The Messiah (Handel, arr.Mozart)

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Baron van Swieten, who arranged for the arrangement of Handel's music by Mozart

The Messiah , KV 572, is an arrangement made by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1789 of Handel's oratorio Messiah . His version is based on a German text and uses an orchestra in which wind instruments are used differently than in Handel's baroque work, which premiered in Dublin in 1742. Mozart wrote the version on the initiative of Gottfried van Swieten for several performances in front of invited guests in Viennese aristocratic houses. Although his version was only intended for these performances, it was published in 1803, twelve years after Mozart's death. It appeared in a critical edition in the New Mozart Edition in 1961and is still played today.

Handel's oratorio

Handel set to music an English libretto that Charles Jennens had compiled from biblical passages, mostly using texts from the Old Testament . The structure of the oratorio follows the church year. Part I covers Advent , Christmas , and the life of Jesus. Part II focuses on the Passion , followed by Easter , Ascension and Pentecost . Part III is devoted to the end of the church year with a view to death and resurrection. The birth and death of the Messiah are represented by Isaiah's prophecies . The only scene in the oratorio is the Annunciation to the Shepherds from the Gospel of Luke. Images of sheep and shepherds run through the text.

For the musical interpretation of the text Handel used the same means as in his operas and other oratorios: solo and choral singing. Only two movements are purely instrumental. Handel used four voices, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , both in solo recitatives and arias and in the choir. The soprano is only divided in one choral movement, otherwise the choir sings in four voices. The solos are often a combination of recitative and aria for the same pitch. Handel used both polyphony and homophony to interpret the texts.

Mozart's arrangement

history

Mozart had probably heard Handel's Messiah when he was nine in London in 1764/65 and again in Mannheim when he stopped there in 1777 on his way to Paris. The first performance of the work in Germany was in Hamburg in 1772 . Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach conducted the first German performance there in 1775. The translation was created by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Christoph Daniel Ebeling and refined for further performances.

Mozart arranged Handel's Messiah as well as other of his works for academies, i.e. performances for invited guests in the houses of Viennese aristocrats. They were organized by Gottfried van Swieten , who founded the Society of Associates for this purpose . Mozart played a keyboard instrument in company concerts, for example for an arrangement of Handel's Judas Maccabäus by the court theater composer Josef Starzer . In 1788 Mozart became director of the concerts and arranged Handel's Acis and Galatea , followed by Messiah in 1789, and the following year the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day ( Cäcilienode ) and Alexander's Feast ( The Alexander Festival ). Van Swieten owned an edition of Handel's Messiah that had been printed by Randall and Abel in 1769. Two copyists took over the sequence of movements for Mozart with the tempo and dynamic markings, the vocal parts and the strings, and left space for the insertion of further parts.

Palais Paar in Vienna

The rehearsals took place in van Swieten's house. The Messiah was performed on March 6 and 7, 1789 by Count Johann Esterházy with Mozart at the fortepiano and twelve choir singers. The soloists were Mozart's sister-in-law Aloisia Lange , Katharina von Altomonte, Josef Valentin Adamberger and Ignaz Saal . The concert was repeated with Johann Wenzel Paar and given two more times around Christmas of the year in Prince Schwarzenberg's Winter Palace.

Mozart did not plan to publish his version for these performances. It was printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1803, 12 years after his death . The editor Friedrich Rochlitz used a different text, a mixed version of the translation by Klopstock-Ebeling and a translation by Johann Adam Hiller . Rochlitz paid tribute to Mozart's achievement in an announcement of the publication in the Allgemeine musical Zeitung : “With the utmost delicacy he did not touch anything that was beyond the stamp of its time ... The choirs are very relaxed, as Handel wrote, and only gently to and fro again reinforced by wind instruments. ”The first Urtext edition appeared in 1961 as part of the New Mozart Edition .

Text and music

Mozart had a translation by Klopstock and Ebeling that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach had already used. It was partially changed, probably by van Swieten.

As in his Great Mass in C minor, Mozart wrote for two solo sopranos, while Handel had used soprano and alto. Sometimes Mozart assigned choir parts to the soloists and he changed the pitch of some recitatives and arias. He shortened the music by not taking over a few movements and only singing the main part of a da capo aria . He replaced the last aria with a recitative and met Van Swieten's approval, who wrote to him: “Your idea of ​​putting the text of the cold aria into a recitative is excellent ... Anyone who can dress Handel so solemnly and tastefully that on the one hand he also likes the fashionable, and on the other hand he always shows himself in his sublimity, he has felt his worth, he has come to the source of his expression, and can and will draw from it ”.

