The most famous C&E oratorio

Virtually all Anglicans know Handel’s most famous sacred work — which is probably the most famous long-form sacred work ever written in English. Most would know the three parts — first with OT prophesy of a Messiah and his birth in 1st century Judea, the second with Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and the third focusing on the second coming.

In a Friday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal — in the weekly “Houses of Worship” feature — assistant WSJ editorial page writer (and Hillsdale alumna) Nicole Ault laments the scarcity of Eastertide performances of what instead has become a staple of the Christmas season. The work was originally performed April 13, 1742 during Eastertide, and its librettist thought it ideally suited for Holy Week.

She spotlights the enduring power of the text by English librettist Charles Jennens:

A devout Anglican, Jennens wrote “Messiah” in part to battle the deists of his age, who posited a distant God but not a Savior. As rationalists, they put no stock in things of faith like resurrection from the dead. “ ‘Messiah,’ with its insistence on God’s free . . . gift of his Son, on the historical fact of the Incarnation and the supernatural fact of Redemption, was an assertion of everything that the Deists sought to deny,” writes Richard Luckett in his 1992 book, Handel’s Messiah: A Celebration.

Ault closes her column with a tribute to the witness the final part that this libretto offers to the promise of the Resurrection:

But besides testifying to facts that require faith, “Messiah” also bears witness to a hope that results from that faith. The feeling is personal: “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” sings the soprano in one of the work’s sweetest solos, “yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

It is also unassailable. Easter seals the promise of eternal life, revealed at Christmas but unfulfilled except through death and resurrection. Thus, quoting the apostle Paul, “Messiah” can say what is ours to proclaim as well: “O death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?”

Luke 2 in popular culture, 1700-2015

The Gospel according to St. Luke bears powerful witness to the coming of Our Savior into this world more than 2,000 years ago. Certain passages — such as the Annunciation — provide a unique perspective on how and why the Christ child came into the world.

In the very first (1549) Book of Common Prayer, the gospel reading for Christmas Day was Luke 2:1-14. In the 1928 (US) Book of Common Prayer, this passage is assigned for the earlier of the two services — typically Christmas Eve — with John 1:1-14 for the later service.

Although the 2016 ACNA lectionary has a three year cycle — with separate readings for Years A,B,C — at Christmas it uses the same readings every year. It allows for three possible Christmas services — with different psalms and Isaiah readings at teach — but assigns Luke for Christmas I and II (nowadays afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve) and John for Christmas III (Christmas Day). In the RCL, there are three services and Luke 2:1-14 is assigned for the first.

Authorized Version (1611)

The 1549 BCP used the Tyndale translations of the Gospels, but the version most often used is from the King James Version (“Authorized Version” in England).

The initial verses of Luke 2 explain how it is that Mary and Joseph end up in Bethlehem, and end with Jesus being laid in the manger. The passage beginning with verse 8 — which explains the appearance of the angel to the shepherds — appears to have been the often quoted over the next 400 years.

In the KJV, Luke 2:8-14 reads:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (1700)

In 1700, Irish poet Nahum Tate (1652-1715) published a collection of sacred poems that included one derived from Luke 2: 8-14. Here is the version of the poem that appeared in Hymnal 1916:

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

"Fear not," said he, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind;
"Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind.

"To you, in David's town, this day
Is born of David's line,
The Savior, who is Christ the Lord;
And this shall be the sign:

"The heavenly Babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid."

Thus spake the seraph, and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

"All glory be to God on high
And on the earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease."

Today, this hymn is most often sung to to Winchester Old, taken from a 1592 psalm book. Hymnal 1940 (13.1) includes all six verses, although 4 and 5 seem less often sung.

Handel’s Messiah (1741)

In 1712, the Lutheran Kapellmeister Georg Friedrich Händel to London. Thirty years later, in Dublin he premiered his most famous work, a sacred oratorio with a text taken straight from the Authorized Version.

