Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

===Part III===
{{Main|Messiah Part III}}
[[File:Worthy-is-the-lamb.jpg|thumb|First page of the concluding chorus "Worthy is the Lamb": From Handel's original manuscript in the [[British Library]], London]]
The opening soprano solo in E major, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is one of the few numbers in the oratorio that has remained unrevised from its original form.<ref name= H26>Hogwood, pp. 26–28</ref> Its simple unison violin accompaniment and its consoling rhythms apparently brought tears to Burney's eyes.<ref name= L104>Luckett, pp. 104–106</ref> It is followed by a quiet chorus that leads to the bass's declamation in D major: "Behold, I tell you a mystery", then the long aria "The trumpet shall sound", marked ''{{lang|it|pomposo ma non-allegro}}'' ("dignified but not fast").<ref name= H26/> Handel originally wrote this in [[da capo]] form, but shortened it to [[dal segno]], probably before the first performance.<ref>Burrows (1991), p. 99</ref> The extended, characteristic trumpet tune that precedes and accompanies the voice is the only significant instrumental solo in the entire oratorio. Handel's awkward, repeated stressing of the fourth syllable of "incorruptible" may have been the source of the 18th-century poet [[William Shenstone]]'s comment that he "could observe some parts in ''Messiah'' wherein Handel's judgements failed him; where the music was not equal, or was even ''opposite'', to what the words required".<ref name= H26/><ref>Luckett, p. 191</ref> After a brief solo recitative, the alto is joined by the tenor for the only duet in Handel's final version of the music, "O death, where is thy sting?" The melody is adapted from Handel's 1722 cantata ''{{lang|it|Se tu non-lasci amore}}'', and is in Luckett's view the most successful of the Italian borrowings.<ref name= L104/> The duet runs straight into the chorus "But thanks be to God".<ref name= H26/>

The reflective soprano solo "If God be for us" (originally written for alto) quotes [[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s chorale ''{{lang|de|[[Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir|Aus tiefer Not]]}}''. It ushers in the D major choral finale: "Worthy is the Lamb", leading to the apocalyptic "Amen" in which, says Hogwood, "the entry of the trumpets marks the final storming of heaven".<ref name= H26/> Handel's first biographer, [[John Mainwaring]], wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the composer "rising still higher" than in "that vast effort of genius, the Hallelujah chorus".<ref name= L104/> Young writes that the "Amen" should, in the manner of [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], "be delivered as though through the aisles and ambulatories of some great church".<ref>Young, p. 45</ref>