Missing This Christmas

This Christmas was different. We were away from Jamaica, where we spent the last two festive seasons. This year, we were present with our three adult children and their families in South Florida. Our family reunions are like a kaleidoscope of ethnicities, cultures and noises.

Despite the memorable reunion, one of the things I missed this Christmas was hearing a live rendition of Handel’s Messiah. We long for a repeat of Christmas 2012, when we were among the 4,000 patrons to hear a rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah. Following the presentation I had to agree with one British newspaper, “It’s one of the greatest, uplifting life-changing pieces of music ever written.”

I understand that every hour, during the month of December, there is a performance of Handel’s Messiah somewhere in the world. Since the musical was premiered on April 13, 1742, the response around the world has been phenomenal. The only thing more phenomenal might be the story behind the music. 

On April 8, 1741, Handel gave what he considered his farewell concert. Miserably discouraged, he felt forced to retire from public activities at the age of fifty-six. Then, two unforeseen events converged to change his life. A wealthy friend, Charles Jensen, gave Handel a script based on the life of Christ, taken entirely from the Bible. Handel also received a commission from a Dublin charity to compose a work for a benefit performance.

With those opportunities in hand, Handel set to work composing on August 22, 1741, in his little house on Brook Street in London. He grew so absorbed in the work that he rarely left his room, hardly stopping to eat. Within six days part one was complete. In nine more days, he had finished part two, and in another six, part three. The orchestration was completed in another two days. In all, 260 pages of manuscript were filled in the remarkably short time of 24 days.

While writing Messiah, Handel was visited by a friend. The man found the composer sobbing as he was setting music to the words, “He was despised and rejected of men.”

The story is told of Handel’s servant/helper being frustrated because Handel hardly touched the food brought to him during the weeks of writing. The servant once again went into the room to bring food that he assumed would not be eaten when he was suddenly taken aback. “The startled composer, tears streaming down his face, turns to his servant and cries out, ‘I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.’ George Frédéric Handel had just finished writing a movement which would take its place in history as the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’”.

Messiah premiered on April 13, 1742 as a charitable benefit, raising 400 pounds and freeing 142 men from debtor’s prison. A year later, Handel staged it in London - the King of England attended the performance. As the first notes of the triumphant Hallelujah Chorus rang out, the king rose. Following the royal protocol, the entire audience stood too, initiating a tradition that has lasted two hundred and seventy-seven years.

It is believed that King George I was so moved by the sentiments expressed in the Hallelujah Chorus, and by the facts that if Christ is to reign, then all earthly monarchs are necessarily subordinate, that he rose to his feet, and the audience rose with him. Like King George I, many stood with us as the Chorus was sung in Nashville seven years ago.

Handel personally conducted more than thirty performances of Messiah. Many of these concerts were benefits for the Foundling Hospital, of which Handel was a major benefactor. The thousands of pounds that Handel’s performances of Messiah raised for charity led one biographer to note, "Messiah has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan . . . more than any other single musical production in this or any country." Another wrote, "Perhaps the works of no other composer have so largely contributed to the relief of human suffering."

Messiah is more than a display of Handel’s musical ability. Actually, before Messiah, Handel’s occasional commercial success soon met with financial disaster. He drove himself relentlessly to recover from one failure after another, and finally his health began to fail. By 1741 he was swimming in debt. It seemed certain he would land in debtor’s prison.

Then things changed - I believe the subject of Handel’s focus on the Messiah had a remarkable impression on him. A few days before he died, he expressed his desire to die on Good Friday, "in the hopes of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and Savior, on the day of his Resurrection." He lived until the morning of Good Saturday, April 14, 1759. His death came only eight days after his final performance, at which he had conducted his masterpiece, Messiah.

Do you know Handel’s Messiah? I don’t mean the musical, I mean Jesus Christ, the focus of Handel’s music. Just as the music, Jesus makes such a big difference in so many lives.