Editing Messiah (Handel) (section)

==Writing history==
===Libretto===
[[File:Charles Jennens23.jpg|thumb|upright|A portrait of [[Charles Jennens]] by [[Thomas Hudson (painter)|Thomas Hudson]] from around 1740; now in the [[Handel House Museum]]]]
Charles Jennens was born around 1700, into a prosperous landowning family whose lands and properties in [[Warwickshire]] and [[Leicestershire]] he eventually inherited.<ref name= MT-Jennens/> His religious and political views—he opposed the [[Act of Settlement 1701|Act of Settlement of 1701]] which secured the accession to the British throne for the [[House of Hanover]]—prevented him from receiving his degree from [[Balliol College, Oxford]], or from pursuing any form of public career. His family's wealth enabled him to live a life of leisure while devoting himself to his literary and musical interests.<ref>Burrows (1991), pp. 9–10</ref> Although musicologist [[Watkins Shaw]] dismisses Jennens as "a conceited figure of no special ability",<ref name= Shaw11/> Burrows has written: "of Jennens's musical literacy there can be no doubt". He was certainly devoted to Handel's music, having helped to finance the publication of every Handel score since ''[[Rodelinda (opera)|Rodelinda]]'' in 1725.<ref name= OMO2>{{cite web |last= Smith |first= Ruth|title= Jennens, Charles|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/14259?q=Charles+Jennens&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1|work= Grove Music Online|access-date= 16 June 2011|archive-date= 3 July 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200703055430/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000014259?_start=1&pos=1&q=Charles%20Jennens&search=quick|url-status= live}}(subscription)</ref> By 1741, after their collaboration on ''Saul'', a warm friendship had developed between the two, and Handel was a frequent visitor to the Jennens family estate at [[Gopsall]].<ref name= MT-Jennens>{{cite journal|title= Mr Charles Jennens: the Compiler of Handel's Messiah |journal= [[The Musical Times|The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular]] |volume= 43|issue= 717|date= 1 November 1902|pages= 726–727 |doi= 10.2307/3369540|jstor=3369540}}</ref>

Jennens's letter to Holdsworth of 10 July 1741, in which he first mentions ''Messiah'', suggests that the text was a recent work, probably assembled earlier that summer. As a devout [[Church of England|Anglican]] and believer in scriptural authority, Jennens intended to challenge advocates of [[Deism]], who rejected the doctrine of [[Divine providence|divine intervention]] in human affairs.<ref name= L76/> Shaw describes the text as "a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief", and despite his reservations on Jennens's character, concedes that the finished [[libretto|wordbook]] "amounts to little short of a work of genius".<ref name= Shaw11>Shaw, p. 11</ref> There is no evidence that Handel played any active role in the selection or preparation of the text, such as he did in the case of ''Saul''; it seems, rather, that he saw no need to make any significant amendment to Jennens's work.<ref name= B10>Burrows (1991), pp. 10–11</ref>

===Composition===
The music for ''Messiah'' was completed in 24 days of swift composition. Having received Jennens's text some time after 10 July 1741, Handel began work on it on 22 August. His records show that he had completed Part I in outline by 28 August, Part II by 6 September and Part III by 12 September, followed by two days of "filling up" to produce the finished work on 14 September. This rapid pace was seen by Jennens not as a sign of ecstatic energy but rather as "careless negligence", and the relations between the two men would remain strained, since Jennens "urged Handel to make improvements" while the composer stubbornly refused.<ref>Glover, p. 317</ref> The [[autograph (manuscript)|autograph]] score's 259 pages show some signs of haste such as blots, scratchings-out, unfilled [[bar (music)|bars]] and other uncorrected errors, but according to the music scholar Richard Luckett the number of errors is remarkably small in a document of this length.<ref name= L86>Luckett, p. 86</ref> The original manuscript for ''Messiah'' is now held in the [[British Library]]'s music collection.<ref>{{cite web|title= Messiah by George Frideric Handel|url= http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/hightours/handel/|publisher= British Library|access-date= 18 May 2016|archive-date= 3 July 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200703055343/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/Messiah-by-George-Frideric-Handel|url-status= live}}</ref> It is scored for two [[trumpet]]s, [[timpani]], two [[oboe]]s, two [[violin]]s, [[viola]], and [[basso continuo]].

At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—''{{lang|la|[[Soli Deo Gloria]]}}'', "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of [[divine inspiration]] in which, as he wrote the ''Hallelujah'' chorus, "He saw all heaven before him".<ref name= L86/> Burrows points out that many of Handel's operas of comparable length and structure to ''Messiah'' were composed within similar timescales between theatrical seasons. The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries; Handel commenced his next oratorio, ''Samson'', within a week of finishing ''Messiah'', and completed his draft of this new work in a month.<ref>Burrows (1991), pp. 8, 12</ref><ref>Shaw, p. 18</ref> In accordance with his practice when writing new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in ''Messiah'', in this case drawing on two recently completed Italian duets and one written twenty years previously. Thus, ''{{lang|it|Se tu non lasci amore}}'' HWV 193 from 1722 became the basis of "O Death, where is thy sting?"; "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" were drawn from ''{{lang|it|Quel fior che all'alba ride}}'' HWV 192 (July 1741), "Unto us a child is born" and "All we like sheep" from ''{{lang|it|Nò, di voi non vo' fidarmi}}'' HWV 189 (July 1741).<ref>Shaw, p. 13</ref><ref name= B61>Burrows (1991), pp. 61–62</ref> Handel's instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention, where the use of certain instruments and combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by the composer; later copyists would fill in the details.<ref>Shaw, pp. 22–23</ref>

Before the first performance Handel made numerous revisions to his manuscript score, in part to match the forces available for the 1742 Dublin premiere; it is probable that his work was not performed as originally conceived in his lifetime.<ref name= B22>Burrows (1991), p. 22</ref> Between 1742 and 1754 he continued to revise and recompose individual movements, sometimes to suit the requirements of particular singers.<ref name= B41/> The first published score of ''Messiah'' was issued in 1767, eight years after Handel's death, though this was based on relatively early manuscripts and included none of Handel's later revisions.<ref>Burrows (1991), p. 48</ref>