Israel in Egypt | |
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Oratorio by George Frideric Handel | |
![]() Handel portrayed by Balthasar Denner, 1733 | |
Catalogue | HWV 54 |
Year | 1739 |
Text | Excerpts from Exodus and the Psalms, compiled by Charles Jennens |
Language | English |
Performed | 4 April 1739 : London King's Theatre, Haymarket |
Movements | 46 |
Scoring |
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Israel in Egypt, HWV 54, is a biblical oratorio by the composer George Frideric Handel. Most scholars believe the libretto was prepared by Charles Jennens, who also compiled the biblical texts for Handel's Messiah . It is composed entirely of selected passages from the Old Testament, mainly from Exodus and the Psalms.
Israel in Egypt premiered at London's King's Theatre in the Haymarket on April 4, 1739 with Élisabeth Duparc "La Francesina", William Savage, John Beard, Turner Robinson, Gustavus Waltz, and Thomas Reinhold. Handel started it soon after the opera season at King's Theatre was cancelled for lack of subscribers. The oratorio was not well received by the first audience though commended in the Daily Post ; [1] the second performance was shortened, the mainly choral work now augmented with Italian-style arias.
The first version of the piece is in three parts rather than two, the first part more famous as "The ways of Zion do mourn", with altered text as "The sons of Israel do mourn" lamenting the death of Joseph. This section precedes the Exodus, which in the three-part version is Part II rather than Part I.
Handel had long been resident in London and had enjoyed great success as a composer of Italian operas there. However, in 1733 a rival opera company to Handel's, The Opera of the Nobility, had split the audience for Italian opera in London. There was not enough support for two Italian opera companies and Handel began to find new audiences through presenting oratorio and other choral works in English. [2] Handel's oratorio Saul , with a text by Charles Jennens, was presented at the King's Theatre in January 1739, and for the same season Handel composed Israel in Egypt, writing the music in one month between 1 October and 1 November 1738. [3] Israel in Egypt is one of only two oratorios by Handel with a text compiled from verses from the Bible, the other being Messiah. The librettist of Israel in Egypt is uncertain, but most scholars believe Charles Jennens compiled both texts. Israel in Egypt and Messiah also share the unusual characteristic among Handel oratorios in that, unlike the others, they do not have casts of named characters singing dialogue and performing an unstaged drama, but contain many choruses set to biblical texts. [4] The libretto of Israel in Egypt is mainly based on the Book of Exodus, with the account of The Exodus of the Israelites in the first part, and the Song of the Sea in the latter part, called Moses Song by Handel.
In composing Israel in Egypt, in what was by then his common practice, Handel recycled music from his own previous compositions and also made extensive use of musical parody, the re-working of music by other composers. [3] [5] For the opening part of Israel in Egypt Handel slightly re-wrote his 1737 Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, "The Ways of Zion do Mourn", [3] and he adapted two of his keyboard fugues, a chorus from his Dixit Dominus and an aria from one of his Chandos Anthems. [5] From Alessandro Stradella's wedding serenata Qual prodigio é ch’io miri, Handel took the music for his choruses based on the biblical ten plagues: "He spake the word," "He gave them hailstones," "But as for his people/He led them," and "And believed the Lord," as well as the Part II chorus "The people shall hear/All th’inhabitants of Canaan.". [3] [5] From a Magnificat setting by Dionigi Erba, Handel took most or part of the music for "He rebuked the Red Sea," "The Lord is my Strength," "He is my God," "The Lord is a Man of War," "The depths have covered them/Thy right Hand, o Lord," "Thou sentest forth thy wrath," "And with the blast of thy nostrils," "Who is like unto Thee," and "Thou in thy mercy." [3] [5] Other composers Handel parodied in Israel in Egypt were Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Caspar Kerll, Francesco Antonio Urio, Nicolaus Adam Strungk and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow.
Much more than the previous works by Handel which were designed, like Israel in Egypt, to attract paying audiences to a commercial venture in a privately owned theatre, the piece lays overwhelming emphasis on the chorus. [6] As an added attraction, the small baroque orchestra accompanying was also used for an organ concerto, the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, which served as an interlude. [7] However, London audiences at that time were not used to such extensive choral pieces presented as commercial entertainment, and perhaps particularly the opening dirge, of about thirty minutes in length, for the death of Joseph, adapted from the funeral anthem for a recently deceased Queen, contributed to the failure of Israel in Egypt at its first performance. [3] [4] Handel quickly revised the work, omitting the opening "Lamentations" section and adding Italian-style arias of the kind contemporary audiences expected and enjoyed. [2] In its two sectioned form, Israel in Egypt was very popular in the 19th century with choral societies. Beginning with John Eliot Gardiner's recording of 1978, [8] many contemporary performances of the work use Handel's original three part version. [2]
The Israelites mourn the death of Joseph, Israelite and favoured adviser to Pharaoh, King of Egypt. The first part includes the choruses "The Sons of Israel Do Mourn" and "How Is the Mighty Fallen".
