Beginning his composition on August 22, 1741, and finishing a mere 24 days later, Handel premiered his Messiah a year later in Dublin, where it was highly received. Though his English premiere was less successful, Messiah has gone on to become one of the great masterpieces in classical music literature. Written in a mere 24 days, with this piece, it seemed Handel had out done himself. While I by no means hope to diminish the efforts of Handel, it is important to realize that he had more than divine inspiration while composing this piece. He did, in fact, use previously written melodies as well as the text and his own personal problems to help compose his oratorio.
Health Problems and Subsequent Influence
A few years before the Messiah was written, in 1737, Handel changed his composition style from writing operas to English oratorios, something he is best known for today. As stated in the London Evening Post in May of 1737, Handel was “very much indispos'd and it's thought with a Paraletick Disorder, he having at present no Use of this Right Hand, which, if he don't regain, the Publick will be depriv'd of his fine Compositions.” 1 It was this same year that he suffered a series of seizures that put an end to this workload of several operas a year. Since his operas were so daunting to write, and due to lack of popular interest, Handel began writing his oratorios, including the Messiah.
Textual Borrowings
As Handel began composing the Messiah, one can imagine he began by looking at the text (provided by Charles Jennens) 2 for inspiration. Borrowing from the literal meaning of the text, Handel used a technique termed “word painting” in which the music reflects directly the word(s) being sung. One of the most obvious uses of this borrowing is in the air for tenor “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted”. The text, which follows, is a colorful verse from Isiah 40:4:
“Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill made low;
the crooked straight and the rough places plain.” 3
Upon the second utterance of “shall be exalted”, Handel writes a four-measure flourish on the word “exalted” as if he were exalting the word itself. In the phrase “and every mountain and hill made low”, he cleverly makes the word “mountain” the highest point while the word “low” is the lowest. For “hill”, he uses an upper neighbor tone of D-sharp, E-natural, D-sharp to form a hill itself in the music. As the music continues with “the crooked straight and the rough places plain”, Handel uses a series of lower neighbor tones to form the word “crooked” while the word “plain” is a simple rhythm of a slurred half note to dotted quarter note, repeated. 4 A few more examples include the chorus “All We Like Sheep” and the following recitative “All They That See Him, Laugh Him To Scorn”. For the first, the lyrics are as follows:
“All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Handel writes the first use of the phrase “have gone astray” for sopranos and tenors. For the actual word of “astray”, he writs an eighth note pattern in contrary motion that further strengthens the term “astray”. This continues throughout the piece for every use of the word “astray”. As for the phrase “we have turned”, Handel writes a very fast sixteenth note pattern, or turn, for the word “turned”. This also continues throughout the entire chorus. 5 As for the recitative, whose lyrics are :
“All they that see Him, laugh him to scorn;
they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying"
Immediately following the phrase “laugh him to scorn”, Handel writes in the orchestration a rapid thirty-second note pattern as if the orchestra personifies “all they that see Him” and are indeed laughing at Him. After the words “and shake their heads”, the composer uses a softer sixteenth note pattern in the strings in thirds as if they were indeed shaking their heads. 6 Handel continues this idea of borrowing the literal meaning of the word to form his oratorio Messiah, but he also turned to other composers for inspiration in completing his piece.
Friends with Borrowing Benefits
Around the year 1692, Handel attended the Gymnasium in Halle, where he studied with F.W. Zachow. 7 While there, Zachow had Handel copy a number of composers, including works by Johann Caspar Kerll. When we compare Kerlls Canzona no. 14 to the chorus from Messiah, “Let All the Angels of God”, we see a very close similarity that suggests Handel borrowed the now-unknown theme. 8
Though it is not written anywhere that Handel definitely borrowed this theme from Kerll, it is extremely likely that he had known it during his time prior to writing Messiah. Whether it was a conscious or unconscious effort on Handel's part, it is hard to tell. I do believe, however, that Handel used this theme of Kerll's. They are both nearly identical, with only the rhythm briefly changed as well as the octave of the second note in the soprano line. While I admit that it took me a few weeks to fully believe the positivity of this borrowing, I also came across another borrowed theme that I immediately thought to have been borrowed by Handel.
