AOS 1
HANDEL:
‘AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD’
FROM THE MESSIAH
THE BACKGROUND TO THE PIECE
 Handel wrote it in 1741 in his house in Brook
Street in London where the Handel museum is
today.
 The most famous part of the Messiah is the
Hallelujah chorus
 The whole of the Messiah is over 2 hours long
with lots of different sections.
 The chorus we learn about is only a few minutes
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ?
 This is for a Choir of SATB voices:
 SOPRANO
 ALTO
 TENOR
 BASS
 It is from one of Handel’s most famous pieces - THE
MESSIAH which is a religious (sacred) piece of music.
 The MESSIAH is an oratorio which is like an opera
with solos, orchestra, choruses but since it is a
sacred work it is performed in a church (without
acting) and not a theatre.
WHAT IS THE MUSIC LIKE ?
 It is for SATB and orchestra
 Strings
 Oboes
 Bassoons
 Kettledrums (timpani)
 Harpsichord which played along with the orchestra in Baroque
times.
 It is in A major (3 sharps !)
 REMEMBER: All major scales follow the pattern of Tone (A B), Tone (B-C#), Semitone (C#-D), Tone (D-E), Tone (E-F#),
Tone (F#-G#), Semitone (G#- A)
WHAT IS THE MUSIC LIKE ?
 The piece has 4 main themes or melodies
1. And the glory of the Lord…
2. Shall be revealed….
3. And all flesh shall see it together…
4. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
Singing these will help you to revise !
THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF
TEXTURE USED..
 HOMOPHONIC – where all parts (the choir) move together
at the same time and sing together in HARMONY
 IMITATION - where one part begins and is then copied by
another part
 POLYPHONIC – where many different parts move at
different times singing/playing different things.
OTHER FEATURES YOU NEED TO
LEARN ABOUT INCLUDE …
 HEMIOLA rhythms –this is where the normal
beat of 3 in a bar gets changed for a short
time to a beat of 2 – it gives the rhythms
energy
 SEQUENCES - sing the tune Shall Be revealed
– this has them – patterns going up and
down
 CADENCES - the last few chords in a piece of
section – this ends with a PLAGAL cadence
(Hath spoken it)
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE
VOCABULARY ?
SATB
SEQUENCE
BAROQUE
ORATORIO
HEMIOLA
SOPRANO
ALTO
TENOR
BASS
HOMOPHONIC
DIATONIC
IMITATION
POLYPHONIC
MODULATION
CADENCE
AOS 1
HANDEL:
‘AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD’
FROM THE MESSIAH