Джордж Фрідріх Гендель - Ораторія «Месія», No. 44. Хор: Hallelujah
Джордж Фрідріх Гендель (1685 -
1759)
Він,
можливо, був сучасним Бахом, але Гендель і Бах навряд чи могли бути більш
різними. Занепокоєння Генделя є дуже людськими - справжніми, ниючими, сердечними - і він є майстром масових ефектів, зроблених
завдяки найбільш простої музичної мови. Але нехай вас не вводять в оману величні церемоніальні промови та ці широкі хори: вони можуть бути зворушливими та радісними. Так само, як і справжнього чоловіка можна знайти в любовних
піснях та аріях, які викликають пришвидшене серцебиття та змушують до морального вибору в його операх та ораторіях. Саме
його точність - знаходження точного музичного вираження почуттів - робить
Генделя, одним з найбільших
композиторів класичного періоду. Ніхто не міг поставити музичну паузу так, як він.
Послухайте Месію Генделя - ораторію, яка простежує історію Ісуса Христа і є
одним з найбільших хорових творів усіх часів.
«Месія» (англ. Messiah,
HWV 56, 1741) — ораторія для
солістів, хору і оркестру Георга Фрідріха
Генделя, одне з найвідоміших творів композитора. Назва твору
відсилає до християнського розуміння постаті Ісуса Христа як месії. Лібрето ораторії
було складено Чарльзом Дженненсом на біблійні тексти в
англійському перекладі, відомому як Біблія короля Якова.
Структура
Відомо, що
ораторія багаторазово виконувалась під орудою самого Генделя, при цьому автор
постійно вносив деякі зміни, виходячи з потреб конкретного виконання. Сьогодні
більшість колективів виконують 1912 року за редакцією Томаса Нобла третього. В
цій редакції ораторія поділяється на три частини, що мають 21, 23 та 9 номерів
відповідно. При цьому номера 1-18 першої частини, розглядаються як різдвяні
фрагменти, номери 19, 20 і 22 можна вважати перехідними, всі наступні, включно
з «Алилуєю», розглядаються як Великодні.
HALLELUJAH! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.
KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS, HALLELUJAH!
Алілуя, бо запанував Господь, наш Бог Вседержитель!
Перейшло панування над світом до Господа нашого та до Христа
Його, і Він зацарює на вічні віки!
Цар над царями, і Пан над панами.
George
Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)
He might have been Bach’s
exact contemporary, but Handel and Bach could hardly be more different. Handel’s concerns are
intensely human – real, aching hearts – and he is the master of massive effects
made through the most apparently simple musical language. But don’t be misled
by the grand ceremonial stuff and those vast choruses: they may be stirring and
joyous, but the real man is to be found in the love songs and arias that deal
with heartbreak and moral choice in his operas and oratorios. It is his
exactness – finding the precise musical expression of intensely felt and
isolated moments and feelings – that makes Handel, one of the greatest
classical composers, different. And nobody could place a musical pause quite
like him. Listen to Handel’s Messiah – an oratorio which traces the story of Jesus Christ
and is one of the greatest choral works of all time.
In
the orchestra world, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is
every bit an annual Christmas tradition as eggnog and overworked shopping mall
Santas.
In
the 2014-2015 season alone, 13 out of the 22 largest American orchestras
will perform the piece 38 times.
The Messiah oratorio
premiered in 1742 when the German-born Handel was the preeminent composer in
his adopted home of the United Kingdom. Handel’s name drew such a crowd that
audience members were advised to leave their hoop skirts and swords at home for
fear of overcrowding at the Messiah’s Dublin premiere.
But
as much of a tradition as Handel’s work has become, many modern audiences might
not know just how it came to be and how it came to dominate the Yule time
orchestra calendar.
1.
A lot of people thought itwas blasphemous
Given
the oratorio’s sacred subject matter and Handel’s note on his original
manuscript that read “To God alone the glory,” it’s hard to imagine that any
audience could have interpreted the music as anything less than devout.
