Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah

He wrote some of the world’s most beautiful music in an amazingly short period of time.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL was born in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach. Handel’s father was the town surgeon in a suburb of Halle, Germany, and his mother was the daughter of the pastor. George was the second child and received Lutheran baptism the day after he was born.

Handel was sent at a very young age to the local classical school, the head of which was an accomplished musician. However, when Handel began showing an interest in music, his father, determined that his son be a lawyer, forbade him to have anything to do with music, going as far as to burn all the musical instruments in the house. A sympathetic relative, however, secretly gave young Handel access to a clavichord away from his father’s hearing, and Handel taught himself to play.

Handel’s father was appointed surgeon to a duke. At the age of six when accompanying his father to the duke’s court, Handel went up and played the organ after a Sunday worship service. Hearing the lad play, the duke was so impressed that he urged the father to give his son a formal music education. As a result, Handel was allowed to study under the organist of the Liebfrauenckirche in Halle. By the time he was twelve, Handel had written his first composition and was so proficient at the organ that he served as the substitute for his teacher.

In 1702, out of respect for his father’s wishes, Handel studied law at the University of Halle. Soon, however, he switched his concentration solely to music.

In 1712 Handel moved to England but life there as a composer and musician was not easy. Between falling in and out of favor with various monarchs and competing with other English composers, Handel struggled financially. The Church of England attacked him for performing oratorios such as Esther and Israel in Egypt in secular theaters. In 1741 his health began to fail, and he was facing debtor’s prison.

Then two events turned Handel’s life around: A friend gave him a libretto for an oratorio on the life of Christ, with the words taken from the Bible, and three Dublin charities commissioned him to compose a work for a fund-raising benefit.

On August 22, 1741, Handel sat down to begin composing. He became so absorbed in his work that he hardly took time to eat. On September 14, 1741, he finished his composition and named it simply Messiah. In just twenty-four days he had written 260 pages of music. Considering the short time involved, it was the greatest feat in the history of musical composition. In those three weeks Handel never left his house. A friend who visited him found him sobbing with emotion. Later, in describing his experience, he alluded to the apostle Paul and said, “Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not.”

The premier performance of Messiah was April 13, 1742, in Dublin. The benefit freed 142 persons from debtor’s prison. A year later it was performed for the first time in London with the king in attendance. As the choir began to sing the “Halleluiah Chorus” the king rose to his feet and the whole audience followed his lead, beginning a tradition that continues to this day.

In all, Handel conducted thirty performances of Messiah. Of these only one was in a church, and John Wesley was in attendance at the performance.

Handel’s last public performance was of Messiah on April 6, 1759. At the end he fainted by the organ and died just eight days later. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his statue shows him holding the manuscript from Messiah, opened to “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.”

Reflection

Listen to Messiah today if you can. How do you think Handel was able to write this in just twenty-four days? How do the words and music minister to you?

Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

Colossians 3:16