Part 1, scene iii, no. 10 Accompagnato: Isaiah 60:2-3
“For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
This recitative begins ominously, with the strings wandering blindly and steadily around the key of b minor. The listener can feel the despair and oppression, the darkness weighs heavily.
The bass enters with “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.” In this performance, the bass is not making a proclamation, something we expect when we hear the word behold. Rather, he enters gently and with trepidation. This makes the move to D major feel more like a dawning of hope. “But the Lord shall arise” is presented in this new key and Handel uses a steady climbing in the vocal line to paint the coming light. “And his glory” is given to us in a gloriously held dominant chord before it descends from on high so that it “shall be seen upon thee.”
Then Isaiah gives us one of the most shocking statements of prophecy given to the Jewish nation, “and the Gentiles shall come to thy light.” Handel moves us here to a new and unexpected key of F# major – a key associated with the soul that has deeply struggled and triumphed. (Christian Schubart, Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst 1806)
The final phrase of the prophecy, “and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” is given a high note on kings and descends like the sun’s rays to end on an ascending perfect fourth on the word rising.
There is so much packed into this short recitative, I hardly know where to start. It just occurred to me, right now, that perhaps the final line of this prophecy may refer to the Magi that followed the bright star. We refer to the wise men as kings, even though we don’t know that they were. Just a thought.
Doesn’t this piece feel appropriate for our time? It feels like we are covered with darkness, even gross darkness. The darkness of pandemic, and politics, and injustice. So often we seem to be blindly staggering around with no clear light at the end of the tunnel. Isaiah’s prophecy, which I believe to be as true now as it was pre-Christ, promises that the LORD shall arise with light upon us and we shall see his glory. This is hope that I cling to in these dark days.
