Home for the Holidays

Program Notes

by Steven Lacoste It is ironic that Handel's Messiah, a work that was destined to become recognized as an embodiment of Christian faith, should have met with hostility in the London press even before its first performance in that city on March 23, 1743. The press was morally outraged by what they perceived to be a "blasphemous work." Actually, it wasn't Messiah itself that was under attack for blasphemy, but the fact that an oratorio which, after all, is "an Act of Religion" was to be performed in a playhouse. The ticket-purchasing middle class of London had a penchant for Evangelicalism and Puritanism, and were duly suspicious of the hedonistic aspects of the arts. The theatre was strictly anathema and deemed a place of moral corruption and sin. Given this circumstance, Handel, ever mindful of his paying public, omitted from the advertisement the title "a New Sacred Oratorio" so as not to offend. This tactic failed; the public response to Messiah was mixed at best. It was not until 1750, when Handel performed it as a charity for the Foundling Hospital Chapel, that London audiences began to warm to Messiah. The London performance, however, was not the first performance of Messiah. That event occurred under much happier circumstances the year before on April 13, 1742, in Dublin, Ireland. Handel had been invited to perform concerts for the benefit of Dublin charities, and it is almost certain that Messiah was composed along with the oratorio Samson for this venture. Both oratorios were composed in the astonishingly brief period of two months and one week. It took Handel all of three weeks and a few days, from August 22 to September 14, 1741, to compose Messiah, a truly mind-boggling feat if ever there was one. The first version of Samson was completed on October 29. Handel opened the series of Dublin concerts on December 23, 1741, with L'Allegro and several other works. Messiah was not performed until April 13, 1742, and later repeated on June 3; both performances were enthusiastically received. Praise even came from very high quarters of the church itself. The Bishop of Elphin was so impressed and delighted by Messiah, that he proposed a sequel entitled The Penitent. Apart from the sheer beauty of expression of the music itself, much of the artistic success of Messiah is to be found in the libretto that was compiled and structured by Handel's librettist Charles Jennens. The two had previously collaborated on Saul and Israel in Egypt. Jennens' prime textual source for Messiah was the Authorized Version of the English Bible of 1611. The books of the Bible from which Jennens extracted for his collection for Part I were: the Hebrew prophets Isaiah, Haggai, Malachai and Zechariah; and the Evangelists Luke and Matthew. These texts embody the promise of the ancient Hebrew prophets of the coming of a transcendent anointed king, or Messiah, whom Christians identify as the Christ. Jennens carefully chose texts from the ancient prophets that found echoes by way of quotation in settings in the New Testament; quotations that the Evangelists used in an attempt to give authority to their claims for the messianic attributes of Jesus. In Jennens' libretto, the events of the New Testament are masterfully structured as a reflection of Old Testament prophecies. The first two thirds of Part I, based exclusively on the Old Testament prophecies, reveals both the sublime and terrible aspects of the coming of the Messiah. Handel depicts these awesome qualities in music of changing moods expressive of the emotional response of a human being to the divine and mysterious aspects of the Messiah. The last third consists of texts taken from Luke, Matthew, Zechariah and Isaiah, which describe the birth of Christ, as spoken by the angel to the shepherds, followed by prophecies of the gentle and beneficial aspects of the Saviour and his capacity to lighten the burdens of humankind. For this performance, Part I will be followed by the Hallelujah Chorus. The next selection on this concert is a set of five Christmas carols arranged or composed by the distinguished Brittish composer John Rutter. The first of this set, Donkey Carol, is an original composition in three-part form depicting the bumpy journey of the Holy Family, the vigil in the stable, and the rising of the sun accompanied by the peal of bells announcing the dawn of a new age. Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella is an arrangement of a French traditional carol. It is a portrait of the rousing of townspeople to come and behold the mother and sleeping child. The American folk song Go Tell it on the Mountain exists in several variant versions, none of them definitive. As a consequence, Mr. Rutter has, as noted in his score, chosen the present version from personal preference. Quittez, pasteurs (Come leave your sheep), another French traditional carol, is arranged for unaccompanied chorus. A pastoral mood is established at the beginning as the basses and tenors create a rustic ambiance with a drone of open fifths over which the sopranos and altos sing the carol advising the shepherds to forget everything and rejoice at the birth of the Lord. I Saw Three Ships is an arrangement of an English traditional carol whose rising and falling melody, repeated over and over, presents the atmosphere of the open seas upon which sail the three ships destined for Bethlehem. Christmas Story, by Roger Wagner (1914-1992), consists of his own arrangements of popular Christmas carols interspersed with narrative excerpts taken from chapter two of St. Luke's Gospel. The Christmas carols complement the narrative in a manner similar to the way an aria complements or elaborates upon a recitative or accompagnato in an oratorio. We Three Kings was composed by John Henry Hopkins, Rector of Christ Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. What Child is This? is based upon the melody Greensleeves, composed in 1642. Its text was written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix. The poem for O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by the American Episcopal Bishop Philip Brooks in 1865; its melody was composed in 1868 by his organist Lewis Redner (1831-1908). Gesu Bambino was composed in 1917 by Pietro Yon (1886-1943) for St. Patricks Cathedral Choir in New York. James Chadwick, Catholic Bishop of Hexham and New Castle, wrote the text to Angels we Have Heard on High, setting it to a French Noel. The Virgin's Slumber Song probably has its origin in a fifreenth century English air. Joy to the World! utilizes the tune "Antioch" as a setting for Isaac Watt's paraphrase of Psalm 98. The cycle concludes with Silent Night by Fathers Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr. This carol falls within the tradition of Austrian church musicians to compose folk-like melodies for Christmas Mass. The natural flow and gentle calm of the melody captures the serenity of the poetry perfectly, forming a glowing halo to cap this Christmas concert.

Archival Recording