Hallelujah+Chorus

"George Frideric Handel's Messiah was originally an Easter offering. It burst onto the stage of Musick Hall in Dublin on April 13, 1742. The audience swelled to a record 700, as ladies had heeded pleas by management to wear dresses "without Hoops" in order to make "Room for more company." Now, of course, Messiah is a fixture of the Christmas season.

This year, the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, has been a boon to the Baroque composer and his best-known work. He was born in Halle, Germany, into a religious, affluent household. His father, Georg Händel, a celebrated surgeon in northern Germany, wanted his son to study the law. But an acquaintance, the Duke of Weissenfels, heard the prodigy, then barely 11, playing the organ. The nobleman's recognition of the boy's genius likely influenced the doctor's decision to allow his son to become a musician. By 18, Handel had composed his first opera, Almira, initially performed in Hamburg in 1705. During the next five years, he was employed as a musician, composer and conductor at courts and churches in Rome, Florence, Naples and Venice, as well as in Germany, where the Elector of Hanover, the future King George I of England, was briefly his patron.

Handel's restless independence contrasted him with the other great composer of the age, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), whom he did not meet."

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Georg Friedrich Händel - Oratorio - Messiah, HWV 56 Part 2, No. 44 Chorus Hallelujah Chorus Performed by The English Concert & Choir

The Glorious History of Handel's Messiah. (n.d.). Smithsonian. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-glorious-history- of-handels-messiah-148168540/?no-ist