The Miraculous Origins of Handel’s Messiah
Handel’s Messiah is a staple of the Christmas season. But do you know how this beloved musical masterpiece came about?
The following is an excerpt from Kurt Mahlburg and Warwick Marsh’s latest book, Jesus: The Centre of It All. Buy the book here.
Hope in the Depths of Depression
The sweeping narrative of the restless wait for the Messiah—and Jesus’ arrival in fulfilment of Israel’s longings—is told in one of the most beloved pieces of Western music: Handel’s Messiah.
George Frideric Handel was a German composer who migrated to London in the early 1700s, where the hoity-toity came to love his brilliant operas. High society tastes were fickle, however, and Handel found himself competing with English composers, falling in and out of favour with changing monarchs and facing bankruptcy on more than one occasion. Living alone at age fifty-two, Handel suffered a stroke, lost the use of his writing hand and ended up plagued by depression.
It was at this time that Handel received a libretto from his good friend Charles Jennens, an Anglican philanthropist, with whom he had previously collaborated on musical projects. What Jennens gave Handel was a collection of Scriptures, from the Old Testament especially, that told the grand story of Jesus’ arrival as the Messiah. Handel was captivated.
Messiah’s Miraculous Composition
Coinciding with these events, an admirer in Ireland had asked Handel to produce a musical work that could be performed as a fundraiser to support several hospitals and set men free from the debtors’ prison in Dublin. Handel believed that Jennens’ proposal would be a most suitable project for this charity. More than just a chance at resurrecting his career, Handel saw before him an opportunity to help the poor while sharing the good news of Jesus with the masses.
Immediately, Handel buried himself in the Bible and prayer and began writing an oratorio from Jennens’ text. For weeks, he did not leave the house. Around the time Handel was writing his now-famous Hallelujah chorus, a friend who brought him his meals found the composer sobbing, overcome by emotion. Through tears, Handel told his friend, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!”
Just over three weeks later, all 259 pages of Messiah—by far the greatest English choral work ever written—were complete. Many have remarked that Handel’s magnum opus could only be completed with such speed and finesse through the hidden hand of the divine. Handel himself quoted the apostle Paul to describe the experience: “Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not.” (2 Corinthians 12:2-3).
To God Alone Be the Glory
Messiah premiered in a little-known music hall in Dublin in April of 1742, raising £400 for charity and freeing over a hundred men from prison. Enjoying a modest public reception at first, the piece was eventually staged in London, where King George II attended a performance. Stirred by the Hallelujah chorus, the king rose to his feet, beginning a tradition that has continued ever since. Almost three centuries later, Messiah remains a staple of the Christmas season and is still regularly performed to raise money for charitable causes.
George Handel did not want to take the credit for his masterpiece. He wrote it as an act of worship to his Messiah—a heartfelt tribute to Jesus’ arrival in fulfilment of the Scriptures. If you were to visit the British Library in London today and view the autograph score of Messiah, you would see three letters at the end of the final page: “S.D.G.” They stand for Soli Deo Gloria—Latin for “to God alone be the glory”.
As Handel testified through his greatest life’s work, the wait is finally over. The Messiah of Israel is here. His name is Jesus.
Buy Jesus: The Centre of It All here.
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Wonderful!!
There are so many great anecdotes relating to “Messiah” in particular, and Handel more generally. My favourite is when he visited a certain Lord Kinnoul. His lordship paid him compliments on “the noble entertainment”. Handel is said to have remarked, “My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better.”
And fellow composer and music historian Charles Burney relates the following anecdote in a letter to Lord Mornington, 30 March, 1776:
‘[A Lady] being very musical, was invited by him [Handel] to a private Rehearsal of the Messiah, and being struck with the Exceeding dignity of expression in the Chorusses, and other parts of ye oratorio so inimitably sett to the sacred works, after the musick was over she asked him how it was possible for him who understood the English Language but imperfectly, to enter so fully into the sublime spirit of the Words. His answer is I think a lesson to all Composers, at least of Sacred Musick, “Madam, I thank God I have a little religion.”‘
Thanks Kim. Yes I almost included the first additional anecdote you mention. I was very conscious in publishing this that it was a drop in the bucket of all you have written on the subject!
Thank you Warwick and Kurt. I have sung this masterpiece in a choir and listened to it many times. It never fails to move me. I did not know how it came to be written so thank you for enlightening me. If this music was divinely composed through Handel then I longingly look forward to hearing (and hopefully singing) the music in heaven. How mind blowingly beautiful will
it be?!
I have attended performances of “The Messiah” a number of times in my lifetime, but the most “moving” performance which I attended was by the Norward Salvation Army corp in Adelaide, where, not only was the audience moved to tears, but so were many of the songsters, who rang out the “Hallelujah Chorus”, with tears running down their faces. That was a performance that I’ll always remember!