Advent Through the Lens of Four Christmas Songs

Hallelujah Chorus

Part 1

Revelation 11.15 – 12.11

Introduction.

We come to what is probably the best known, best loved piece of sacred choral music in the best known, best loved work of sacred choral music in the world today – – Hallelujah Chorus in Handel’s Messiah.  Messiah in general and Hallelujah Chorus in specific have had an astonishing spiritual impact on their hearers.  One writer stated that Messiah has “probably done more to convince thousands of mankind that there is a God about us than all the theological works ever written.” * There is a reason why choral companies so often choose this piece for Random Acts of Culture.  It is astonishing to watch hundreds of shoppers at a mall stop and join in the singing.  Is there any other piece of music for which people immediately stand?  National anthems, yes, but that is only for citizens of a particular country. People stand for Hallelujah Chorus in countries all over the world.

The composer.

The composer of course is Georg Frideric Handel, who as his name suggests, was born in Germany. He would spend the bulk of his life in England, and it was for that reason that his anglicized his first name to George. Handel was born on February 23, 1685, just a few weeks before Johann Sebastian Bach. But though the two men were contemporary German composers and two of the greatest of the Baroque period, they never met.

Handel began playing music when his was young, and it was on his own initiative, for his father wanted him to pursue the study of law. Handel would steal away into the attic where a harpsichord was stored and play at every chance.  When he was eight or nine, a duke by chance heard him play and encouraged Handel’s father to enroll him in formal musical training.  His father complied, and by the time Handel was twelve he was sufficiently accomplished on the organ to fill in for his instructor at musical performances. Like Bach, Handel was acknowledged as a organ virtuoso throughout his lifetime.

Handel later studied music in Italy, where he mastered all the various musical forms of that time. He became interested in opera and in oratorio, which is basically an opera without the costumes and the acting — it tells a story simply through the various musical movements. Messiah, for example, is an oratorio. His interest in opera and oratorio would be lifelong, which was unusual for Christian musicians of the day, who typically worked for the Church or a devout royal personage. Performing music in secular settings, especially the opera, was heavily frowned upon by the Church in London where Handel would settle. And even more frowned upon was performing sacred music in a secular setting. Many of Handel’s operas and oratorios were derived from the Bible — for example Saul, Israel in Egypt, and Belshazzar. Handel also wrote some secular operas such as Hercules and The Beggar’s Opera. Messiah itself was first performed in opera houses for reasons we will see shortly, but these secular performances were opposed by many in the Church of England, including such notables as Jonathan Swift and John Newton. All of this served to raise a question mark about Handel’s Christian devotion, but a closer look at his life removes any doubt that he was a devout Christian. His friend Sir John Hawkins wrote that Handel “[t]hrough out this life manifested a deep sense of religion. In conversations he would frequently declare his pleasure in setting the Scriptures to music, and how contemplating the many sublime passages in the Psalms had contributed to his edification.” * One of his few surviving letters reveals Handel comforting his brother-in-law on the death of Handel’s mother: “It pleased the Almighty, to who’s Holy Will I submit myself with Christian submissions.” * His good friend James Smyth wrote: “He died as he lived — a good Christian, with a true sense of his duty to God and to man, and in perfect charity with all the world.” * Indeed, as we will see, Handel was known for charity. Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey with more than three thousand in attendance at his funeral. A statue erected there in his honor depicts Handel holding the manuscript for the solo that opens part three of Messiah, “I know than my Redeemer liveth.” *

Handel was a Lutheran, and although he avoided denominational squabbles, his Lutheran heritage might explain his willingness to disappoint and on occasion cross Anglican bishops. Handel was also a colorful character. He was a big boned, loud German, who wore a curly wig down to his shoulders, and whose English was always laced with phrases of German, French, and Italian. He had a temper, and when it was provoked it is said that he could swear in five languages. But he was also quick to cool down and apologize. And he had a remarkably down to earth assessment of himself and his music. Once a nobleman denigrated one of his pieces, not knowing that he was speaking to the composer. Handel replied that he agreed with the piece was poor and had thought so ever since he wrote it. * On another occasion, when a companion lamented how poorly attended a performance was, Handel quipped that he was glad because the acoustics would be better. *

Handel was buoyant and tenacious, and he needed those qualities many times in his career. His success was up and down due to a fickle public, royalty, and Church establishment. In his 50s he had a number of set backs, and by time he was 56 (in 1741), he thought he had given his last performance and was sure to die in debtor’s prison. A series of unexpected events would change his life.

The visionary – Charles Jennens.

Out of the blue, a wealthy admirer named Charles Jennens, who had written the words for several of Handel’s earlier oratorios, approached Handel about composing the music for a new oratorio based on a scriptural account of the Messiah, which Jennens would assemble. Jennens was an interesting character in his own right. He was famously rich and eccentric. While still a youth he would throw lavish (but not debauched) gatherings, so that his friends began to refer to him as “Sulleyman the Magnificent.” Despite his wealth, he was a “non-juror” (a non-member of the royal court) because he opposed both the reigning Hanoverian house as well as the deposed (and Catholic) Stuart house. He was picky and a perfectionist, but also a devout Christian. He wanted to write Messiah as a Christian salvo against deism which was very popular among the upper set in London at the time. Shortly after Jennens approached Handel, so did a group of Irish charities who wanted to hire Handel to perform at a Dublin benefit to raise money to free men locked away in debtor’s prison. And so the two projects merged into the Messiah.

When Jennens gave Handel the wordbook for the various movements and Scripture texts (53 movements and 62 texts!), Handel, a quick composer, estimated it would take a year. Twenty-four days later, Handel emerged from his apartment with the 260-page Messiah finished. “Considering the immensity of the work, and the short time involved, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of music composition.” So said Sir Newman Flower, one of Handel’s many biographers, and the consensus of history has agreed with him. * During those twenty-four days, Handel hardly ate or slept. He worked as a man possessed. He exclaimed to a servant upon completing what would become Hallelujah Chorus, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.” *

Early performances.

Messiah was first performed in a concert hall in Dublin.  Handel caught flack from the Church of England, so he called it simply A Sacred Oratorio. Despite the opposition, the hall sold out. In fact, they asked ladies not to wear hoops in their skirts and gentlemen not to wear swords so they could squeeze in an extra hundred people. They raised 400 pounds with which they obtained the release of 142 men from debtors prison. It would be another year before Messiah would be performed in London, and it still caught flack from the Church of England. Notwithstanding, the king attended, and when the opening bars of Hallelujah Chorus sounded he stood, and the whole audience with him. Some have suggested that the king was hard of hearing and mistook the song for the national anthem. But presumably he would have realized at some point that it was not the national anthem, yet he remained standing throughout the piece. Whatever the case, in the providence of God the king stood and so did the audience, and audiences have stood ever since.

Handel personally conducted some thirty performances of Messiah before his death. Only one was in a church. Most were were performed as charitable fund raisers, and many of those for a new hospital of which Handel was a benefactor. Handel was known for his charity even when he was in tough times. Through performances of Messiah, Handel raised thousands of pounds for charity. As one biographer put it: “Messiah has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan . . . more than any other single musical production in this or any country.” * Or in the words of another: “Perhaps the works of no other composer have so largely contributed to the relief of human suffering.” *

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* Sources: Patrick Kavanaugh, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers (excerpt); Christianity Today, George Frideric Handel.