Handel Messiah "Awakening": Dec 19-21, 2025
- cbeeson69
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
George Frederick Handel
messiah
Oh hi there! In more of a listening mood?
I made an audio version of my notes you can listen to here!
DIVE IN here for the full text version!
George Frederick Handel aka Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was a German composer of the Baroque era who immigrated to England and became a naturalized subject, composing for King George the 1st and 2nd, and Queen Anne among other influential patrons. He was drawn to, and is best known for, large scale works that lean toward theatrical storytelling: 42 operas, 120+ cantatas, and 24 oratorios - of which ‘Messiah’ is his most famous.
HIGHLIGHTS
Handel composed ‘Messiah’ in 1741 with libretto provided by Charles Jennens, adapted primarily from the King James Bible.
Handel was known to be an efficient composer, turning out entire operas in just a month’s time for example, but it is still impressive to consider that he composed ‘Messiah’ - a nearly 2 hour work in its entirety - in just 3 and a half weeks. He received the libretto in mid July, began composing the music on August 22nd, and finished on September 14th.
‘Messiah’ was premiered in 1742 in Dublin, Ireland as a fundraiser for Prisoner’s Debt Relief. It sold like a house on fire, with reports of requests being made of men to remove their swords and women not to wear hoops in their skirts in order to accommodate more attendees. Ticket revenue resulted in the paying off of debt and subsequent release of 142 prisoners, plus significant contributions to Mercer’s Hospital and Charitable Infirmary.
The original manuscript is scored fairly lightly for two oboes, two trumpets, timpani, two violins, one viola, and basso continuo which in the style of the time could be played by any combination of keyboard and lower pitched instruments. In preparation for the premiere performance, and in subsequent performances, Handel made revisions to the original score to accommodate different ensembles and characteristics of particular vocalists. The official first publication of the ‘Messiah’ score happened eight years after Handel died and was largely based on the original rather than any of his revisions. Possibly for this reason composers and artistic directors have felt empowered and inspired to create different arrangements and adaptations over the nearly 200 years since Handel’s death. For a time it was fashionable to adapt the Messiah for massive scale orchestras and choruses although in the past 70 or so years interest has been turning more toward Handel’s original concept. One of the first major arrangements came from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who included flutes, clarinets, trombones, and horns in addition to other structural changes.
This special “Awakening” production is one that respects the original score while using light staging of the solo vocalists and two smaller chamber choirs - all having memorized the complete work so that they can move from place to place within the performance space to heighten the text and meaning.
Structure
Handel composed ‘Messiah’ during a time when popular tastes in England were turning away from Italian style opera and toward oratorio. Still, with the story laid out in three large segments made up of chorus, recitative, and aria numbers, it has a structure that is somewhat similar to opera.
“Part the First” begins with the prophecies of Isaiah to the Babylonians and then jumps to the Gospel of Luke with angels announcing Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.
“Part the Second” is primarily focused on the Passion story. This section finishes with the famous ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. Fun fact - there is a tradition of the audience standing for this chorus which somehow stems from an apocryphal but entertaining story that King George II stood during it’s London premiere, which would’ve required everyone else in attendance to do the same. In fact, the king was not there that night nor for any other performance of ‘Messiah’, so it is entirely unclear how and why this got started but it’s still pretty cool. :)
“Part the Third” is the shortest of the three and centers on redemption, judgement day, and resurrection. This part includes the famous ‘Behold, I Tell You a Mystery’ recitative followed by ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ aria which, with the text “we shall be changed”, bookends Isaiah’s ‘Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted’ ecstatic message of coming changes from the very beginning of the work.
Time to nerd out!
There are a fair number of total bangers in this three part oratorio. Let’s focus on just the the ones I named above:
Change is coming! - "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" tenor aria
“Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.” Handel brings a jubilant feeling to this number with a quick tempo and bright sounds from the orchestra. He reinforces Isaiah’s message that change is coming by engaging in text painting. Rising pitches and melodic motion define the valleys moving upward, while the mountain and hill are literally made ‘low’ by landing on a low pitch. Similarly, ‘crooked’ is characterized by a zigzag shaped melodic fragment while ‘straight’ is a long single pitch, and rough places are made ‘plain’ with softly lilting notes or long tones. Typically this is a joyous and athletic performance for solo tenor with orchestra. In this production, the banger-meter goes to 11 as the tenor starts us off and then each of the two chamber choirs join in along with the larger chorus. It’s pure fire. You won’t be able to sit still.
