HANDEL GENIUS WHO SET XMAS STORY TO MUSIC

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 80, 23 December 1949, Page 6

HANDEL GENIUS WHO SET XMAS STORY TO MUSIC

More than any man, George Frederick Handel set the Christmas story to music. He summed up the imperishable words of Scripture which tell of the promise of Christ, of His Advent and His ultimate triumph. The oratorio, which we all know as the “Messiah,” took him but 24 days to write, though it takes three hours to sing. The secret of his achievement lay in the fact that he was divinely inspired and in his superb industry. The oratorio, with its lovely melodies for solo voices and its majestic choruses, reaches its climax in the triumphant “Hallelujah Chorus” a favurite item in the repertoire Of many Salvation Army Songster Brigades. Handel wrote the music under a great stress of emotion and is reported to have said: “I do think I did see all Heaven before me—and the great God Himself!” The “Messiah” was first performed in Dublin in 1742. At its first London performance in Covent .Garden Theatre on March 23, 1743, the inspiration of the composer communicated itself to his audience—as it has done invariably since—and the whole assembly, with George II at its head, rose to its feet as the “Hallelujah Chorus” began and remained standing throughout, a procedure which is still maintained in Britain. Handel’s art has earned tfie highest tributes from the greatest composers. Beethoven said of him: “Go and learn l of him how to achieve great effect with simple means,” Haydn, "hearing the “Hallelujah Chorus” in Westminster Abbey, rose to his feet with the crowd, wept and exclaimed: “He is, the master of us all.”

Child Prodigy Handel was a child prodigy! Born in the little town of Halle in Germany in 1685, he soon began to show musical tendencies. As a boy he smuggled a rickety spinet—forerunner of the piano—into the attic of his home f and, while others in the family slept, played the instrument until he had mastered it. His father, a barber who combined also the duties of the doctor and the dentist in his tasks, intended his son for the law, but soon saw it would be useless to go against his child’s natural gifts and consented to his following his own choice. Handel became a violinist in the opera orchestra in Hamburg, and at the age of 21 went to Italy, where he won a reputation as a player of the harpsichord and organ. Here, ‘too r he acquired his love of opera and devoted his time to that form of musical composition. He initiated numerous operatic enterprises in Germany and England, but his failure in his productions—he was twice made bankrupt —caused him to turn to the writing of oratorios. His failure became a stepping stone to success. An oratorio is a long, sacred composition for voices, the words being nearly always taken from the Bible. Handel wrote more than 20 oratorios. The “Messiah” alone was sufficient to immortalise his name. In i 726 the master became a naturalised British subject. The great composer did not escape the afflictions to which human flesh is heir. At' 60 his health began to fail. At 68 he became blind following an operation. At 74 his spirit passed away and his remains were buried in Westminster Abbey. “Handel’s temper was quick,” says a biographer, “yet the essential basis of his chartcter was benign. He used his art on many occasions during his lifetime for the assistance of charity, as it has been used on innumerable occasions since. Like Bach, he was a sincere Christian and (within the limits which human nature commonly attains) a consistent one.”