Thanks to many years of singing and listening to the Messiah, I have memorized most of Luke 2:8-14 — skipping only verse 12 which Handle omits from his libretto:

14a. Recitative (Soprano): There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

14b. Accompagnato (Soprano): And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

15. Recitative (Soprano): And the angel said unto them: "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

16. Accompagnato (Soprano): And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying:

17. Chorus: "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will towards men."

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

This Emmy-winning animated special — based on the characters of the Peanuts comic strip — was a favorite of my childhood, and even more of for younger sister as it played in reruns every December. (I also am reminded of it every year when I listen to the Vince Guraldi Trio jazz score as part of my Christmas music playlist.)

Charlie Brown is struggling with the meaning of Christmas, while his younger friend — philosopher Linus van Pelt — tries to help him understand. In climatic scene at the school Christmas concert, a frustrated Charlie Brown asks “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”

In response, Linus takes the stage and reads Luke 2:8-14 from the Authorized Version.


A Charlie Brown Christmas (2015)

Fast forward 50 years. The special is for many an iconic symbol of the Christmas season, both to watch on TV and to re-enact in children’s Christmas pageants. At the same time, America has become far less Christian than it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In 2015, the superintendent of a rural Kentucky school district forbade the local elementary school from re-enacting Linus' most famous monologue. Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) protested this censorship, and the Alliance Defending freedom (a nonprofit law firm focusing on religious liberty) tried to convince the district to change their position — but to no avail. Instead, the audience on their own chose to read the deleted passage.

Singing the praises of Issues Etc.

As noted in earlier postings, I’m been a big fan of Issues Etc. It’s played a tremendous role in acquainting me with Lutheran theology and also the efforts of traditionalist Christians to push back against a secular culture.

The LCMS radio show hosted by Todd Wilken has done shows on specific hymns and more broadly on the role of music in liturgy in 2008 and 2007.

However, in catching up on some broadcasts earlier this year, I want to call attention to two shows on famous German Lutheran church musicians

• July 28, 2009: J.S. Bach, interview with Rev. Paul McCain (a LCMS blogger, pastor and publishing exec)
• May 15, 2009, Georg Friedrich Händel — specifically the most famous English-language religious oratorio of all time — discussed by Dr. Joseph Herl of Concordia University Nebraska

Time does not permit me to summarize the two shows, but I commend them to those interested in religious music — available either via the links above, the archive webpage or iTunes podcasts.

Bach, Beethoven and Brahms

As one of several projects posting out-of-copyright books on music, Project Gutenberg has posted an 1886 book Standard Oratorios. To quote from the preface:

The main object has been to present to the reader a comprehensive sketch of the oratorios which may be called "standard," outlining the sacred stories which they tell, and briefly indicating and sketching their principal numbers, accompanied in each case with a short biography of the composer and such historical matter connected with the various works as is of special interest....

[T]he work has been prepared for the general public rather than for musicians, and as far as practicable, technical terms have been avoided. Description, not criticism, has been the purpose of the volume, and the various works are described as fully as the necessarily brief space allotted to each would allow. The utmost pains have been taken to secure historical and chronological accuracy, inasmuch as these details are nearly always matters of controversy.

The book talks about three Bach pieces (including my favorite piece of religious work, the Matthew Passion) and Beethoven’s Mount of Olives. It also talks about requiems by Berlioz, Brahms, Mozart and Verdi, as well as multiple religious pieces by Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn.

The blog Hymnography Unbound focuses on the description of Handel’s Messiah provided by the book, which it calls “a delightfully chatty late-19th century ebook about the major oratorios.” Alas, outside the Messiah, few of the works are performed in churches, other than occasional excerpts of the requia as service music for the Mass.

Despite the century-long role of the Roman Catholic church as a musical sponsor, many of the oratorios have a distinctly Protestant origin. Bach is the world’s most famous Lutheran Kappelmeister. Both Handel and Mendelssohn composed in England, although the Messiah premiered in Ireland using choirs from the Church of Ireland.

For us Yanks, the book includes a fascinating 20 page epilog on “Sacred Music in America.”