What is the relationship of the text to the texture chosen

Reference no: EM13540099

1. Although the oratorio sounds much like an opera, having recitatives and arias, it has no costumes, scenery, or dramatic action. Its subject matter is generally taken from stories in the Old Testament, stories of Samson, Daniel, Saul, and so on. It deals with sacred subjects but it is not a sacred work. It is nonliturgical.

2. Handel was an exact contemporary of Bach, but other than the fact they were both great composers, their lives were quite different. Handel was a world traveler, whereas Bach lived his entire life in a very small geographic region in Germany. Handel was quite interested in opera and oratorios, two genres that were not part of Bach’s catalogue. Handel was universally hailed as England’s finest composer, whereas Bach was highly regarded as a keyboard virtuoso (and a rather old-fashioned composer).

3. Messiah is not a typical oratorio. It has no characters and no narrator, two common features of the oratorio. The original orchestration was primarily for strings and continuo. Oboes and bassoons were used in choral sections, and trumpets and drums were reserved for special numbers. Today most performances have been reorchestrated for the modern orchestra and include flutes, clarinets, horns, and so on.

4. Spend some time with the “Hallelujah” chorus, pointing out the shifts from imitative polyphony to homophony. Some open-ended questions to ask are: Which parts are more exciting, the homophonic or the polyphonic? Why? What is the relationship of the text to the texture chosen by Handel?

Reference no: EM13540099

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