Posted on 12/23/2020 7:46:19 AM PST by SkyPilot
George Frideric Handel was mainly a composer of operas. In fact, he composed dozens of them. Though his productions were popular in 18th century London, Handel had his enemies -- he was a foreigner, born in Germany, by many accounts not a very likeable fellow, and his rivals detested his style of opera.
He was also kind of a large, awkward man, rough and hot-tempered enough to earn the nickname "The Great Bear."
When his operas and his health began to fail, Handel sank into bankruptcy and despair, believing his career was over. In 1741, he was invited to Ireland to direct one of his works at a charity performance. Handel decided to write a new oratorio.
A deeply religious man, he turned away from the human foibles common to his operas and chose his text and themes from Scripture. It was then that something remarkable happened. He began composing with a super-human zeal and energy.
People thought he was mad, or even under a spell. One servant reported that Handel seldom ate or slept and worked with such frenzy that his fingers could no longer grip his pen. He was, in fact, in the grip of divine inspiration. The result is one of the world's great masterworks, Messiah.
Handel finished Part I in only six days. He finished Part II in nine days, and Part III in six days. The orchestration took him only a few days more. In other words, in all, two-and-a-half hours of the world's most magnificent music was composed in less than twenty-five days. When he finished, he sobbed: "I think that I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself!"
Immediately, from its premiere in Dublin in 1742, Messiah was pronounced a masterpiece.
(Excerpt) Read more at prophecynewswatch.com ...
ping to myself
Yup....I can even see the angels on the night of Jesus’ birth saying to the angelic director...hey let’s sing the Handel version of Glory to God that he’s going to write in 1741!
Lovers of truth usually are.
ff
Glory to God! Tremendous performance or a tremendous hymn. Been listening for over an hour. Cue in at 1:35:50 (that means one hour 35 min.) https://youtu.be/JH3T6YwwU9s?t=5754 for the famous chorus.
Bkmk. Thank you for posting.
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