Tag: Handel

Messiah – Part 1, Scene i: Isaiah’s Prophecy of Salvation

Part 1: Scene i, no. 3 Air: Isaiah 40:4

“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight and the rough places plain.”

When I was kid we used to pile in the back of my Grandpa’s hovercraft of a car, and he would drive us into town. The road we took was full of dips and hills, and we called it the roller-coaster road because he would gun it and our tummies would fly up and down. This happened pre-seatbelts and we were all over the back of the car, squealing and laughing.

Fast forward to my adulthood. The highway department came through and leveled out most of that road, taking out the ups and downs and sharp curves, and while it is now less fun to drive it is far more efficient and safe.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

That is exactly what happened to our roller coaster road. A safe highway was created.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight…a highway for our God.

Christ came into a time fulfilled. The world was perfectly placed for the diffusion of Christianity at precisely that time in history. Pax Romana had, among other things, created good roads. Safe roads. At no time before had the world been as safe for travel. The roads were level and well kept. Within 500 years of Christ’s birth, most of Europe and North Africa were Christian. That is not a very long time in the span of history.

I mentioned word-painting in an earlier post. In this movement of Messiah we can hear it used correctly. Handel begins this movement with an instrumental ritornello, or little return. We will hear snippets of this material interspersed with the vocal material throughout the work. He then gives us, as is common in Baroque literature, an initial statement of the opening phrase. Handel then leads into a coloratura passage in which the “valleys” are “exalted” by using an ascending sequential pattern (starting at 3’29” in the recording.) He then ascends to “mountain” as the highest note of the phrase before descending to the lowest note of the phrase on the word “low.”

“The crooked” meanders around until it comes to a held note on “straight.” All of this is the DEFINITION of word-painting.

But it is more than that. Handel gives us such joyful music, it is almost as if the mountains, hills, and rough places are magically re-aligning themselves for the coming of Messiah. One hears the words of Psalm 114:4 brought to life musically: “You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and you little hills like lambs?”

I particularly love this performance by tenor Kurt Streit and the English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock. Streit fully captures the excitement and joy of this work, and of the anticipation of the coming Messiah.

Messiah – Part 1, Scene i: Isaiah’s Prophecy of Salvation

Part 1: Scene i, no. 2b Recitative: Isaiah 40:3

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

The voice crying in the wilderness is John the Baptist. John knew Jesus from the womb. When Mary became pregnant as an unwed teen, the first place she went was to John’s mother, and Elizabeth believed the unbelievable. She had been prepared for it, by receiving her own miracle.

John preached repentance in the desert and people thronged to him. He prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry by exhorting people to repent and baptizing them. He baptized Jesus himself and was witness to the Spirit and voice proclaiming Jesus as the Beloved Son.

But for all his preparation, John was not without his doubts. At the end of his life, imprisoned by Herod for speaking truth and facing execution, he sends a message to Jesus: Are you the one? (Luke 7:18-31) The preparer is faltering, and Jesus reassures him, comforts him: “Go tell John what you have seen…Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” He then names John to the crowd as the voice crying in the wilderness.

This is a season of preparation. I’ve scrubbed the house, set out all the decorations. I’m planning and purchasing gifts, and making cookies. Every evening in the stillness, we light a candle on the advent wreath for a few minutes. I have to ask myself, though, what am I preparing for? And is this the right kind of preparation? The bustle and scurry can make me crazy and unkind and impatient. Instead of preparing my heart, I’m preparing my house. It is not without good reason, I want to create a place of warmth and welcome for my family. I want to point to Christmas as the prologue of the best story. I want to make straight in the desert of chaos a highway to my God.

But that’s not the point, is it? Shouldn’t I be making straight a highway FOR my God? Because He is coming to me, not the other way around. The time of preparation should be of contemplation, reflection, and repentance.

He is coming again. It is so easy to forget that in the distraction of everyday life.

Lord, help me prepare the way for you.

Handel sets this text in a very straight forward recitative. Generally this kind of recit would be set with just basso continuo, or harpsichord and cello. Handel heightens the declamatory effect by using the full orchestra, adding to the importance of what the voice has to say. This is a directive to get ready, and ends with a very strong cadence – the use of the dominant-tonic relationship – which I teach my students is the “The End” or authentic cadence. It’s the “no arguing” or “we are done” cadence. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. The. End.

Messiah – Part 1, Scene i: Isaiah’s Prophecy of Salvation

Part 1: Scene i, no. 2 Recitative: Isaiah 40: 1-2a

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned”

The opening recitative in Messiah begins slowly and quietly, following a predictable thrumming chordal pattern in the key of E major. The tenor floats in the text “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” and then declaims “saith your God.”

Many baroque and renaissance composers employed a technique called word-painting, or making the music sound like what the text means. While technically this is probably not word-painting, I can’t imagine a more comforting three notes – “Comfort ye”- almost like a sigh of relief – echoed immediately as if from heaven by the high strings. Handel uses a descending minor third which is also the same interval universally used by mothers to call their children in for dinner. There is not much more comforting than being called home by someone who loves you in that sing-song manner. I don’t know if that was Handel’s intention, but it works.

Handel moves into the next section “speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem” using another technique called sequencing – repeating the same music and text up a step, reassuring the listener. Then we hear an echo of the “comfort ye” motive followed by the tenor leaping an octave to “cry unto her” that her warfare is accomplished. The only strong dissonance we hear is when the tritone, the most dreaded of dissonances, is heard on the word “iniquity” and immediately resolves into a major chord on “pardoned.” Handel uses the augmented fourth to move us forward gently to a new place, out of sin and into redemption, and the key of B major.

So blah, blah, blah, music teacher. Honestly, when I listen to this, those are not the things I hear. What I hear is a piece of immense comfort which is exactly what Handel intended. This piece rarely fails to move me. It’s simplicity, poignancy, and musical beauty sets the great prophecy of Isaiah in such a way that I cannot help but hear the music when I read the text.

The slowness and deliberate pace of accompaniment – repeated eighth notes almost continuously – settles my anxious heart into a steady rhythm, requiring me to adapt to the music. This is something that text alone cannot do, no matter its meter.

Especially in this year of chaos, I need to hear this music. I need to be comforted and told that everything will be all right. I need my heartbeat to be steadied, and my breath sighed out. My iniquity is pardoned. So saith my God.