In the Sanctuary

Messiah remains one of western music’s most popular sacred works. “Handel completed the entire score in only 24 days. Enthusiastic Romanticists of later eras would attribute this swiftness to divine inspiration, though Handel composed other works of comparable size, more secular in nature, just as swiftly. He was by nature a facile composer. The miracle of Messiah’s composition, then, is not how rapidly Handel wrote the music, but how comprehensively astute, finely-detailed, and consistently powerful it is.” Although composed in 1742 and first performed in April of that year, it was a 1750 charitable performance for the benefit of London’s Foundling Hospital that launched subsequent annual performances. “Easter-time performances of Messiah continued each year at the Foundling Hospital, and Handel conducted or attended every one of them until his death in 1759.” In gratitude, he bequeathed to the hospital a conducting score and complete set of performance parts for Messiah. Part 2 is divided into 7 scenes, beginning with Christ’s Passion, which is the longest scene and includes 5 choruses. Subsequent scenes in Part 2 are Christ’s Death and Resurrection, Christ’s Ascension, Christ’s Reception in Heaven, The Beginnings of Gospel Preaching, The World’s Rejection of the Gospel, and God’s Ultimate Victory, which ends with the “Hallelujah Chorus” and concludes Part 2.