Mozart used a symphony orchestra of his time, just as Handel used a baroque orchestra, with Handel also adapting his works to the musicians available. Mozart's orchestra consists of two flutes with piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , three trombones , two trumpets, timpani , strings and a keyboard instrument . Mozart made more use of wind instruments ( harmony ) and used certain instruments to give individual movements a special color. Mozart used clarinets, which only found their way into the orchestra in his day. He gave oboes and bassoons independent voices, while Handel used the oboes only to double the voices and the bassoon as part of the continuo . In some choral movements, Mozart had a wind instrument support the soprano colla parte , while a choir of three trombones played the lower voices. In the baroque era, the trumpet was a symbol of secular and divine power and was played by virtuosos. Mozart, however, had no trumpeter available in Vienna who could have played the part. Handel had used a trumpet for the aria about the Last Judgment , corresponding to the English text The trumpet shall sound . In German it says “Sie schallt, die Trosaun '”, and after several attempts Mozart decided on the horn. Mozart presumably used the fortepiano as a continuo keyboard instrument in recitatives, since there was usually no organ available in private houses.

construction

The following tables are based on the numbering of the Urtext edition of the New Mozart Edition (NMA) from 1989. The third column contains the corresponding number (s) of the Halle Handel Edition (HHA) of Handel's Messiah . Mozart used Italian names, Overtura for the overture , Recitativo (Rec.) For a secco recitative that is only accompanied by the continuo, Recitativo accompagnato ed aria (Acc. & Arie) for an accompanied recitative, which has an aria in the same vocal range follows, and Coro for choral movements. The parts are abbreviated, soprano (S, SII), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B).

Part great

NMA title HHA English vocal Bible annotation
1 Overtura 1
2 Comfort Zion!
All valley makes high and sublime		 2.3 Comfort ye
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted		 Acc. & Aria
T		 Isa 40 : 1-5  KJV Isaiah
3 For the glory of the Lord God 4th And the glory, the glory of the Lord Coro
4th Thus says the Lord
But who can endure the day of his arrival		 5.6 Thus saith the Lord
But who may abide the day of His coming		 Acc. & Aria
B		 Hag 2.6-7  KJV
times 3.1-2  KJV 		Haggai
Malachi
5 And he will cleanse the Levi children 7th And He shall purify Coro Times 3.3  KJV
Because look! A virgin becomes pregnant Behold, a virgin shall conceive Rec. SII Isa 7.14  KJV
Mt 1.23  KJV 		Isaiah quoted by Matthew
6th O you, the bliss proclaimed in Zion,
get up		 8th O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
Arise, shine		 SII
Coro		 Jes 40.9  KJV
60.1 KJV
7th Look at! Night covers the earth
The people who walk in the dark		 9.10 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth
The people that walked in darkness		 Acc. & Aria
B		 Isa 60,2–3  KJV
Isa 9,2  KJV
8th A child is born to us for salvation 11 For unto us a child is born Coro Isa 9,6  KJV
9 Pifa 12
There were shepherds together in the field There were shepherds abiding in the field Rec. SII Lk 2.8-13  KJV Luke , Annunciation to the Shepherds
10 And see, the angel of the Lord came up to them 13 And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them Acc. SII
And the angel spoke to them And the angel said unto them Rec SII
11 And immediately there was with the angel 14th And suddenly there was with the angel Acc. SII
12 Glory to God 15th Glory to God Coro
13 Wake up to songs of bliss 16 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion Aria T Sach 9,9-10  KJV Zechariah
Then the blind man's eye opens Then shall the eyes of the blind be open'd Rec. S Isa 35,5-6  KJV
14th He tends his flock
Come to him		 17th He shall feed His flock
Come unto Him		 Aria S. Isa 40.11  KJV
Mt 11.28-29  KJV
15th His yoke is gentle 18th His yoke is easy Coro Mt 11.30  KJV

