Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

===18th century===
[[File:Messiah-Westminster-Abbey-1787.jpg|thumb|right|1787 advertisement for ''Messiah'' at [[Westminster Abbey]] with 800 performers]]
During the 1750s  ''Messiah'' was performed increasingly at festivals and cathedrals throughout the country.<ref>Shaw, pp. 55–61</ref> Individual choruses and arias were occasionally extracted for use as anthems or [[motet]]s in church services, or as concert pieces, a practice that grew in the 19th century and has continued ever since.<ref>Burrows (1991), p. 49</ref> After Handel's death, performances were given in [[Florence]] (1768), New York (excerpts, 1770), [[Hamburg]] (1772), and [[Mannheim]] (1777), where [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] first heard it.<ref name=chron>{{cite web|last1=Leissa|first1=Brad|last2=Vickers|first2=David|url= http://www.gfhandel.org/handel/chron.html|title= Chronology of George Frideric Handel's Life, Compositions, and his Times: 1760 and Beyond|website=GFHandel.org|access-date= 20 May 2011|archive-date= 2 July 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150702033736/http://www.gfhandel.org/handel/chron.html|url-status= live}}</ref> For the performances in Handel's lifetime and in the decades following his death, the musical forces used in the Foundling Hospital performance of 1754 are thought by Burrows to be typical.<ref>Burrows (1994), p. 304</ref> A fashion for large-scale performances began in 1784, in a series of commemorative concerts of Handel's music given in [[Westminster Abbey]] under the patronage of [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]]. A plaque on the Abbey wall records that "The Band consisting of DXXV [525] vocal & instrumental performers was conducted by [[Joah Bates]] Esqr."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/george-frederic-handel|title= History: George Frederic Handel|publisher= Westminster Abbey|access-date= 18 May 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170213044031/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/george-frederic-handel|archive-date= 13 February 2017|url-status= dead}}</ref> In a 1955 article, [[Malcolm Sargent|Sir Malcolm Sargent]], a proponent of large-scale performances, wrote, "Mr Bates&nbsp;... had known Handel well and respected his wishes. The orchestra employed was two hundred and fifty strong, including twelve horns, twelve trumpets, six [[trombone]]s and three pairs of timpani (some made especially large)."<ref name=sargent>{{cite magazine|authorlink= Malcolm Sargent|last= Sargent|first= Malcolm|url= http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/gramophone-launches-new-digital-archive-app|title= Messiah|magazine= [[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]|date= April 1955|page= 19|url-access= subscription|access-date= 23 February 2013|archive-date= 29 January 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130129082659/http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/gramophone-launches-new-digital-archive-app|url-status= live}}</ref> In 1787 further performances were given at the Abbey; advertisements promised, "The Band will consist of Eight Hundred Performers".<ref>{{cite news|title= Advertisement|newspaper=[[The Times|The Daily Universal Register]]|date= 30 May 1787|page=1}}</ref>

In continental Europe, performances of ''Messiah'' were departing from Handel's practices in a different way: his score was being drastically reorchestrated to suit contemporary tastes. In 1786, [[Johann Adam Hiller]] presented ''Messiah'' with updated scoring in [[Berlin Cathedral]].<ref name=hiller>{{cite journal|last= Shedlock|first= J. S.|title= Mozart, Handel, and Johann Adam Hiller|journal= [[The Musical Times]]|date= August 1918|volume= 59|issue= 906|pages= 370–371|jstor= 908906|doi= 10.2307/908906|url= https://zenodo.org/record/1450004|url-access= subscription|access-date= 30 June 2019|archive-date= 27 October 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201027145340/https://zenodo.org/record/1450004|url-status= live}}</ref> In 1788 Hiller presented a performance of his revision with a choir of 259 and an orchestra of 87 strings, 10 bassoons, 11 oboes, 8 [[flute]]s, 8 horns, 4 [[clarinet]]s, 4 trombones, 7 trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and [[pipe organ|organ]].<ref name=hiller/> In 1789, Mozart was commissioned by Baron [[Gottfried van Swieten]] and the {{lang|de|[[Gesellschaft der Associierten]]}} to re-orchestrate several works by Handel, including  ''Messiah'' (''[[Der Messias]]'').