Second, on the 6th of September; while, at the end of the Third Part we find the inscription, 'Fine dell' Oratorio, G. F. Handel. Septembre 12. Ausgefüllt den 14 dieses,' the word 'ausgefüllt ' probably applying to changes made after the completion of the copy. Early in the following November Handel started on his journey to Ireland; and on April 13, 1742, he directed the first performance of the 'Messiah,' in the 'Musick Hall, in Fishamble Street, Dublin,' with the most gratifying success. In the following year he returned to England, and first presented the Oratorio to a London audience at Covent Garden Theatre, on the 23rd of March, 1743, repeating the performance on the 25th, and again on the 29th.[1] Though strictly epic in construction, the new work presents but little affinity with its predecessor, 'Israel in Ægypt.' The grandeur of the Choruses in 'The Song of Moses' is of an impassive kind, partaking quite as much of fear and wonder as of thanksgiving for mercies received. In the 'Messiah,' a more personal element is introduced. The affections are powerfully excited; and we are brought face to face with many different manifestations of Hope, Love, Sorrow, and even Dereliction, followed, not by a National Triumph, but by quite another kind of Joy which speaks to the heart of each individual listener. To express this Joy, gigantic Double Choruses like those in 'Israel in Ægypt' were unnecessary. A really great Composer can write as grandly in four parts as in eight. It is the fire of genius that creates the effect; and that we have, in the 'Messiah,' from the first note to the last. Jennens, in a letter still extant, objects to the Overture, on the ground that it contains 'some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah'; but Handel, he says, retained it 'obstinately' his intention evidently being, not to produce an effect at this point, as Jennens no doubt desired, and still less to write anything either worthy or unworthy of himself, but simply by the calm dignity of his Instrumental Prelude, to bring the mind of his hearers into exactly the right condition for listening to the solemn story that was to follow. Perhaps nothing was ever conceived in all Music more beautiful than the reiterated Major Chords which succeed the wailing Minor of the Overture, in the introductory Symphony to 'Comfort ye My people.' They speak the 'comfort,' long before the word is sung. Nearly the whole of the First Part is solemnly prophetic, though not without descriptive touches—as in 'Thus saith the Lord,' and 'The people that walked in darkness'—working gradually up to the tremendous climax at the words 'Wonderful! Counsellor!' After this, we have a picture, such as no one short of Raffaelle could have displayed upon canvas, introduced by the 'Pastoral Symphony'—a glorified Calabrian Tune, which in the original Score is called, 'Pifa larghetto e Mezzo-piano'—and terminating with 'Glory to God in the highest.' In this Chorus the Trumpets are heard for the first time and, be it noted, without their natural bass, the Drums, which Handel clearly considered out of place in an Anthem sung by the 'Heavenly Host.' Then follows a burst of irrepressible joy, in the brilliant Aria d'agilità, 'Rejoice greatly'; and then the prophetic comfort again, in 'He shall feed His flock,' and 'His yoke is easy.' The Second Part differs entirely from this. It begins by calling upon us to 'Behold the Lamb of God,' and then paints the Agony of the Passion, not in its separate details, but as one great and indivisible sorrow, which is treated with a tenderness of feeling such as is nowhere else to be found; beginning with the unapproachable pathos of 'He was [2]despised,' and bringing the sad recital to a conclusion with the no less touching strains of 'Behold and see.' The Composer has been accused of having taken too low a view of one particular passage in this part of the Oratorio. It has been said that, in 'All we like sheep,' he has described the wanderings of actual sheep, and not the backslidings of human sinners. The truth is, he has gone far more deeply into the matter than the critics who have ventured to find fault with him. Rebellion against God is an act of egregious folly, as well as of wickedness. More men sin from mere thoughtlessness than deliberate and intentional disobedience. Handel has looked at the case in both lights. In the first part of the Chorus he has shown us what thoughtless sinners do; in the last fourteen bars, he describes the fatal consequence of their rebellion, and the price which must be paid, not only for deliberate wickedness, but for thoughtlessness also. After the last Recitative of this division of the work, 'He was cut off,' comes a gleam of Hope, in 'But Thou didst not leave,' followed by the triumphant 'Lift up your heads'; and again, through a series of Airs and Choruses of transcendant beauty, we are led on, step by step, to that inimitable climax, in which, disguising his contrapuntal skill under the deceptive appearance of extreme simplicity, Handel himself seems to have fixed the limits beyond which even his genius could not soar—for not even the learned and supremely gorgeous 'Amen' with which the Oratorio concludes can be said to exceed the 'Hallelujah Chorus' in sublimity. The difficulty of keeping up the hearer's interest throughout the Third Part, after having already wrought him up to so great a pitch of excitement, was one under which any ordinary Composer must of necessity have succumbed; but in truth this Third Part is another miracle of Art. Not without careful consideration, we maybe sure, did Handel begin it with an Aria di portamento, of surpassing beauty, though only accompanied
- ↑ The story that the 'Messiah' was first performed in London in 1741, that it was very coldly received, and that it was not until after Handel's return from Ireland that it met with worthy recognition from an English audience, has been shown to be fabulous, notwithstanding its repetition by Sir J. Hawkins. It rests chiefly on the authority of the Rev. John Mainwaring. who wrote in 1760, nearly twenty years after the first performance of the work. (Burney, vol. iv. pp. 661, 662.)
- ↑ Then is no reason to doubt the veracity of the well-known tradition that Handel was found bathed in tears when writing this exquisitely beautiful movement.