However,
opera and classical composers were often the subject of moral outrage in the
1700s. During a 1727 performance of a Handel opera, two leading sopranos came
to blows onstage while the audience rooted them on. The incident led satirist
John Arbuthnot to write a pamphlet on the
absurdity of London’s opera world that included the line,
“Shame that two such well-bred ladies should call [each other] b---- and wh---,
should scold and fight.”
Handel’s
opera Esther also caused outrage from the Bishop of London when it
was performed by cathedral singers in 1732. When Handel moved from opera into
oratorio dealing with religious subject matter, many critics objected to the
idea of mixing the sacred and secular worlds where the same theater might host
religious subject matter one day and suggestive comedy the next.
Handel
hoped advertising the piece as “A Sacred Oratorio” instead of “Messiah” would
help defuse some of the controversy, and his decision to premiere the work in
Dublin instead of London was in part to try the work away from Anglican
bishops. But even in Ireland, Jonathan Swift of Gulliver’s Travels fame
threatened to publicly forbid singers from St. Patrick’s Cathedral from
participating.
2. It is not a Christmas piece
Librettist
Charles Jennens, who was a close friend and collaborator with Handel, used the
biblical stories of Jesus for the Messiah’s text. Jennens described
his work as “a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and
belief.”
But
only the first third of the work was about the birth of Jesus. The second act
covers the death of Jesus and the third focused on his resurrection. As such,
the piece was originally conceived as a work for Easter and was premiered in
the spring during the Lent season.
By
the 19th century, Messiah became a regular December staple
particularly in the United States. Laurence Cummings, conductor of the London
Handel Orchestra, told Smithsonian Magazine that
the Christmas performance custom may have partly come out of necessity.
"There
is so much fine Easter music — Bach's St. Matthew Passion, most especially —
and so little great sacral music written for Christmas," he said.
3. It was written incredibly fast
Handel
wrote the original version of Messiah in three to four weeks. Most
historic accounts estimate the composer spent only 24 days writing the
oratorio.
What
makes this even more astounding is the sheer scale of the 259-page score.
Richard Luckett, author of Handel’s Messiah: A Celebration, writes
that there are some uncorrected errors or blotted out notes but remarkably few
mistakes given the speed of Handel’s writing.
NPR
music commentator Miles Hoffman estimates there
are roughly a quarter of a million notes in Messiah. At a little more than
three weeks of 10-hour days, Hoffman said that means Handel would have had to
keep a continuous pace writing 15 notes a minute.
4. There is no definitive version
Leonard
Bernstein once raised eyebrows by reordering sections of Messiah for
a Carnegie Hall performance. Not many conductors would have the confidence to
tinker with the original intentions of a composer like Handel, but in reality
his original intentions are hard to guess.
Handel
rewrote parts of the oratorio to better meet the abilities of soloists and the
available instruments with each of the original 13 performances.
Historically, Messiah has continued to change with the ensembles that
perform it. Mozart re-orchestrated Messiah in 1789 and gave it
a more modern sound by
Classical orchestra standards. He humbly wrote than any alterations he made
should not be seen as an effort at improvement.
5. King George II stood during the
“Hallelujah” chorus… or maybe not
An
often repeated legend about Messiah tells the story of King George II
who was so moved by the “Hallelujah” chorus during the London
premiere of Messiah that he rose to his feet and then everyone in
attendance followed suit as not to be sitting when the king stood.
Thus
we believe the regularly debated tradition of standing during the “Hallelujah”
chorus came to be — also giving birth to countless passive-aggressive
battles of concert decorum between the sitters and standers.
However,
according to various experts, there is no truth to this story. In fact there is
no evidence King George II was even in attendance, and it is unlikely the
newspaper writers that were in the audience would have overlooked mentioning a
royal presence. The first reference to this story was a letter written 37 years
after the fact.
Just
where that leaves us in the annual stand-versus-sit showdown though is still
very much up for debate.
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