Second Inning Stretch? - Hallelujah chorus
Listening for texture in music is one way to engage those nerdy inquisitive brain cells. Few pieces offer the opportunity for discovery of musical texture with more clarity than Handel’s most famous banger from the Messiah - the Hallelujah chorus. This one comes at the end of “Part the Second” when audiences will traditionally stand up for it. There’s still a “Part the Third” with another 10 or so numbers to go, so I like to think of the Hallelujah chorus as the ‘Second Inning Stretch’. 😎
In support of the text, Handel deftly weaves in and out of (and sometimes together!) three main textures: monophony (‘one sounding’ - voices or instruments together in unison on one melody), homophony (‘same sounding’ - a harmonized melody that moves together with roughly or exactly the same rhythm), and polyphony (‘many sounding’ - multiple independent and overlapping melodies that form complex harmonies).
Monophony carries a message very clearly since everyone is singing and playing the exact same notes and rhythms, so Handel chooses it for important first statements of “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth” and “King of kings and lord of lords”.
Homophony acknowledges that we are individuals coming together with one ‘voice’, in harmony (different pitches from one another) but moving together (same/similar rhythm), so Handel chooses it for collective praise with “Hallelujah!” and a more tender reassuring sound for “The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ”.
Polyphony builds excitement and complexity around repeated phrases that overlap one another, like many voices at one party all having the same conversation at different speeds. Handel uses this to extend the Homophonic and Monophonic statements that precede it, and also to create a repeating pattern of the statement “And He shall reign for ever and ever” to build into a final frenzy of all three textures being deployed over the text elements that were previously stated.
It’s kinda genius in it simplicity of design while being deliciously complex in execution. No wonder people leap to their feet!
Check out this breakdown of the text with texture tags. You can see it gets totes craycray at the end, even without hearing it! However, if you want to listen AND follow along to the texture differences in order to practice listening for Monophony, Homophony, and Polyphony, watch the video below. 🤓😎🎉
Homophonic Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Monophonic For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Homophonic Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Polyphonic For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth/Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Homophonic The kingdom of this world
Homophonic Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
Homophonic And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
Polyphonic And He shall reign for ever and ever,
Monophonic/Homophonic King of kings/Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Monophonic/Homophonic and Lord of lords/Forever and ever Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Homophonic King of Kings, and Lord of lords
Polyphonic And He shall reign forever and ever,
Monophonic King of kings, Homophonic forever and ever,
Monophonic And Lord of lords, Homophonic Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Homophonic And He shall reign forever and ever,
Homophonic King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Polyphonic/Homophonic mix And He shall reign forever and ever,
Monophonic/Homophonic mix King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Homophonic Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Raise the Dead … With a trumpet! -
Behold I Tell You a Mystery/The Trumpet Shall Sound, baritone recitative and aria
This one starts with a sober pronouncement in a medium slow tempo “Behold, I tell you a mystery” but when that drop comes… IT’S BANGER TIME. Controversial - it’s in a triple meter, and it has a momentary foray into a more sensitive story telling middle section. Still, this one slaps. 😎
From the first notes played by the trumpet - the very one that the baritone just sang to us would signal our change “in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye” - we know Handel isn’t kidding around. The next time we hear the baritone he heralds “the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised” in a typical trumpet fanfare style. From there the trumpet and the baritone proceed to engage in a muscular and joyous duet supported by the orchestra playing characteristic jaunty rhythms that mimic those of the trumpet. The middle portion features the baritone musing pensively on the lyric “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” in a slower tempo with a leaner sound from the orchestra and no trumpet, giving listeners pause to consider the gravity of this moment in the text. Following this, the return of the heralding music seems to underscore the lyric “we shall be changed” as we indeed feel changed by the trumpet’s sounding.
The live performance video below features baritone Roderick Williams with Justin Bland on natural Baroque trumpet. Watch closely in utter awe. Roderick Williams is an incredible storyteller as he sings these lyrics, but Justin Bland’s natural trumpet playing is the real “behold I tell you a mystery” here. Widely used in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, natural trumpet does not have valves to help make all the 'in between' chromatic pitches but rather plays only pitches in the natural harmonic series determined by the overall length of tubing. All trumpets rely entirely on facial muscle changes to make different pitches, but watching performers navigate without valves makes it seem like complete magic!
Comments