Part seconda

NMA title HHA English vocal Bible annotation
16 Come and see the lamb 19th Behold the Lamb of God Coro Joh 1.29  KJV John
17th He was spurned 20th Hey was despised Aria SII Isa 53.3  KJV
50.6 KJV 		Man of Sorrows
18th Verily, verily! 21st Surely, He hath borne our griefs Coro 53.4-8 KJV
19th We are healed through his wounds 22nd And with His stripes we are healed Coro
20th Go like sheep 23 All we like sheep Coro
21st And everyone who see him 24 All they that see Him Acc. S.
22nd He trusted God 25th He trusted in God Coro
23 The shame breaks his heart.
Look and see!		 26.27 Thy rebuke hath broken His heart
Behold, and see		 Acc. & Aria
SII		 Ps 69.20  KJV
Klgl 1.12  KJV 		Psalm 69
Lamentations
24 He is gone from the land of the living
But you did not leave him in the grave		 28.29 He was cut off out of the land of the living
But Thou didst not leave his soul in hell		 Acc. & Aria
S		 Isa 53.8  KJV
Ps 16.10  KJV 		Death
resurrection
25th Open the gate 30th Lift up your heads Coro (SSATB) Ps 24.7-10  KJV Psalm 24
To which of the angels did he ever say Unto which of the angels said he at any time Rec. S Heb 1.5  KJV Letter to the Hebrews
26th The Lord gave the floor 33 The Lord gave the word Coro Ps 68.11  KJV Psalm 68
27 How lovely is the messenger's step! 34a How beautiful are the feet of Him Aria S. Isa 52.7  KJV
Rom 10.15  KJV
28 Their sound went out 35a Their sound is gone out Coro Rom 10.18  KJV
Ps 19.4  KJV
29 Why are the heathen aflame? 36 Why do the nations so furiously rage Aria B. Ps 2.1-4.9  KJV Psalm 2
30th Break all the chains in two 37 Let us break their bonds asunder Coro
That one lives in heaven He that dwelleth in heaven Rec. T
31 You smash them with the iron scepter 38 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron Aria T
32 Alleluia 39 Hallelujah Coro Rev 19.6.16  KJV
11.15 KJV 		Revelating of the Johannes

Part terza

NMA title HHA English vocal Bible annotation
33 I know that my saviour is alive 40 I know that my Redeemer liveth Aria S. Job 19.25-26  KJV
34 Like death through one 41 Since by man came death Coro (4) 1 Cor 15: 21-22  KJV Resurrection of the dead
35 Take note!
It sounds, the trumpet		 42.43 Behold
The trumpet shall sound		 Acc. & Aria
B		 1 Cor 15: 51-57  KJV
Then it is fulfilled Then shall be brought to pass Rec. S
36 O death, where is your arrow 44 O death, where is thy sting? Duetto
SII T
37 But thanks be to God 45 But thanks be to God Coro
When God is for us If God be for us Acc. S. Rom 8,31,33-34  KJV
38 The lamb is worthy 47 Worthy is the Lamb Coro Rev 5 : 12-14  KJV epiphany
Amen Amen Coro

Changes and single sentences

In his essay “Mozart contemplating a work of Handel”, the musicologist David Schildkret examined, sentence by sentence, which changes Mozart made and whether he relied on the main part or appendix in Handel's score. He sums up:

  • Mozart changed Handel's instrumentation in more than half of the movements by adding wind instruments.
    • Flutes are used in No. 2 (Consoling Zion), in the aria of No. 4 (But who may endure), No. 6 (O you, the bliss proclaimed in Zion), No. 7 (Look at!) , No. 9 (Pifa), No. 12 (Glory to God), No. 18 (Truly), No. 20 (As sheep go), in the 2nd part of No. 24 (But you did not leave him in the grave) , No. 25 (Open the gate), No. 27 (How lovely is the step of the messenger), No. 29 (Why are the Gentiles on fire), No. 31 (You smash them), No. 32 (Alleluia), No. 33 (I know that my Redeemer lives), and 38 (Worthy is the Lamb).
    • Oboes are used in No. 3 (And the Glory), in the aria of No. 4 (But who may endure), No. 5 (But he will cleanse), No. 6 (O you, the bliss proclaimed in Zion) , No. 8 (A child is born to us for salvation), No. 9 (Pifa), No. 12 (Glory to God), No. 15 (His yoke is gentle), No. 16 (Come and see the Lamb ), No. 18 (Verily), No. 20 (As sheep go), No. 25 (Open the gate), No. 26 (He gave the word), No. 29 (Why are the Gentiles aflame), No. 32 (Alleluia), No. 34 (As if by one of death), and No. 38 (Worthy is the Lamb).
    • Play clarinets in No. 3 (And the Glory), No. 6 (O you, the bliss proclaimed in Zion), No. 7 (Look at!), No. 9 (Pifa), No. 15 (His yoke is gentle ), No. 16 (Come and see the Lamb), No. 17 (He was scorned), No. 18 (Truly), No. 20 (As sheep go), No. 28 (Their sound went out), No. 31 (You smash them), No. 32 (Alleluia), No. 33 (I know that my Redeemer lives), No. 34 (As if through one death), No. 37 (But thanks be to God), and No. 38 (Worthy is the Lamb).
    • Horns shape the sound in No. 1 (Overtura), No. 3 (And the glory), No. 5 (But he will cleanse), No. 6 (O you, the bliss proclaimed in Zion), No. 8 (Us a child is born for salvation), No. 9 (Pifa), No. 12 (Glory to God), No. 15 (His yoke is gentle), No. 16 (Come and see the Lamb), No. 18 ( Verily), No. 20 (As sheep go), No. 25 (Open the gate), No. 26 (The Lord gave the word), No. 32 (Alleluia), No. 35 (Pay attention!), No. 37 (But thanks be to God), and no. 38 (Worthy is the Lamb).
  • Mozart's time felt tempi, like Grave, to be slower than Handel's. Mozart sometimes left out Adagio before the final cadenza.
  • Trills and other embellishments were done differently, and the string technique had changed.
  • Mozart added a lot of dynamic names.
  • The score that was available to Mozart often did not indicate which solo part a movement was intended for. Mozart followed his feeling for the text and for the varied and even division of the voices that he wanted.

