Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

===Overview===
[[File:Hallelujah score 1741.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The final bars of the ''Hallelujah'' chorus, from Handel's manuscript]]
Handel's music for ''Messiah''  is distinguished from most of his other oratorios by an orchestral restraint—a quality which the musicologist [[Percy M. Young]] observes was not adopted by Mozart and other later arrangers of the music.<ref name= Young63/> The work begins quietly, with instrumental and solo movements preceding the first appearance of the chorus, whose entry in the low alto register is muted.<ref name=Hog17>Hogwood, pp. 17–21</ref> A particular aspect of Handel's restraint is his limited use of trumpets throughout the work. After their introduction in the Part I chorus "Glory to God", apart from the solo in "The trumpet shall sound" they are heard only in ''Hallelujah'' and the final chorus "Worthy is the Lamb".<ref name= Young63>Young, p. 63</ref> It is this rarity, says Young, that makes these brass interpolations particularly effective: "Increase them and the thrill is diminished".<ref>Young, p. 64</ref> In  "Glory to God", Handel marked the entry of the trumpets as ''da lontano e un poco piano'', meaning "quietly, from afar"; his original intention had been to place the brass offstage (''in disparte'') at this point, to highlight the effect of distance.<ref name="B61"/><ref name= L93>Luckett, p. 93</ref> In this initial appearance the trumpets lack the expected drum accompaniment, "a deliberate withholding of effect, leaving something in reserve for Parts II and III"  according to Luckett.<ref>Luckett, p. 87</ref>

Although ''Messiah'' is not in any particular key, Handel's tonal scheme has been summarised by the musicologist [[Anthony Hicks]] as "an aspiration towards [[D major]]", the key musically associated with light and glory. As the oratorio moves forward with various shifts in key to reflect changes in mood, D major emerges at significant points, primarily the "trumpet" movements with their uplifting messages. It is the key in which the work reaches its triumphant ending.<ref name= H10>Hicks, pp. 10–11</ref> In the absence of a predominant key, other integrating elements have been proposed. For example, the musicologist [[Rudolf Steglich]] has suggested that Handel used the device of the "ascending [[Perfect fourth|fourth]]" as a unifying [[motif (music)|motif]]; this device most noticeably occurs in the first two notes of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" and on numerous other occasions. Nevertheless, Luckett finds this thesis implausible, and asserts that "the unity of ''Messiah'' is a consequence of nothing more arcane than the quality of Handel's attention to his text, and the consistency of his musical imagination".<ref name= L88>Luckett, pp. 88–89</ref> [[Allan Kozinn]], ''[[The New York Times]]'' music critic, finds "a model marriage of music and text&nbsp;... From the gentle falling melody assigned to the opening words ("Comfort ye") to the sheer ebullience of the ''Hallelujah'' chorus and the ornate celebratory counterpoint that supports the closing "Amen", hardly a line of text goes by that Handel does not amplify".<ref>{{cite news|author-link= Allan Kozinn|last= Kozinn|first= Allan|title= Messiah Mavens Find that its Ambiguities Reward All Comers|newspaper= [[The New York Times]]|date= 24 December 1997|page=E10}}</ref>