A Handle on Handel (Did you see that? Did you see what I did just there?)

So. I don't know if you have every composed a piece of music. But it usually takes a LONG time - at least even when played usually there is some part you feel that you could do better on. Imagine composing a host of music - a two-three hour-long symphony...and all in three weeks. And this is not just chord writing, or music for one instrument. We are talking four voice choir, plus four soloists, plus an ENTIRE orchestra!!! That is exactly how Handel's Messiah was composed: 24 days and one of the greatest classical masterpieces of all time. It is said that during this time he forgot to eat, and that the servants of the house could here his sobs as he wrote the music.

Messiah is composed in three parts
1) Advent and Christmas stories
2) The Passion, Resurrection & Ascension of Christ
3) Christ's return

Messiah begins with prophetic messages from the Old Testament.

Comfort Ye (tenor solo). Listen to the words of the prophet as spoken by the angel at Jesus' birth. God among me was not a source of fear but a source of Joy.

Handel does something called "text painting": where the musical notes mimic what the text is saying. (The most famous song being "Hallelujah Chorus": where the music expresses that Hallelujah by the way it is structured. Listen to the following songs with your eyes closed and see how the words are reflected in the music to which it is put. Listen to this idea in the following songs.

Every Valley (Tenor Solo)
And the Glory (Chorus)