Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-02-01

Hstory and Meaning
d The Messiah
The history and meaning Of THE
Messiah which will be given by the
Watertown Choral Society next Tues
day evening. are set forth in an ar
ticle in the magazine OF the Apollo
Musical Club. of Chicago, which ID as
follows.
The Messiah was written by Han
del in the summer Of 1741. He began
the composition August I'D and COM
pleted it September 14th-in the in
~credibly short space of twenty-three
days. No other fact in the great COM
poser's life exhibits SO clearly his
genius as well as his power of con-
%centration. He was at that time fifty
six years of age, and had suffered
heavy financial losses in the
agement of an unsuccessful season of
Italian opera in London,-losses so
Igreat al to leave him bankrupt. In
this crisis he was invited by the lord
lieutenant of Ireland to visit Dublin
and present a series of musical enter
tainments. This he did very success
fully during the winter OF 1741s2,
closing the season on April 18th with
the presentation of his fnfw oraA
torio," which here received its initial
performance. The proceeds of the en-
tertainment were to be devoted to
prisoners for debt in Dublin jails. The
hall accommodated six hundred per-
sons, but the advertisement requested
the ladies to come without hoops and
the gentlemen without swords, thus
saving sufficient space to admit an
audience Of seven hundred. The fol-
lowing notice of the performance APP
peared in Faulkner's journal of April
18th:
ION Tuesday last Mr.. Handel's
Sacred Grand Oratoria, The Messiah,
was performed in the new music hall
in Fishamble Street. The best judges
4 allowed 1t to be the most finished
piece OF music. Words are wanting
to express the exquisite delight 1t af-
forded to the admiring crowded audi
ence. The sublime, the grand and the
tender, adapted to the most elevated,
majestic and moving words. CON
spired to transport and charm the
ravished heart and ear"
The Messiah was %presened thirty
four times during Handel's life, but
never on a scale at all commensurate
with its merit or with the composers
purpose, until in 1874 at the Handel
Commemoration in Westminster Alb
hey, twenty-five years after his death.
1T was then presented by the largest
body OF singers and musicians that
had ever, at that time, assembled
chorus of 267 voices and an orchestra
Of 242 instruments.
The theme of The Messiah is the
q foreshadowing, the advent, the SUI
ferings and the final triumph OF the
tlChrist.
The first part of the work voices thu
longing Of the word for its RedeemeT
beginning with the words OF Isaiah
aComfort We, my people, saith you.
Cod and ending in the birth 9
Christ, with the invitation to folloy
Him, "For His yoke is easy and Hi
burden is light.
The second part describes the sui
ferings of the Messiah f"Behold Ia
Lamb of God that taketh away the 81
Of the worldly, closing with his VII
tory over the grave. and ascension ].
1 to heaven, expressed in that creates
t of all choral numbers, the Halleluja
. Chorus (sHallelujah, for the Lord Go
Omnipotent Reigneth'@.
: The third part notes the effects {
Christ's sacrifice upon the world an
expresses the aspirations Of religion
faith, beginning with the famous ar
] for soprano, Il Know That My r
! deemer Lveth,' and closing with Il
j choral numbers, Worthy is the Lam
s That Was Slain, blessing and Ho
n or, Glory and Power Be Unto Him
! and the final Amen chorus. IN Whit
= slsntrammeled BY words, the co1npos
gives free rein to his intense religio'
y enthusiasm and presents q stupendo
d climax.
The Messiah represents Handel
d his best. 1t is not only g wonderf
Is product Of musical art i is also
'e expression of religious feeling ws
= nigh inspired. That Handel felt me
strongly this element in IT, is sho'
by his reply to Lord Kinorl, who GO
q plimented him upon the noble q