Of all English oratorios Handel's Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of all his oratorios and the most purely sacred in its choice of subject, the Messiah, a compendious version of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. The text, by Charles Jennens, drew extensively on the Authorized Version of the Bible, and an additional attraction has always been the large number of choruses included, a larger number than in any other of Handel's oratorios.

Messiah was written with Handel's usual speed in 1741 for performance in Dublin, some of it rehearsed briefly by inadequate singers in Chester, as he made his way to Holyhead to embark for the voyage. The first performance was given at the New Music Hall in Fish-amble Street, Dublin, on 13th April, 1742, in aid of charity. The first London performance took place in Lent 1743 at Covent Garden, but the work failed to please, in part because of reservations that some held about the suitability of such a sacred subject for a theatre. Messiah only achieved its lasting success after performances in 1750 in aid of the Foundling Hospital, established ten years earlier by Captain Thomas Coram. At his death in 1759 Handel left a fair copy of the score and all parts to the Hospital, an institution that continued to benefit from annual performances of the work.

Messiah opens with an Overture in the French style. The first part of the oratorio leads from prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, celebrated by the chorus "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed", to His birth, in the misplaced accentuation of "For unto us a Child is born", adapted from one of Handel's Italian operas, as were certain other elements in the new work. According to common practice, Handel re-used parts of his own earlier compositions here as elsewhere, although borrowings from other composers in Messiah are relatively rare.

The first part of Messiah, which ends with the chorus "His yoke is easy, His burthen is light", includes a Pastoral Symphony, an instrumental interlude that continues the Christmas tradition of using the rhythm of a traditional Sicilian shepherd dance to recall the biblical narrative, "There were shepherds abiding in the field..." Handel's original title for the movement was "Pifa", a reference to the piffaro, the shepherd bagpipes here imitated. The second part of the oratorio opens with the chorus "Behold the lamb of God", and takes the story through Christ's suffering and death to the glory of the Resurrection, celebrated in the famous Hallelujah Chorus, with its brilliant use of the trumpet, the only instrument, apart from strings and keyboard instruments, included in the first version of the score for Dublin.

The third part of the oratorio, which opens with the well known aria "I know that my Redeemer liveth", celebrates victory over death, ending with "Worthy is the lamb that was slain", which moves directly into the final impressive Amen chorus that ends the work.

Writer: Keith Anderson