Music for Bank Holiday Stay at Home garden parties - and lots on Handel!

George Friderick Handel was born on 23 February 1685 in Halle, in Brandenburg-Prussia. He was a German (later naturalised British in 1727) Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London. Handel is well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos.

"Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712. Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks remaining steadfastly popular. " Wikipedia

Handel's "Water Music" is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, which premiered on 17 July 1717, in response to King George I's request for a concert on the River Thames. It is frequently played at garden parties in "high society" to this day, and would in my view by a wonderful accompaniment to any "Stay at Home" garden parties planned for this Friday as we celebrate VE day. VE Day is not, as the jingoistic press would have us believe, "Victory OVER Europe", but Victory IN Europe, by a massive combined effort from the Allies against the tyranny of Nazism. VE Day should celebrate - and represent - the success of partnership and working together for the common good, something not only worth celebrating from an historical perspective but extremely relevant today as we battle together to fight COVID-19. Born a German and naturalised as an Englishman, Handel epitomises the fluidity of nationality, the need to adapt and the focus on end results rather than isolation and protectionism.




Messiah - originally written to be performed at Easter
On Easter Sunday our choir would have sung the "Hallelujah Chorus" as our eucharist anthem.
The Hallelujah Chorus appears in the baroque oratorio “Messiah” composed in 1741.

First performed in Dublin on 13th April 1742, it’s become one of the best known and most frequently performed choral works in Western Music. The majority of performances are in the season of Advent but Messiah was intended for Easter, with only the first third covering the birth of Jesus. The significant volume of music already in existence for Easter (such as Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion) may well have dictated this, in America the first section is often performed at Christmas, with the rest at Easter. Handel did not intend for Messiah to be a lavish, grand scale oratorio and in recent years there is a trend to return to smaller scale productions which more closely resemble that intended by the composer.

The scriptural text was compiled by Charles Jennens, Handel’s close friend and collaborator using both the King James Bible and Coverdale Psalter. (Coverdale was the first complete printed translation of the Bible in English.) Jennens described his work as “a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief”and therein lies the controversy Messiah precipitated. Although the Reformation was some 200 years previous religious controversy was alive and well in England and sacred subject matter was considered sacrosanct by many. Many in the church felt the sacred and secular should not mix and disliked music with a religious connotation being performed outside a church or cathedral - particularly if cathedral choirs performed there. Interpreting biblical texts was still a new idea for many in a fiercely Protestant country which saw ostentatious music as the requisite of the Catholic church. However as Keates points out Handel was uniquely fortunate in not being dependent on a single employer or patron, his annual income was based on pensions awarded him by two successive British sovereigns, employment as teacher to the royal princesses, and commissions to write pieces to celebrate important events, which allowed him considerable artistic freedom.

Messiah is truly extraordinary since the music was completed in 24 days of swift composition. The score's 259 pages show some signs of haste but according to the music scholar Richard Luckett the number of errors is remarkably small in a document of this length. Music commentator Miles Hoffman estimates there are a quarter of a million notes in Messiah, at a little more than three weeks of 10-hour days, that means Handel would have had to keep a continuous pace writing 15 notes a minute! The original manuscript for Messiah is now held in the British Library's music collection. Handel wrote several versions of parts of the oratorio to better suit the ability of soloists and available instruments, which means there is in fact no definitive version.


Legend has it that George II was so moved by the Hallelujah Chorus that he stood during the London premiere with the audience following suit. This would however appear to be a myth, first mentioned 37 years after the premiere since the is no evidence that he was in attendance, despite newspaper attention at the time.

At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—Soli Deo Gloria, "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine inspiration in which, as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, "he saw all heaven before him”. Whatever the source of his inspiration, it is indeed a magnificent work which has captivated people for centuries.

Our choir perform "Messiah" annually, usually during Advent. I truly hope this year will be no exception! Here are our choristers singing "I know that my Redeemer liveth", multi-tracked during the lockdown.