By 1706, Handel had made his way to Italy, where he met composer Arcangelo Corelli. Corelli exposed Handel to much of his music, though most of the specifics are unknown. There is, however, a piece by Corelli that is strikingly similar to a segment from the famous Hallelujah chorus. The lyrics are as follows:
“Halleluhah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
and His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Hallelujah!” 9
With this piece, we look at the line “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”, which has a famous melody.
This is a piece that nearly everyone knows and Handel is given credit for it. But take a look at a fugue for four voices by Corelli titled “Fuga vera con us Soggetto Solo di Gallario Riccoleno”: 10
The similarity is uncanny and, to me, it is extremely obvious that Handel borrowed this theme. They are both in the same key as well as the same rhythm, which make it obvious that Corelli had shared this piece with Handel back in 1706. I don't think this does or should belittle Handel's achievement in composing and completing the Messiah or specifically the Hallelujah Chorus. It's obvious, from Handel's other compositions, that he was not short of melodies. In this aspect, I don't believe he used the Corelli theme as a last-minute resort. I think we need to remember that in Handel's time, there were no recordings of pieces and printing was at a very basic level. Corelli's theme had not even been published so it is quite possible Handel used the theme without even realizing what he was doing. Again, I find this to be a possibility, as it seems so obvious it was purposely used. It would be an extreme case of coincidence had no borrowing taken place, consciously or not. Even if he had done it on purpose, Handel may have been forever endearing his friend and mentor Corelli.
Conclusions
Handel's Messiah is one of the most loved pieces today, as it was back then. To me, it holds the perfect number of arias and choruses, which Handel puts exactly in the right order. It is obvious Handel had an exact plan of how he was to compose this piece, which is proven through the short amount of time it had taken him to complete it. With this plan, he may have purposely borrowed themes from contemporaries of the time to which I give him an applause. It is a massive undertaking to compose such an extensive piece in so short a time. Given that, and the subject matter of Christ, I think Handel owed it to the Lord, himself, and the public to compose the best individual segments he could, and he was smart enough to know that others' melodies may have fit better than his own. As I have stated before but wish to stress the importance of, this in no way diminishes the accomplishment owed to Handel. Aside from literal borrowing from friends, his use of borrowing from the literal text is advanced beyond what I could have imagined doing. To me, exploring his use of word painting is a “why couldn't I think of that?” moment. They are so seemingly simple as they fly by in the music, yet they make the entire piece stand on its own. Had Handel written a merely symphonic piece describing the life of Christ, I don't think he would have been successful at all. Drawing off of the words given to him, he was able to shape and form his melodies into perfection, which has never been out done since.
While his Messiah holds a dear place in my heart, I hope to be able to discover more jewels hidden within his writing as I continue to study this piece. This project, more than any other, has opened my eyes to an aspect of music and borrowing that I had not yet seen before, and I find that to be worth documenting. As Handel looked to his friends to borrow thoughts and ideas, as well as within himself for the inspiration, I look to Handel to continue to inspire me in my musical history/borrowing explorations.
Sources/Footnotes
- 1 Stephanie Pain, “How misery inspired Handel to write Messiah,” New Scientist 202 (2009)
- 2 Jennifer Dorn, “Handel and his Messiah,” British Heritage Janurary 2007, 32.
- 3 T. Tertius Noble, editor, The Messiah (G. Schirmer, Inc. 1912), vi.
- 4 Noble, Messiah, 10-15.
- 5 Noble, Messiah, 122-130.
- 6 Noble, Messiah, 131.
- 7 Donald Burrows, editor, Cambridge Companion to Handel (Cambridge University Press, 1997) 16.
- 8 William D. Gudger, “A Borrowing from Kerll in 'Messiah,' The Musical Times 118 (1977) 1038-1039.
- 9 Noble, Messiah, viii.
- 10 Ralph Leavis, “Three Impossible Handel Borrowings,” The Musical Times 123 (1982): 470-471.
Ben Meixell - Contributing Writer
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