European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Tis the season of hande mania by Hugh a. Mulligan associated press o piece of music not even silent night 01 o Little Toiven of Bethleham. So symbolizes Iho spirit of Christmas giving As Handel s Messiah. Teofilo iwo Noen giving i hair All in curious fortissimo Ever since the thunderous hallelujah chorus Wilh Georg in cinch Handel conducting from the harpsichord brought King George ii to his eel More Ihnn 240 ago thus began the custom of audiences rising from their seats during this Bosl loved and most Calm Crl of All choral masterpieces and eventually regardless of Talent or prior rehearsal joining it with uninhibited enthusiasm in London at what Charles Dickens called this rolling Lime of the your the streets around the Albert Hall annually Are jammed with music makers armed with cellos. Sousaphone oboes trombones bassoons bagpipes vocal chords Rusly and robust seized with what was Carly diagnosed As "handolmania,1 they swarm from double Decker buses la is hired vans and the South Kensington underground station modestly to take their places in a come one come All do it yourself Messiah Hal has been assaulting Iho heavens and the pained eardrums of inc critics for decades i it any wonder then Hal Handel a German who composed 40 operas in italian but lived most of his Lite in London and unveiled his mess a in Dublin lies burned in Westminster Abbey Cheek by jowl As one biographer put it Wilh Charles Dickens that other great custodian of the Christmas spirit vinegary old Horace Walpole an Asl ulc observer of the georgian scene had a Bleak vision of eternity after witnessing the effect of Handel s surging anthems on a London audience for my part they give me an idea of heaven where everybody is to sing whether they have a voice or not " enormous orchestras and choruses numbering into the thousands have Over the years rendered a Christmas message of the More the merrier in booming out Handel s Majestic oratorio which actually was composed As a solemn penitential drama for the lenten season the custom of performing Messiah Al Christmas really look hold in America pointed out English conductor Christopher Hogwood artistic director of Iho Handel and Haydn society in Boston which poured Forth Iho joyous hallelujah chorus Al its very first concert on Christmas eve in 1815 Boston s seasonal Observance of Handel s explosive Genius has continued Down to this Day gripping audiences the Way it did Ralph Waldo Emerson who on the night before Christmas in 1843 Tirol heard the rapturous chorus wonderful counsellor afterwards he was moved to write i walked in the Bright paths of sound and liked it Best when the Long continuance of a chorus had made the ear sensible to the music made it As if there was none then i was quite solitary and Al ease in the melodious ii took Handel Only 24 Days from aug 22 to sept 12 in 1741. To create the entire melodious uproar that has echoed Over since Down the vault of time and in great cathedrals concert Halls and College gyms around the world. Beethoven regarded Handel As the greatest composer that Ever lived and in reverence to his Wesson would Kneel Down at his Gluck opened his eyes every morning Loa full length portrait of the portly be wigged Handel hanging Al the foot of his bed. When he chooses said an adoring Mozart. He strikes like legend has it that Handel wrestling with his soul and the mess Art manuscript in his locked London study alternated Between weeping and praying barely touching the food his servant left at Ifie door. Finally he burst Forth emotionally spent exclaiming i did think i did see All heaven before me and the great god piety undoubtedly was the wellspring of his imagination but Handel was also a shrewd impresario who staged his own operas and concerts and controlled the Sale of tickets from his hat on Brook Street. He turned to composing oratorios sacred dramas As a Way of filling the opera houses and music Halls during the lenten season when the Stern anglican Bishops sitting in the House of lords and his majesty s inspector of state plays banned frivolous entertainment. Even to Messiah provoked moral outrage. The libretto written in English by Charles Jennens consisted almost entirely of lines taken from the Bible. Pious clerics and righteous journalists were shocked to hear the very word of god Sung in a playhouse by healer Folk opera divas with lascivious and immoral reputations castrati singers and other Low Handel premiered his Messiah in Dublin where churchgoers were thought to be More Liberal but Jonathan swill the dour Dean of St Patrick s Cathedral at first irascible forbade his choristers and singing vicars to participate in the performance Al to new music Hall on Fis Hamble Street. He called on his sub Dean and chapter Heads to punish such vicars As shall Ever appear there As songsters fiddlers pipers trumpeters Summers drum majors or in any sonar Quality according to the lag Itous aggravations of their respective disobedience rebellion perfidy and but after that fortissimo blast worthy of Maestro Handel himself the great satirist relented. Messiah made its debut on april 13,1742. And was judged in the Dublin press "10 be the finest composition of Musick that Ever was Vandelean Hogwood who has conducted Messiah in Many parts of the world remarked in an interview that for audiences today its soaring raptures Are a religious experience quite like going to ironically for years the oratorio was scorned by Many As blasphemous and in his lifetime Handel Only once heard it performed on consecrated premises. At the Centenary of the composer s birth celebrated a year too Early in 1784, a Messiah recital in Westminster Abbey brought Down clerical thunderbolts. The Rev. John Newlon urged on by his lodger the poet William Cowper preached and published an indignant fifty sermons on Handel s from the very beginning Messiah inspired a spirit of giving tvs Dublin debut raised funds As the posters proclaimed for the Relief of the prisoners in several gaols the support Al Mercer s Hospital in Stephen St. And of the charitable infirmary on the inn s some 400 pounds was raised and purchased the immediate release of 142 prisoners languishing in Ireland s wretched debtors prisons. During the remaining 17 years of his life even As approaching blindness kept him irom seeing beyond the first tier of players Handel annually conducted Messiah Tor the London foundling Hospital which he served As governor. As Cha Les Gurney the acid tongued musical historian of that age tartly observed Handel s masterpiece leu the hungry clothed the naked fostered Iho orphan and enriched succeeding managers of oratorios More than any single musical production in this or any the charitable Ira Dilion quickly crossed the Ocean. Bostonian in 1784 subscribed to a concert of sacred Musick including jubilant extracts from Messiah Lor the Relief of the poor prisoners confined in the jail of this town and a year later to a spiritual concert or those among us who have known better Handel s original score called for a modest choir of 26 boy voices and a siring orchestra accompanied by a single Solo on the turn pc. Alas he himself led the Way toward the humongous orchestrations that have made Messiah a Triumph of Man s production for subsequent foundling Hospital performances he beefed up the chorus and soon was adding oboes bassoons More trumpets and borrowing huge double Kettle Drums from the ordnance keeper at the Tower of London. There was no stopping now. Within two decades of his death in 1759, More than 800 performers were arrayed before the great Organ in Westminster Abbey for a Messiah concert. Like beatlemania in later generations hande mania spread throughout the land Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday d
