Messiah: The Composition and Afterlife of Handel's Masterpiece

by Jonathan Keates

Overview

From Handel's renowned biographer, the story of one of the most celebrated compositions of Western classical music, Handel's famous oratorio, Messiah

In the late summer of 1741, George Friderick Handel, composed an oratorio set to words from the King James Bible, rich in tuneful arias and magnificent choruses. Jonathan Keates recounts the history and afterlife of Messiah, one of the best-loved works in the classical repertoire. He relates the composition's first performances and its relationship with spirituality in the age of the Enlightenment, and examines how Messiah, after Handel's death, became an essential component of our musical canon.

An authoritative and affectionate celebration of the high-point of the Georgian golden age of music, Messiah is essential reading for lovers of classical music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541697355
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,168,703
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Keates is a distinguished and prize-winning biographer, novelist and travel writer, and author of the biographies Handel and Purcell. He is chairman of the Venice in Peril fund and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for his collection of short stories, Allegro Postillions (1983). Jonathan Keates is a regular contributor to the Observer (UK) and the Times Literary Supplement (UK) among a number of other publications.

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2017
Keates’s entertaining, fast-paced history of Messiah provides a glimpse into the dynamic character of the oratorio. Keates (Handel) reveals a restless George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) searching in the mid-18th century for new inspiration and new musical forms. His works for voice and orchestra, such as the adaptations of John Milton’s poetry in L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, demonstrated his mastery and inventiveness and broadened his audience beyond the operas for which he was already famous. Handel, according to Keates, single-handedly brought the English oratorio form into existence by featuring the chorus—not just individual soloists—as a key part of the musical drama. Messiah gains much of its power from the writing of librettist Charles Jennens, whose lyrics affirm the power of faith in God and Jesus as the savior of the world. Jensen’s libretto responds to the rationalism of the mid-18th century that was challenging this traditional understanding of the Christian faith. Handel wrote Messiah over three weeks in a burst of creativity in the fall of 1741, although he continued to revise the score over the next nine years. In the useful appendices, Keates includes the libretto of Messiah, as well as Jennens’s “scenic structure” for the oratorio. While Keates’s book lacks the detail of Michael Marissen’s Tainted Glory in Handel’s Messiah, it is nevertheless an illuminating, succinct introduction to Handel’s best-known work. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Delightful.... This richly illustrated book is like a lively performance of the piece itself.... Captures the essence of Handel's magic."—Wall Street Journal

"With its astute commentaries on the operas, this book makes a brilliantly lucid guide to Handel's evolving art."
—Independent (UK)

"Keates is an enthusiastic, serious and careful writer.... The author clearly knows what he is talking about, and illuminates what we thought we knew."
—Guardian (UK), Book of the Week

"However you like to hear your Messiah, you should enjoy it more for reading Keates's lucid guide...his analysis is taut and his narrative skillfully concise."
—Times (UK)

"One strength of Keates's book is the reminder that it is not only the music of Messiah that is extraordinary. So is the libretto, penned by Charles Jennens.... Keates's book does what it needs to do in awakening an urge to hear Handel's masterwork again, and now with a bit deeper understanding."—Christianity Today

The Deseret News
"Keates illuminates the biography of this famous oratorio.... Messiah's life story is one of humble beginnings, soaring successes, controversial adaptations, and eventual redemption, not unlike the scriptures from whence it came."—The Deseret News

From the Publisher