Getting a Handel on Messiah by David W. Barber

Author:David W. Barber [Barber, David W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Indent Publishing
Published: 2011-12-06T02:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

IN THE BEGINNING WERE THE WORDS

A divine inspiration

IN THE BEGINNING WERE THE WORDS

SINCE THE WORDS FORM such an important part of what makes Messiah so effective, it’s only right that we take a look at where they came from. After all, there must be something special about them, or else choral societies all over the world might be putting on productions of Theodora every Christmas.

Messiah doesn’t actually tell a story, at least no in the usual narrative sense of oratorios, which came out of the dramatic opera tradition. Instead, it is a carefully assembled compilation of Scriptural verses from the Bible, using both the Old and New Testaments. (Sometimes, as is the case with I know that my Redeemer liveth, it cleverly combines both Old and New Testaments in one movement.) While the libretto doesn’t precisely tell a straightforward story, it does provide a framework for reflection on the life of Christ and the importance of the Christian message. This had made it the darling of churches and religious groups everywhere – although this was not always the case.

Handel was given the libretto for Messiah sometime in the summer of 1741 by Charles Jennens (1700-73), who also wrote the librettos for Saul, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Belshazzar, and quite possibly Israel in Egypt.

There seems to be some confusion about this, mostly because people aren’t willing to give credit where it’s due. A diarist named Hone says Jennens collaborated with another man, named Pooley, whom Hone says was a curate and secretary to Jennens. Where he got this I’ve no idea, since there seems to be no record of anyone named Pooley having anything to do with Jennens at all. Some scholars have suggested Hone must be referring to Matthew Poole, the author of an important book of biblical scholarship. This theory would hold a lot more water if Poole hadn’t died in Holland more than a half a century earlier, in 1679. (There’s always something, isn’t there?)

Someone else said Jennens must have collaborated with one of his neighbors, Dr. Bentley of Nailstone. But nobody (except maybe in the Bentley family) takes this one seriously. Some historians have even suggested Handel himself created the libretto, in a fit of devotional inspiration after the death of his beloved sister, whose favorite scriptural passage was said to be “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” I don’t think so. Handel knew his Bible, but not well enough to produce such a well-wrought libretto as this one.

Why make things difficult? I say Charles Jennens wrote the thing and that’s the end of it. Let the man bask in his moment of reflected glory. Where’s the harm in that?

Much of the problem about Jennens is really the fault of George Steevens, his literary rival, whose attacks on Jennens one scholar has said are nothing short of “character assassination.” There’s no doubt about it, Jennens was a bit of a character, all right.

The Jennens family had managed to amass quite a fortune by the time little Charlie came along in 1700.

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