<ref>Steinberg, p. 152</ref>{{refn|Swieten provided Mozart with a London publication of Handel's original orchestration (published by Randal & Abell), as well as a German translation of the English libretto, compiled and created by [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock]] and [[Christoph Daniel Ebeling]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Holschneider|first=Andreas|author-link= Andreas Holschneider|title=Händel – Bearbeitungen: Der Messias, Kritische Berichte|journal=Neue Mozart Ausgabe, Series X, Werkgruppe 28, Band 2|publisher=Bärenreiter|location=Kassel|year=1962|pages=40–42}}</ref>|group= n}} Writing for a small-scale performance, he eliminated the organ continuo, added parts for flutes, clarinets, trombones and horns, recomposed some passages and rearranged others. The performance took place on 6 March 1789 in the rooms of Count Johann Esterházy, with four soloists and a choir of 12.<ref name=rl338>Robbins Landon, p. 338</ref>{{refn|A repeat performance was given in the [[Esterháza]] court on 7 April 1789,<ref>Steinberg, p. 150</ref> and between the year of Mozart's death (1791) and 1800, there were four known performances of Mozart's re-orchestrated ''Messiah'' in Vienna: 5 April 1795, 23 March 1799, 23 December 1799 and 24 December 1799.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Link|first=Dorthea|title=Vienna's Private Theatrical and Musical Life, 1783–92, as reported by Count Karl Zinzendork|journal=Journal of the Royal Musical Association|year=1997|volume=12|issue=2|page=209}}</ref>|group= n}} Mozart's arrangement, with minor amendments from Hiller, was published in 1803, after his death.{{refn|Hiller was long thought to have revised Mozart's scoring substantially before the score was printed. Ebenezer Prout pointed out that the edition was published as "F. G. {{sic}} Händels Oratorium Der Messias, nach W. A. Mozarts Bearbeitung" – "nach" meaning ''after'' rather than ''in'' Mozart's arrangement. Prout noted that a Mozart edition of another Handel work, ''[[Alexander's Feast (Handel)|Alexander's Feast]]'' published in accordance with Mozart's manuscript, was printed as "mit neuer Bearbeitung von W. A. Mozart" ("with new arrangement by W. A. Mozart)."<ref name=prout1/> When Mozart's original manuscript subsequently came to light it was found that Hiller's changes were not extensive.<ref>{{cite web|last= Towe|first= Teri Noel|url= http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/handel/messiah/mozart.php|title= George Frideric Handel – Messiah – Arranged by Mozart|publisher= Classical Net|year= 1996|access-date= 11 June 2011|archive-date= 3 June 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110603234719/http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/handel/messiah/mozart.php|url-status= live}}</ref>|group= n}} The musical scholar [[Moritz Hauptmann]] described the Mozart additions as "[[stucco]] ornaments on a marble temple".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Cummings|first= William H.|title= The Mutilation of a Masterpiece|journal= Proceedings of the Musical Association, 30th Session (1903–1904)|volume= 30|date= 10 May 1904|pages= 113–127|jstor= 765308|doi= 10.1093/jrma/30.1.113|url= https://zenodo.org/record/1853629|url-access= subscription|access-date= 30 June 2019|archive-date= 26 September 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200926001122/https://zenodo.org/record/1853629|url-status= live}}</ref> Mozart himself was reportedly circumspect about his changes, insisting that any alterations to Handel's score should not be interpreted as an effort to improve the music.<ref name=Kandell>{{cite magazine|last= Kandell|first= Jonathan|title= The Glorious History of Handel's Messiah|url= http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-glorious-history-of-handels-messiah-148168540|magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]|date= December 2009|publisher= The Smithsonian Institution|access-date= 18 May 2016|archive-date= 13 May 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160513135123/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-glorious-history-of-handels-messiah-148168540/|url-status= live}}</ref> Elements of this version later became familiar to British audiences, incorporated into editions of the score by editors including [[Ebenezer Prout]].<ref name=rl338/>