2"i S. VII. April 9. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



289 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 9. 1889. 



Page 



No 171.— CONTENTS. 



Notes: — 



Handel's Messiah, how it was composed, by Dr. Gauntlett - ton 



Notes on Haudel, by W. H. Husk - - - - - 290 



Handel's Mode of Composing, by Alfred Roffe - - - 291 



Handeliana : — The Maeniflcat transferred in the Israel in Egypt 



— Handel's original MSS. _ Handel's Copyings, &c. - - 291 



The HandelJubilee, in 1781 - - - - - - 292 



Rubens's Pictures, by CI. Hopper - - - - - 293 



Fur Fraidestinatus, by Rev. J. E. B. Mayor - - - 294 



Minor Notks i — Bishops Hoadly and Sherlock — Weights and 



Measures — Addison and the White Horse, Kensington, &c. - 295 



QlTKRIES t — 



Unconsecrated Burial-grounds, by M. Saward - - - 296 



Minor Qoehiks : — Quevedo — Matthew Dodsworth, LL.D. — 



Editions of Harris's Ware — Sir T. Lawrence tlie Painter, &c. - 296 



Minor Queries with Answers : — Luff, the Mainstay Parting- 

 Accession Service, 1751-2— Gas— Gentleman, &c. - - - 298 



Rkplies ! — 



The Pliilological Society's Proposal, by Herbert Colridge - 299 



Weapon Salve, by Professor De Morgan . - . . 299 

 Dryden -----....301 



Bishop Barnabee. by Rev. E. S. Taylor - - - - 301 



The African Confessors, A. D. 484 - - - - - 302 



Culverkeys and Gandergrass, by Edward King - - - 303 



RErtiKSTo Minor QoERiEa:_Early Use of Coal — "Bellmn Gram- 



maticale" — Renovation in Old Age — Art of Memory, &c. - 303 



Notes on Books. &c. .---... 307 



HANDEl's MESSIAH, HOW IT WAS COMPOSED. 

 NO. I. 



Handel commenced the Messiah 22nd August, 

 1741, and finished the first part on the 28th. It 

 contains six choruses. The first, " 4/«Z ^Ae g-/or?/ 

 of the Lord," is a movement from an organ con- 

 certo in Bb . The second, " And he shall purify ,'' 

 is from a duet " E un for la vita" with a second 

 theme subjoined. The fourth, " For unto us," is 

 from a duet, " Nu, di voi non vubfidarmi" The 

 sixth, " His yoke is easy" is from a duet, " Quel 

 for cK all albaride." It was thus that Handel com- 

 menced setting to music the time-hallowed anthems 

 for Advent! To understand this we must recol- 

 lect Newburg Hamilton's description of the new 

 thing, an Oratorio. He writes (and no doubt 

 under the composer's direction), " Mr. Handel has 

 introduced a musical drama whose subject must 

 be scriptural, and in which the solemnity of church 

 music is agreeably united with the most pleasing 

 airs of the stage" 



Is it any wonder that the sturdy Nonjuror 

 Charles Jennens, the disciple of Collier, Nelson, 

 Bedford, and Hickes, thought Handel had not 

 done " near so good as he might and ought to have 

 done," and compelled him "to correct some of the 

 grossest faults in the composition," and com- 

 plained of passages "far unworthy of Handel, but 

 much more unworthy of the Messiah." Possibly 

 some day may turn up the memorandum asked 

 for by Handel from Jennens, " Be pleased to point 

 out those passages in the Messiah which you think 

 require altering." 



The operation of reproduction is fatal to deep 

 emotion ; and if Part 1. of the Messiah had been 

 left by the composer as he first penned it, and 

 Part II. had been written in the same spirit, the 



Messiah never would have proved the Messiah 

 of all England. But Handel had the rare power 

 of placing himself, at the instant, in any scene, to 

 fix on the right expression, and record it as if it 

 had been the burning purpose of his life. No 

 man reproduces recitatives. Look at the recita- 

 tive, " And the angel said unto them fear not ; for 

 behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which 

 shall be to all people ; for unto you is born this day, in 

 the city of Daind, a Saviour, which is Christ the 

 Lord." Reader, are you a professor of music ? 

 Play over the chain of sounds, shut up the book, 

 and try over what you have heard in another key. 

 How difficult is it to be simple, and yet combine 

 with it a feeling of the enormous power employed 

 in producing it! There are only nine bars, 

 but what truth, what faithfulness, what dignity, 

 what beauty, strength, facility, ingenuity, passion, 

 and judgment ! Depend upon it Charles Jen- 

 nens never objected to this. 



It must have been a grand sight to have wit- 

 nessed this noble creature, Solyman the Magni- 

 ficent as he was called, with the antiphons of the 

 old church in his hand (for the Messiah up to the 

 end of the Second Part is nothing more nor 

 less), fighting, expostulating, explaining, objur- 

 gating, coaxing, and soothing the great genius 

 " of old age and infirmity" (for so he is de- 

 scribed, although then only fifty-six years of 

 age), the man " of misfortunes and cruel persecu- 

 tion," whom the many tried " to injure and dis- 

 tress;" so much so that in this very year the public 

 were warned " to take care that he wants not," and 

 the veteran campaigner in the opera-house stand- 

 ing " obstinately " at bay, opposing one to whom 

 he "lay under great obligation," and who had 

 taken so much " generous concern in relation to 

 his affairs." Charles Jennens had saved him, I 

 doubt not, on a previous occasion by paying him 

 for the Israel in Egypt, and was now determined to 

 carry him through all opposition. It is not a little 

 singular to find thus linked together the great 

 Jacobite and a pensioner of the House of Han- 

 over. 



It was the overture Jennens so disliked, and of 

 which Burney says, it is "more dry and unin- 

 teresting than the rest of Handel's overtures." Of 

 course it is, for it has no relation to the Messiah. 

 It is an adagio like Lulli, and an allegro like 

 CoRELLi. But copying is corruption, and imita- 

 tion suicidal to speciality. The slow is not solemn, 

 and the definite fugue has no earnest intention. 

 Dr. Crotch says, " Handel did not exceed all others 

 in any particular style." Yes Handel did do so ; 

 but there was one thing in particular Handel could 

 not do : he could not put any deep or passionate 

 feeling in his music for instruments only. He is 

 altogether "earthy" in his organ music, and his 

 orchestra music never prompts a holy thought. 

 Dr. Burney compliments him that lie finishes the 



