Part 1, Scene i, no. 4 Chorus: Isaiah 40:5
“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
This is the first chorus we hear in Messiah. One of the hallmarks of English oratorio is the use of chorus as a significant role in the story. Handel gives the chorus music that is as interesting and complex to sing as he gives to the soloists.
“And the glory of the Lord” introduces the thematic material in the strings senza ripieno. In baroque orchestral music of a certain genre, there were two groups within the orchestra – a small group of instruments drawn from within the orchestra, and the tutti or ripieno which was the full orchestra. Pitting these two groups against each other provided contrast. Senza ripieno means to use just the smaller group from within which creates a delicacy. When the score is marked tutti, everyone joins in which gives importance and weight to the musical motives and the text. The first we hear tutti in “And the glory of the Lord” is when the full chorus makes that very statement. Most modern orchestral conductors choose to ignore this marking and have the whole orchestra play, just more lightly, and that is what we hear in this recording.
Handel employs three standard baroque techniques in this piece. The first is the use of ritornello form. I mentioned this briefly when discussing “Ev’ry valley” but it bears more in depth explanation. The most commonly used form in baroque orchestral music, the ritornello gives an initial statement of the thematic material, and then has a “little return” periodically throughout the movement, frequently in a different key and rarely in its entirety. This technique creates a sense of familiarity – we sit up and think “I’ve heard this before!”
The second technique is the use of the hemiola. As an aside, this is one of those words that is really fun to say – one of my favorite musical terms. A hemiola occurs when we are in a triple meter and suddenly it feels like we shift to a duple meter. In other words we go from counting 1-2-3-1-2-3 to counting 1-2-3-1-2-3. It’s a sort of large scale syncopation.
One final technique that should be explained to fully understand this piece is the use of points of imitation. A holdover from the Renaissance, late Baroque composers used this technique when they wanted to emphasize a text or musical motive. It begins with one voice stating the motive, and then is “imitated” by the other voices starting on different pitches.
We hear Handel use all three of these techniques in “And the glory of the Lord.” He begins with a statement of the thematic material creating the ritornello and ends that material with a hemiola.
When the altos enter they give us the first motive that Handel will use as a point of imitation, followed by the whole chorus (and tutti orchestra for the first time) singing together the initial statement of the text. The tenors then get a second motive that will be used imitatively. These two motives then move throughout the chorus until they all come together to proclaim the text ending with a hemiola. We then get our first ritornello presented in the dominant key – we know this because we can see all manner of accidentals which take us away from the key of A major to its dominant of E major.
We now have a second section of musical material presented. A new motive is again delivered by the altos first, but this time Handel moves immediately into a point of imitation: “and all flesh shall see it together.” The men sing a stentorian proclamation on repeated longer notes: “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” He then takes these two phrases and passes them all around the chorus. There follows a small ritornello and another full choral statement of “and the glory of the Lord.”
From here until the end of the work, these four motives are shared as points of imitation throughout the chorus. Handel ends the movement with one of his trademarks – a few moments of silence followed by one last grand statement by the full chorus and orchestra.
This has been a lot of complicated explanation of some terminology that we will hear again and again throughout Messiah. But understanding what we are hearing gives depth and meaning to the text in a way just reading it cannot.
“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” seems to me a double prophecy – one that has occurred and will occur again in the last days. The revelation of the Lord’s glory the first time came in a star shining in the night and was shared with only a few shepherds and some wise men. This is the gentle first motive Handel gives us. “All flesh shall see it together” won’t happen until the Lord makes his second arrival in triumph and “every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.” (Philippians 2:20-11) This is the final grand statement of this movement.
