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Messiah
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Messiah (HWV 56) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto by Charles Jennens. Composed in the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin on the 13 April 1742, Messiah is Handel's most famous creation and is among the most popular works in Western choral literature. The very well-known chorus "Hallelujah" is part of Handel's Messiah.
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Messiah or [T]he Anointed One is the figure promised by G-d to the Jews for the salvation of the whole world. The Jews think the Messiah will be a human being that will save Israel and lead the whole world into the End Of Days and eternal peace.
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The establishment of Messiah as a venerated English institution for Christmas and Choral Societies has a long and complicated history. A few excerpts are familiar to almost everybody, unlike any other work by its prolific and misunderstood composer. Messiah remains Handel's best known work, although this was not a status that it enjoyed until the last few years of his life, brought about by annual performances in Handel's oratorio seasons and charitable benefit concerts at the Foundling Hospital (an organisation for underprivileged children, and which still exists today as The Thomas Coram Foundation). It was not originally envisaged as a Christmas tradition, but its microcosm of Christian doctrine and faith was intended as a timely thought-provoker for Lent and Easter.
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The origin of the ideology of the Messiah has its roots, both historically and symbolically, with the rule of King David in the early 10th century BCE. King David formalized some central religious structures and he established Jerusalem as the cult centre of the Hebrew religion. But most important, he made Israel and Judah for some decades into the strongest state of the region, defeating most of the neigbouring peoples.
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The first major revision of Messiah by another musician began in 1788 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He had been commissioned by Baron van Swieten to arrange several of Handel's oratorios, among them Messiah, for a series of private performances in the homes of Viennese court members (Cottle 19). Mozart made the changes he did for two primary reasons. First, the orchestral style, including the phrase lengths, was already thought to be archaic, less than fifty years after Handel's initial composition (Cottle 19). Second, Mozart added new wind parts, complementing or completely replacing the original, to support the continuo organ which was not available in every house which Mozart was to play his arrangement (Cottle 19). Also, unlike the original Messiah which Handel wrote for the public, Mozart's version was to be played only for quite exclusive audiences (Cottle 19).
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Special importance attaches to the prophetic description of the Messiah contained in Daniel 7, the great work of later Judaism, on account of its paramount influence upon one line of the later development of Messianic Doctrine. In it the Messiah is described as "like to a Son of Man", appearing at the right hand of Jahveh in the clouds of heaven, inaugurating the new age, not by a national victory or by vicarious satisfaction, but by exercising the Divine right of judging the whole world. Thus, the emphasis is upon the personal responsibility of the individual. The consummation is not an earth-won ascendancy of the chosen people, whether shared with otter nations or not, but a vindication of the holy by the solemn judgment of Jahveh and his Anointed One. Upon this prophecy were mainly based the various apocalyptic works which played so prominent a part in the religious life of the Jews during the last two centuries before Christ. Side by side with all these prophecies speaking of the establishment of a kingdom under the sway of a divinely-appointed legate, was the series foretelling the future rule of Jahveh himself.
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Messiah