Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah

George Fredrick Handel is a renowned composer of most of the Italian operas, however, in 1730, there was a turn of events, and Handel focused on the composition of the famous oratorio (Messiah Stapert 10). The most exciting part of the classical Messiah is that it is a representation of the fulfilment of the redemption of through Messiah, the redeemer. For this paper, it is essential to examine the use of aria and an instrumental number from the Messiah, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion and make comparison with the ” When I am laid in earth” by Purcell.

To begin with, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” is virtuoso coloratura aria particularly of the soprano which expresses great joy as exemplified in the opera. Aria, as used in the piece, is a simple tune for an instrument that makes the song enjoyable. For instance, the vocal line begins with a rising fourth followed by a rest accent “Rejoice”. Most important here is that further repeats of this word rendered endless coloraturas. Handel also composed “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” in the form of a modified da capo aria. Such da capo aria is depicted two musical sections, i.e. A and B. part B often contrast in mood and key, and as the singer reaches the end of part B, she or he is instructed to the da capo from the top.

In “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” Handel creates a modified ABA’ aria which is usually effected to allow for the soloist to develop final climax through vocal virtuosity and embellishment. As “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” comes to an end, the A is transformed into a more complex A’ (Stapert 8).

In Handel’s setting of “He was despised and rejected,” no. 23, particularly for the soloist found in part II, show the use of extreme contrast within the da capo aria. At this point, the piece begins with an instrumental ritornello, and then the voices enter with a line together with continuo echoed by the orchestra. As such, the sorrow and loneliness of the subject being portrayed.

More significantly, in the nineteenth century, the Messiah grew into one of the Christian traditions. In the twentieth century, Handel and Messiah had reached the Netherlands. Several professional choirs and orchestras were then performing Messiah. After that, there has been a series of translations done on the Messiah to ensure clarity of the initial message of the song while at the same time reaching a broad audience. Later in 1979, Tom Parker, who was a British musician, made modifications and arrangement on the initial Messiah and referred to it as The Young Messiah (TYM).

However, The Young Messiah has several differences with the initial Messiah. For instance, Parker used the content of the Messiah to construct twelve songs. The vocal range for Messiah is top A for soprano as well as bottom G for Bass. The dynamics use mf and f for matching the joyous moods of different words. Most importantly, the texture of Messiah alternates between polyphonic and homophonic sections. When asked during an interview, Parker claims that a majority of the audience does not desire to listen to a classical work for several hours. Thus, he admits that he had arranged the content into shorter versions without affecting the text of the original content as well as the melodies. However, the most significant difference between the classical and the famous Messiah lies in the fact that unlike the unique Messiah that was composed to fit across the ages, The New Messiah has been intentionally arranged to meet the needs of the contemporary times.

On the other hand “When I am laid in Earth” is an opera that is popularly referred to as ‘Dido’s Lament.’ The opera was written in English through the collaboration between Nahum Tate and Henry Purcell. The opera is based on a mythological story of Queen Dido, who becomes abandoned by Aeneas (Purcell and Harvey 24). Unlike in the Messiah, the aria was ultimately played as the story ends and Aeneas leaves Dido. Most fundamentally the compose of the opera is born in Westminster and has been a professional composer for churches, he did not face much criticism when it came to performance since he could use the church stage, courts as well as other steps.

Most fundamentally, the opera is an aria that exclusively portrays the influence of the Italians and the French in the composition of the work. The adoption of ground bass in the aria shows a clear image of the Italian influence on the music, particularly at that time. In the opera music, the aria was preceded by recitative text. Before the aria, certain words came out, such as “Belinda gave thy hand Belinda” The context of this melody indicating that death was approaching (Purcell and Harvey 2). The eminent death of Dido had been dramatized on a step-by-step approach.

In this opera, one of the significant elements of the aria is that the recitative has been accompanied by continuo. Furthermore, Chromaticism has been employed in the music, unlike in the Messiah. Also, the opera has utilized the Aeneid when mentioning the legend of the Trojan. Although the play was similar to the Messiah in terms of emotional arousal, the play was fantastic and tried to bring together the pieces of what had already happened. The use of aria is adorable since it has intensively utilized the affectation of the key.