[Announce] Program and notes for the concert at Epiphany this Second Sunday of Easter

[Robert Waldrop]

Organ and Choir at Epiphany
The Second Sunday of Easter, AD 2009
April 19, 2009
Potluck at 5 PM, Concert at 615 PM
7336 W. Britton Road, Oklahoma City

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the death of George F. Handel, and commemorating the 25th anniversary of the installation of the pipe organ at Epiphany.

Robert Waldrop, Director of Music and Organist
Mary Freeh, Assistant Director of Music and Conductor of the Choir
Epiphany Strings, Jennifer Winningham concertmaster



For those who can't be here. . . here is the musical program and a little essay I wrote, "Handel and Messiah" for the printed program.
Preludium

Organ Concerto in F major, Op 4 No 5

First performance: 26 March 1735: London, Covent Garden Theatre, at the revival of "Deborah". 

Selections from

Handel's Messiah

Part 1: The prophesy and realization of God's plan to redeem mankind by the coming of the Messiah 


Overture (Organ) Robert Waldrop

Recitative (Tenor) Mike Hoehner

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplish'd, that her Iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40 : 1-3) 

Aria (Tenor) Mike Hoehner

Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. (Isaiah.40: 4)

Chorus

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40 : 5)

Recitative (Soprano) Mary Freeh

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. (Isaiah 35 : 5-6)

Aria (Soprano) Mary Freeh

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40 : 11) Come unto Him, all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, an He will give you rest. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matthew 11 : 28-29)

Interludium

Organ Concerto in G minor, Op 4 No 3

First performance: 5 March 1735: London, Covent Garden Theatre, with the oratorio "Esther". Closely based on the Trio Sonata in G minor, Op 2 No 5. 

Part II: The accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of Jesus, mankind's rejection of God's offer, and mankind's utter defeat when trying to oppose the power of the Almighty 

Chorus

Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1 : 29) 

Air (Alto) Chris Freeh

He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53 : 3)

Chorus

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. (Isaiah 53 : 4-5) 

Chorus

And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53 : 5) 

Air (Bass) Bruce Saunkeah

Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; yea, even from Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. (Psalms 68 : 18)

Benedictio

The organ will be blessed and rededicated to the service of the people of God.

Part Three: A hymn of thanksgiving for the final overthrow of death.


Air (Soprano) Jennifer Cunningham

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19 : 25-26) For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. (I Corinthians 15 : 20) 

Chorus

Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Corinthians 15 : 21-22) 

Recitative (Bass) Michael Ross

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (I Corinthians 15 : 51-52) 

Air (Bass) Michael Ross, with Jeff Hoffman (Trumpet)

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (I Corinthians 15 : 52) 

Chorus

Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19 : 6) The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11 : 15) King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19 : 16) Hallelujah!

The parish musicians wish to express their appreciation to the clergy, staff, & parishioners of Epiphany for their generous support of the parish musical ministries.

Handel and Messiah

George Friderick Handel was born February 23, 1685, in Halle, one of the many German principalities of the era. That year saw the birth of three of the all-time "greats" of Baroque music - Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friderick Handel in Germany, and Dominico Scarlatti in Italy. His father was a barber-surgeon, who originally wanted his son to be a lawyer, but later allowed him to study music. He received his first professional appointment at age 17 as the organist at the Calvinist Cathedral. In 1704, he went to Italy, where he spent several years studying, performing, and composing in Rome, Naples, Italy, and Florence, in both Italian and Latin. In 1710 he returned to Germany, but left almost immediately for England, where he lived for the rest of his life. Over the next twenty years, Handel wrote and produced numerous operas, and received many commissions from the Crown and other nobility, including music that is used to this day at coronation ceremonies for the kings and queens of England. In the 1730s, while still continuing to compose operas, he turned more and more to the oratorio and concertos. 

Handel did a lot of charitable work, many of the Messiah performances were benefits for orphanages. He was one of the founders of the Society for the Support of Decayed Musicians (now known as the Royal Society for Musicians), which supported impoverished elderly musicians and their widows and orphans. 

On the July 10, 1741, Charles Jennens, author of the libretto for Messiah, wrote to a friend: "Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope I shall persuade him to set another Scripture Collection I have made for him, & perform it for his own Benefit in Passion week. I hope he will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah." The text is drawn from the King James version of the Bible.

And so it came to pass that on the 22nd of August, 1741, Handel took pen in hand and began to compose the Messiah. He completed his work on September 14 -- only 24 days to finish perhaps the greatest work in the English choral literature. After completing the Hallelujah Chorus, he is reported to have exclaimed to his house-servant - "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with his Company of Angels."

The Messiah premiered during Lent 1742 in Dublin, Ireland, with Handel at the harpsichord and orchestra, chorus, and soloists. Here is the printed announcement of that event: "For the Relief of the Prisoners in the several Gaols, and for the Support of Mercer's Hospital in Stephen's Street and of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inns Quay, on Monday the 12th of April [recte April 13], will be performed at the Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Mr. Handel's new Grand Oratorio, call'd the MESSIAH, in which the Gentlemen of the Choirs of both Cathedrals will assist, with some Concertoes on the Organ, by Mr Handell." In anticipation of a huge turnout, the following notice was posted: "The Stewards of the Charitable Music Society request the Favour of the Ladies not to come with Hoops this Day to the Musick-Hall in Fishamble Street : The Gentlemen are desired to come without their Swords."

About that premier, the librettist Jennens had this to say in a letter of December 2nd: "I heard with great pleasure at my arrival in Town, that Handel had set the Oratorio of Messiah; but it was some mortification for me to hear that instead of performing it here he was gone into Ireland with it. However I hope we shall hear it when he comes back." 

The London premiere was March 23, 1743, and Handel presented it each year thereafter in London, often to benefit charity. Handel continued to work on and revise the Messiah for most of his life, adjusting and transposing arias to suit the capabilities of the singers available for a given performance, but the work remains substantially as he completed it in 1741..

In the last years of his life, Handel was blind. From an account first published in 1799: "When John Christopher Smith (1712-1795; Handel's assistant) played the organ at the Theatre, during the first year of Handel's blindness, Samson was performed, and (the tenor John) Beard sang, with great feeling, 'Total eclipse - no sun, no moon - All dark, amidst the blaze of noon.' The recollection that Handel has set this air to music, with the view of the blind composer then sitting by the organ, affected the audience so forcibly, that many persons present were moved even to tears. (William Coxe, Anecdotes of G.F. Handel and J.C. Smith, p. 45, 1799) Handel died April 14, 1759, at home in London, and was buried on April 20, 1759 in Westminster Abbey. 

The first performance of the Messiah in the US was not until after Handel's death, on Jan 16, 1770, when "George Burn's Music Room in the New York City Tavern" presented a selection of the arias and choruses of the Messiah. . As reported by the 'New York Journal': ".A SACRED ORATORIO, on the Prophecies concerning CHRIST, and his Coming: being an Extract from the late Mr. Handel's Grand Oratorio, called the MESSIAH, consisting of the Ouverture, and sixteen other Pieces, viz, Airs, Recitatives, and Choruses. Never performed in America." The first full performance of the entire Messiah in the United States was on Christmas day in 1818, at Boylston Hall in Boston. By Robert Waldrop, who celebrates this year the 50th anniversary of his first piano lesson.

Quotes of Handel's contemporaries are from www.gfhandel.org, a collaborative work of Handel musicologists, now sponsored by the Handel Institute. Handel historical information from the same source, the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, and Wikipedia.
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