Handel's Messiah

14 years after composing Zadock the Priest, George Frideric Handel was back at it again taking bible passages and turning them into pieces of classical music still heard today. This next piece of his was an oratorio called Messiah and was about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You probably have heard of it through the iconic Hallelujah chorus.

A huge musical composition for orchestra, chorus, and soloists is called an oratorio and this is what Messiah by Handel is. An oratorio uses a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, differentiating characters, and arias, just like most operas do.

This oratorio is one of Handel’s most famous work and is most often performed of any large choral work in England. Messiah is the designation given to Jesus Christ in Christian doctrine and meaning "the anointed one." Messiah was composed in just under 24 days and its scriptural derives from the King James Bible as well as the Book of Common Prayer which was compiled by Charles Jennens.

Despite the aforementioned popularity in England, its first performance was at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street in Dublin, Ireland on 13 April 1742 and had a swollen audience attendance of 700 (which would’ve been more swollen than it was if the women weren’t advised to leave her hoop skirts at home with the men’s swords). The performance in Dublin came about when William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, who was then the Lord Lieutenant, extended an invitation to Handel to Dublin for a season of concerts in the winter of 1741–1742.

There was a minor obstacle that almost prevented the performance from happening and that was by the writer of Gulliver’s Travels, Johnathon Swift who was the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. He got involved because in order to get a biblical and heavenly feel to the oratorio, Handel wanted the choirs of Christ Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral to take part but Swift rejected the request and didn’t want any of the cathedral’s choir members from being involved in “a club of Fidlers in Fishamble Street” in January only to reverse his decision 3 months later so Handel was able to have his choir, especially a choir where the women’s role were sung by established stage singers of their time. While Swift isn’t to have said to have joined the audience, the Bishop of Elphine at the time, Edward Synge, sent Handel an eyewitness account that praised the spectacle with such compliments like the composition was majestic and artistic and the harmony was so great that it pleased bot h the learned and the unlearned.

Today, Messiah is still being performed today, especially the Hallelujah Chorus and who would’ve thought unless they were Handel connoisseurs or they were on a tour bus in Dublin, Ireland that an Easter and Christmas piece shares the same location city as the 1916 Easter Rising.