Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

===Part II===
{{Main|Messiah Part II}}
{{listen|image=none|help=no|filename=Handel - messiah - 23 he was despised.ogg|title='''No. 23.''' Air (''Alto''): ''He was despised''}}
The second Part begins in [[G minor]], a key which, in [[Christopher Hogwood]]'s phrase, brings a mood of "tragic presentiment" to the long sequence of Passion numbers which follows.<ref name= Hog22/> The declamatory opening chorus "Behold the Lamb of God", in [[fugue|fugal]] form, is followed by the alto solo "He was despised" in [[E-flat major]], the longest single item in the oratorio, in which some phrases are sung unaccompanied to emphasise Christ's abandonment.<ref name= Hog22/> Luckett records Burney's description of this number as "the highest idea of excellence in pathetic expression of any English song".<ref>Luckett, p. 95</ref> The subsequent series of mainly short choral movements cover Christ's Passion, Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection, at first in [[F minor]], with a brief F major respite in "All we like sheep". Here, Handel's use of ''Nò, di voi non-vo'fidarmi'' has Sedley Taylor's unqualified approval: "[Handel] bids the voices enter in solemn canonical sequence, and his chorus ends with a combination of grandeur and depth of feeling such as is at the command of consummate genius only".<ref>Taylor, pp. 42–43</ref>

The sense of desolation returns, in what Hogwood calls the "remote and barbarous" key of [[B-flat minor]], for the tenor recitative "All they that see him".<ref name= Hog22/><ref>Burrows (1991), p. 64</ref> The sombre sequence finally ends with the Ascension chorus "Lift up your heads", which Handel initially divides between two choral groups, the altos serving both as the bass line to a soprano choir and the treble line to the tenors and basses.<ref>Luckett, p. 97</ref> For the 1754 Foundling Hospital performance Handel added two horns, which join in when the chorus unites towards the end of the number.<ref name= Hog22/> After the celebratory tone of Christ's reception into heaven, marked by the choir's D major acclamation "Let all the angels of God worship him", the "[[Pentecost|Whitsun]]" section proceeds through a series of contrasting moods—serene and pastoral in "How beautiful are the feet", theatrically operatic in "Why do the nations so furiously rage"—towards the Part II culmination of [[Hallelujah]].

{{listen|image=none|help=no|filename=Handel - messiah - 44 hallelujah.ogg|title='''No. 44.''' Chorus: ''Hallelujah''}}
The ''Hallelujah'' chorus, as Young points out, is not the climactic chorus of the work, although one cannot escape its "contagious enthusiasm".<ref>Young, p. 42</ref> It builds from a deceptively light orchestral opening,<ref name= Hog22/> through a short, unison [[cantus firmus]] passage on the words "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (the theme based on the fugue theme from Corelli's "Fuga a Quattro Voci"), to the reappearance of the long-silent trumpets at "And He shall reign for ever and ever". Commentators have noted that the musical line for this third subject is based on ''[[Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme|Wachet auf]]'', Philipp Nicolai's popular [[Lutheran chorale]].<ref name= Hog22/><ref>Luckett, pp. 102–104</ref>