Handel's Messiah.

As we approach the glorious celebration of Christmas, no music will fill the air as often as George Frederic Handel's oratorio, Messiah.

Handel began his musical career as a violinist and pianist with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. His first attempts at opera met with little success. But fate (or providence) smiled on him when, in 1710, he was appointed court conductor to the Elector of Hanover.

When the Elector succeeded to the English throne, becoming King George 1, Handel became, as it were, an Englishman by adoption; he dedicated his Water Music for the King's procession up the Thames.

In the 1720s the King's Theatre in London's Haymarket was acquired to become the permanent home of the Royal Academy of Music, founded "to secure a constant supply of operas by Handel to be performed under his direction". And supply Handel did, first at the King's Theatre, then at Covent Garden, including Saul (1739), Israel in Egypt (1739), and many others.

But nothing would rival the worldwide and enduring success of Messiah. The year was 1741. We know the precise day that Handel began composing Messiah - August 22, 1741; it was completed on September 12. Those who observed Handel at work during these three weeks described him as a man possessed. A servant said that he never slept. So frenzied was his composition that his fingers swelled until he could no longer hold a pen.

Part I of Messiah foretells the coming of the Lord; from the opening recitative "Comfort ye my people...Every valley shall be exalted", to the promise of the opening chorus: "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," a picture is given of a world in darkness waiting for the coming of a light. Handel wrote Part 1 in six days.

Part II, written in nine days, describes Christ's passion, his suffering and sacrificial death, not as something that happened long ago and far away, but as a present, everlasting drama. Next comes the assurance that, though the nations of earth may furiously rage against the gospel, "He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision". To my anarchic mind, this is perhaps the most comforting theme of the whole work. It is at the end of Part II that the choir thunders forth its triumphant "Hallelujah" chorus - "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth".

Part III envisages a day when Jesus will come again; it opens with the sweet, confident soprano air: "I know that my Redeemer liveth...". Then we hear of a great mystery, how we shall not all sleep, but be changed in the twinkling of an eye: "Then shall... Death be swallowed up in victory!"

Finally, comes the universal, soaring "Amen" which brings to a close the most popular and enduring choral work in the English language. Handel wrote Part III in six days.

Nearly three hours of the world's most magnificent music, all written in twenty-one days. Who can explain it? When he finished, Handel is said to have broken down, and cried out: "Now I think that I see all Heaven before me and the Great God Himself."

Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742. Printed at the top of the conductor's score were the words: "Great is the mystery of Godliness; God was manifested in the flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. In whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Handel often conducted his own performances and, at one such performance, when he was 74 years old, he collapsed. He had expressed a wish to die on Good Friday, but he missed it by a few hours, dying instead on Saturday, April 14, 1759. His output? 46 operas, 32 oratorios, plus cantatas, sacred music, concerti grossi, and miscellaneous orchestral, instrumental, and vocal music.

George Frederic Handel is buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey; his statue shows him composing at a table with the score of Messiah open before him at the aria: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." [dagger]

Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario.