Messiah (Handel)
Messiah (HWV 56, dt The Messiah ) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text an English-language collection of Charles Jennens for four soloists ( SATB), chorus and orchestra. It dubbed the Christian doctrine concerning the Messiah based on the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was composed in the summer of 1741 and premiered on 13 April 1742 in Dublin.
The work is still one of the most popular examples of sacred music of the Christian West. It includes three parts of the Christian salvation history, starting with the Old Testament prophecies of the prophets like Isaiah, Jesus' life, which is seen as the fulfillment of the prophecies of his birth, his death on the cross and his hoped-for second coming. Although life is portrayed in the New Testament, the oratorio text relies on in the Old Testament.
Title
The title Messiah refers to a Hebrew original title from sovereignty of the Jewish Bible and means " the anointed one " (Hebrew משיח Mashiach ). Even in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, the word was mainly translated with Christ.
Formation
The idea for the Messiah came from Charles Jennens, who had previously written the libretto for the oratorio Saul and probably compiled the text for Israel in Egypt from the Bible words. In July 1741, he told a friend that he wanted to bring Handel to add sound to another collection of Bible passages and perform during Holy Week.
Handel wanted to do anything in the season 1741/42. In the season before his last attempt had failed, continue with Imeneo and Deidamia his Italian operas. The occasion for the composition of a new oratorio finally brought an invitation to a series of concerts in Dublin.
Handel wrote the music in his usual pace and used - as in other operas and oratorios - some earlier pieces, including his Italian duet cantatas. After he started on 22 August 1741 he presented the first part of August the 28th, the second on September 6th and the third on September 12 finished. With the instrumentation was the score on 14 September - after 24 days - fully completed. Right after he turned another oratorio, Samson, and to compose the most part, but revised again significantly in the fall 1742.
In November 1741 Handel traveled to Dublin. On October 2, Mr Neale 's Great Musick Hall had opened there in Fishamble Street, where in December he offered a Subskriptionsreihe, were played in L' Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and other oratorios. Even before the first performance of Messiah, he changed some passages and composed new numbers. A delay resulted in the preparations by the fact that Jonathan Swift - Dean of St. Patrick 's Cathedral - his choristers initially did not want to give permission to participate in the concert. The premiere on 13 Apriljul. / April 24 1742greg. was announced as a benefit concert for several charitable organizations:
According to the ideas of the Messiah Handel left Dublin in August and returned to London. Compared with the enthusiastic uptake in Dublin the establishment of the Messiah in London concert life was problematic. Even with Israel in Egypt, there had been voices that criticized the reproduction of Bible words in a profane theater; in the case of the Messiah was that quotes were used in the Gospels for an evening 's entertainment. Even years later the work was condemned as blasphemous.
Perhaps because of these reservations, the Oratory for the first London performance on 19 March 1743 Covent Garden Theatre as A New Sacred Oratorio was announced, without mentioning the title Messiah. This was maintained in 1745 and 1749. It was only in 1750 began an annual performance tradition by Handel oratorios now his seasons of Lent graduated with a performance of the Messiah and Easter according to another performance in the chapel of the Foundling Hospital was, which raised the foundlings and orphans.
Handel himself conducted Messiah many times, it is often modified to match the current demand. Thus it can be considered " authentic" no version, and many other changes and arrangements were added over the following centuries - for example, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1789 on behalf of Gottfried van Swieten ( German version by Christoph Daniel Ebeling ).
Performance practice
Handel 's Messiah always sat in fasting and Easter time on the board, in accordance with the content that is treated in the second part of the Passion and Resurrection in the third part of his coming, and glorification. Even during Handel's lifetime it was common in Dublin to perform the work in the Advent season in the concert hall. This tradition soon spread especially in English speaking countries.
As a result, the oratory was sometimes broken down into its parts: Christmas concerts often consist of only the first part and the Alleluia at Easter time are as a church music played the parts concerning the resurrection. The soprano aria I knowthat my Redeemer liveth is often sung at Christian funerals.
The most famous set of the oratorio is the Alleluia, which concludes the second of three parts. In many places in the world it is the custom that the audience gets up for this part of the performance - the legend says, that was taken at the first hearing of the choir King George II so that he jumped up what everyone else prompting his example to follow.
Libretto
Messiah is beside Israel in Egypt Handel's oratorio single, the text of which consists exclusively of Bible verses. The selection of verses met Charles Jennens, the case was guided by the pericopes in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.
The largest part of the text is taken from the books of the Prophets and the Psalms of the Old Testament in the printed version of the King James Bible. In this way, Jennens sent reached that the Christ of the New Testament is identified by the prophecies of the Old Testament as the Messiah.
Occupation
In Handel 's Messiah is a four solo voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and a choir, which is continuous in four parts to a five-part exception. However, it is documented that he almost always distributed the solo parts to five singers, while mostly divided the soprano arias. At the performances in Dublin even eight singers including Christina Maria Avoglio (soprano) and Susanna were used, Maria Cibber ( alto), who were also later in London in Handel's ensemble. The solo soprano and alto parts - were largely occupied by women. The cast lists of 13 revivals until 1759 exhibit in the soprano in addition to the women to only three cases in which boys were also used as soloists. The alto part was sung in three cases of castrati, never by boys, otherwise by women. Only for the premiere alongside the alto, two countertenors are documented as soloists.
The orchestra in Handel's autograph is violin I / II, viola, cello, basso continuo, Trumpet I / II, Timpani. More wind parts do not occur, possibly because Handel at the time of composition did not know which instruments would be available to him in Dublin available. But it is certain that at least in the late London performances oboes, bassoons and horns were involved. From an accounting from 1754 shows that have been used for this performance for the Foundling Hospital 14 violins, 6 violas, 3 cellos, 2 basses, 4 oboes, 4 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and 2 timpani. The choir consisted of 20 singers, the soprano was occupied with boys of the Chapel Royal and the old with countertenors. In addition, the soloists sang with the choral parts. In the Dublin premiere of the choir was larger and consisted of 16 boys (soprano) and 16 men for the remaining three votes.
Structure of the work
It should be noted that to date various versions of the oratorio are making music, going back to repeated reworking of Handel. The record numbers are given below according to the Halle Handel Edition.
A complete performance lasts - depending on the underlying version of the notes and interpretation considers the conductor (see historical performance practice ) - roughly between two and two and a half, in older LP recordings up to three hours. Often, the last arias and duets are omitted (except for the final chorus ).