1

In the introduction Mozart adds parts for two horns, three trombones and two bassoons in the grave part.

5

In Denn he will clean the choir parts are assigned solo parts with the exception of the end.

9

The sound of the shepherd music Pifa is determined by piccolo and many other winds and strings with mutes ( con sordino ). Mozart changes Handel's string division from three violins and viola to two violins and two violas.

12

In honor of God , Mozart adds many wind parts and writes new parts for trumpets and timpani.

32

In Hallelujah all the winds play along, with new voices for trumpets and timpani.

34

In As through one of death , which Handel sang by the unaccompanied choir, Mozart lets oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns play along, although the horns only in places.

38

In Worthy is the Lamb , all the winds play along with new voices for trumpets and timpani.

Performances and recordings

The musicologist Michael Steinberg gives three reasons for continuing to play Mozart's version, although there has been a tendency since the 1970s to perform music in the original sound image. The version contains good music, it sounds different from Handel's popular music and thus encourages more attentive listening, and it documents how style and taste have changed. The arrangement also provides an insight into Mozart's working method.

Mozart's version is performed and recorded to this day. Michel Corboz conducted a recording with the Ensemble Vocal et Instrumental de Lausanne and the soloists Audrey Michael, Magali Dami, Jard van Nes, Hans Peter Blochwitz and Marcos Fink, which appeared again in 2009. In 1988 Charles Mackerras led the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , with Felicity Lott , Felicity Palmer , Philip Langridge and Robert Lloyd , although he only took over the instrumentation from Mozart. Helmuth Rilling directed the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart in a 1992 recording with the soloists Donna Brown, Cornelia Kallisch , Roberto Saccà and Alastair Miles. In 2011 Jürgen Budday led the Maulbronn Chamber Choir and the Hannoversche Hofkapelle , with Marlis Petersen , Margot Oitzinger, Markus Schäfer and Marek Rzepka. The NDR Choir , directed by Philipp Ahmann , sang the work in a series of concerts in 2012, with Ruth Ziesak , Gerhild Romberger , Werner Güra , Hanno Müller-Brachmann and the Concerto Köln . In 2014 Hermann Max directed the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert , with Monika Frimmer , Mechthild Georg , Christoph Prégardien and Stephan Schreckenberger . In the Mozart Week 2020 at the Mozarteum Salzburg, Robert Wilson staged the Messiah with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski .

swell

Web links

Commons : Messiah  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel I. Block: Handel's Messiah: Biblical and Theological Perspectives . In: Didaskalia . 12, 2001. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  2. ^ A b c Robert Ross: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) / Messiah ( English ) In: Hyperion . 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  3. ↑ Donald Burrows: Handel: Messiah ( English ). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK) 1991, ISBN 978-0-521-37620-4 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Schildkret David: On Mozart Contemplating a Work of Handel: Mozart's arrangement of Messiah . In: Thomas J. Mathiesen (Ed.): Festa Musicologica: Essays in Honor of George J. Buelow . Pendragon Press, 1995, ISBN 9780945193708 , pp. 129-146.
  5. ↑ Bernhard Schmidt: 2.4.3. Notes on the Berlin trade and reception history of the Messiah, in: Lied, Kirchenmusik, Sermon in Friedrich Schleiermacher's festival service: on the reconstruction of his liturgical practice . Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 3110170639 , p. 133ff.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Reinhold Bernhardt: WA Mozart's treatment of the Messiah and its printing in Leipzig 1802-03. . In: Journal of Musicology . , Pp. 21-45. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b Habakkuk Trotter: Handel: Messiah . NDR. 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  8. ^ A b c d e Teresa Frick: Teresa Frick on the Mozart version of the Messiah ( German ) Herzogenberg Society. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Andreas Holschneider : Handel: Messiah . Bärenreiter, 1999.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Michael Steinberg: Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide ( English ). Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780199712625 , pp. 150-154.
  11. ↑ a b Robert Hugill: Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) / The Messiah (sung in English) arr. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( English ) In: musicweb-international.com . 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  12. ^ A b Nicholas Anderson: Handel Messiah (arr.Mozart) . In: Gramophone . 1992. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  13. ↑ a b c Mozart: Der Messias, K572 (after Handel) ( English ) Prestoclassical. 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.