DID HANDEL RE-WRITE "MESSIAH"?

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 8

DID HANDEL RE-WRITE "MESSIAH"?

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —It is.Bot now likely that we will be able to reach finality on all questions regarding Handel andhis work. The things that are undisputed will be accepted, and the tilings that are disputed ■ will remain, the subjects of continual controversy. This may be the position with Mr. L. D. Austin's statement in your last night's issue, to the effect that, "after the initial performance, Handel revised, and practically re-wrote" his oratorio "Messiah." 1 have read a great deal of Handelian literature, but never before have I seen this wholesale revision alleged. That the Dublin performances revealed weaknesses which. Handel would correct is possible, but that these amendments amounted to re-writing of the oratorio is, I think, a misconception. Grove, who may be quoted as an authority; does not mention it; the NewEncyclopedia of Music does not mention it; the article on Handel in the EncycloSedia Britannica is silent on the point; few-man Flower, whose "Life of Handel" is both recent and comprehensive, positively contradicts it. He says on page 282, "As a work apart 'Messiah' was his (Handel's) one creation that ever pleased him, and which he never heavily altered." .Would Mr. Austin then kindly favour us with his authority for saying that the oratorio was practically re-written on Handel's return to England? Ido not -write captiously, I am seeking information.—l am, etc., F. LINDSAY BUICK