolis). “I by no means fail to doff my hat, really, at Charles Jennens for placing that collectively,” she mentioned. “‘Messiah'” is in three components. The primary half is the Christmas story, which is why everyone does it at Christmas. The second half is the crucifixion, however then additionally the resurrection; after which Half III is about redemption. So, there is a great form to this three-part oratorio.”
Doubleday
Within the 1720s and ’30s, Handel’s fashionable Italian-style operas had made him a musical megastar. However in his 50s, his reputation was waning. So, when he was invited to stage a sequence of concert events in Dublin, King mentioned, Handel thought he may restart his profession: “And so, he sits down with this textual content that he is obtained from Charles Jennens and decides to attempt to make one thing of it. You possibly can think about him considering, ‘Hmpf, what am I gonna do with these? I bought a bunch of Bible verses within the flawed order that I am alleged to set to Italian opera music?’ However he does it.”
In his e book, King describes the ultimate product as “bizarre.” “It’s bizarre,” he laughed. “It is the strangest factor that Handel ever composed.”
Handel wrote the three-hour piece (for refrain, soloists, and nine-piece orchestra) in 24 days … 260 pages of music!
On the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, music curator Robin McClellan confirmed me a reproduction of Handel’s unique rating. “It reveals the velocity that he wrote. It is so messy!” McClellan laughed. “He actually was involved with getting his concepts onto paper as quick as attainable.”
For the “Hallelujah Refrain,” Handel wrote the phrase “Hallelujah” as soon as … after which used the usual jazz repeat signal that we nonetheless use at the moment! “He is writing down the musical equal of ‘et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,'” mentioned King. “In that period, there was actually no assumption that something would ever be carried out once more.”
A reproduction of Handel’s manuscript for his “Messiah” oratorio.
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“Messiah” was an enormous hit in Dublin, and, ultimately, in London. It appears to supply a way of hope and lightweight at a time after they have been in brief provide.
King mentioned, “‘Messiah’ was born within the sort of darkish shadows of the Enlightenment. Britain was at warfare. The toddler mortality price in London on the time was 75%. And so, ‘Messiah’ is a sort of piece of artwork that’s grappling with what foundation, what attainable foundation for hope may there be when you have got all of this proof round you to counsel in any other case?”
Nearly everybody beloved it – besides Charles Jennens! “He was fearful that Handel had completed a sort of low-cost job,” mentioned King. “He says, ‘I’m by no means going to supply my phrases to Handel once more to be so abused!'”
Handel agreed to make some adjustments, and Jennens softened. “In the long run, he wrote to a buddy of his that he thought it was ‘in the primary, a advantageous composition,'” King mentioned.
“Messiah” got here to the American colonies in 1770, six years earlier than this was even a rustic. It was carried out in Trinity Church in New York Metropolis, sounding a lot because it did this month in precisely the identical corridor.
Jane Glover conducts a efficiency of “Messiah” at Trinity Church in New York Metropolis.
Trinity Church
Over time, “Messiah” has modified in all types of various methods. Handel’s nine-piece orchestra gave method to thunderous musical forces; numerous trims have been carried out. Glover mentioned, “Individuals sitting in a church on exhausting pews do not wish to sit right here for three-and-a-half hours.”
And entire sections have been dropped. “Some individuals simply do Half I at Christmas; that is an excellent method of doing it,” Glover mentioned.
Nonetheless, in all its variations, Handel and Jennens’s masterpiece has provided the identical message for almost 300 years: That there’s all the time hope.
“Each single era that has heard this factor, has felt that this music is sort of a message in a bottle for them,” mentioned King. “It is a piece of music that does stuff to us.”
Its message? “Have the potential of hope; issues are solvable; the world is gonna be okay. After which, take that and put it into motion.”
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Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: Carol Ross.
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David Pogue