An announcement is made that a new Pharaoh has come to the throne who does not look kindly on the Israelites. God chooses Moses to lead his people out of bondage. A series of plagues falls on Egypt: the rivers turn to blood; a plague of frogs affects the land; lice crawled on man and beast; wild animals destroy everything; the Egyptian livestock get sick and die; blotches and blisters break out on the skin of man and beast; hailstorms blight the country; locusts appear and destroy all the crops; palpable darkness descends; and, finally, the eldest born sons of all the Egyptians are struck down dead. The ruler of Egypt agrees to let the Israelites depart, but changes his mind and pursues them. The Red Sea miraculously parts to let the Israelites cross in safety, but when the pursuing Egyptians try to cross, the waters engulf them, and they are drowned. [3] [9]
The Israelites celebrate their deliverance. [2] [3] [6] A series of joyful choruses are included in the third part, with the piece concluding with a soprano solo and chorus proclaiming that 'the Lord shall reign for ever and ever' and 'the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea'.
For a long time, the earliest known recording of music known to still exist was an excerpt from this oratorio conducted by August Manns. [10] The recording was of 4,000 singers singing "Moses and the Children of Israel" in the Crystal Palace Handel Festival of June 29, 1888, recorded by Col. George Gouraud on Edison's yellow paraffin cylinder. The limitations of recording technology at that time, together with the number of voices, the distance of the recording device from the singers (about 100 yards away), and the acoustics of the Crystal Palace, mean that the recorded sound was dim to begin with, and it has since then become badly degraded. What survives is barely audible but still identifiable by ear and gives some insight into performance practices at the height of the Handel Festival phenomenon.
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
The Creation is an oratorio written in 1797 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn, and considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as narrated in the Book of Genesis.
Semele is a 'musical drama', originally presented "after the manner of an oratorio", in three parts by George Frideric Handel. Based on an existing opera libretto by William Congreve, the work is an opera in all but name but was first presented in concert form at Covent Garden theatre on 10 February 1744. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and concerns Semele, mother of Bacchus. Handel also referred to the work as 'The Story of Semele'. The work contains the famous aria "Where'er you walk".
Samson is a three-act oratorio by George Frideric Handel, considered to be one of his finest dramatic works. It is usually performed as an oratorio in concert form, but on occasions has also been staged as an opera. The well-known arias "Let the bright Seraphim", "Total eclipse" and "Let their celestial concerts" are often performed separately in concert.
The Plagues of Egypt, in the account of the Book of Exodus, are ten disasters inflicted on biblical Egypt by the God of Israel (Yahweh) in order to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting Pharaoh and one of his Egyptian gods; they serve as "signs and marvels" given by God to answer Pharaoh's taunt that he does not know Yahweh: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD". The Ten Plagues are recited during the Passover Seder.
Saul is a dramatic oratorio in three acts written by George Frideric Handel with a libretto by Charles Jennens. Taken from the First Book of Samuel, the story of Saul focuses on the first king of Israel's relationship with his eventual successor, David—one which turns from admiration to envy and hatred, ultimately leading to the downfall of the eponymous monarch. The work, which Handel composed in 1738, includes the famous "Dead March", a funeral anthem for Saul and his son Jonathan following their deaths in the Battle of Mount Gilboa at the hands of the Philistines, and some of the composer's most dramatic choral pieces. Saul premiered successfully at the King's Theatre in London on 16 January 1739, and was revived by Handel in subsequent seasons.
Judas Maccabaeus is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden. Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxii; and HHA 1/24.
Charles Jennens was an English landowner and patron of the arts. As a friend of Handel, he helped author the libretti of several of his oratorios, most notably Messiah.
Jephtha is an oratorio (1751) by George Frideric Handel with an English language libretto by the Rev. Thomas Morell, based on the story of Jephtha in Judges and Jephthes, sive Votum (1554) by George Buchanan. Whilst writing Jephtha, Handel was increasingly troubled by his gradual loss of sight, and this proved to be his last oratorio. In the autograph score, at the end of the chorus "How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees" he wrote "Reached here on 13 February 1751, unable to go on owing to weakening of the sight of my left eye."
The Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, HWV 264, is an anthem by George Frideric Handel. It was composed and first performed for the funeral of Caroline of Ansbach at Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1737. Handel slightly re-worked the anthem and used it for the opening section of his oratorio Israel in Egypt in 1739. The theme of the first chorus was taken by Mozart as the theme for the Requiem aeternam movement of his Requiem Mass. The anthem is approximately forty minutes in length.
Esther is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It is generally acknowledged to be the first English oratorio. Handel set a libretto after the Old Testament drama by Jean Racine. The work was originally composed in 1718, but was heavily revised into a full oratorio in 1732.
Belshazzar is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The libretto was by Charles Jennens, and Handel abridged it considerably. Jennens' libretto was based on the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus the Great and the subsequent freeing of the Jewish nation, as found in the Book of Daniel.
Deborah is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It was one of Handel's early oratorios in English and was based on a libretto by Samuel Humphreys. It received its premiere performance at the King's Theatre in London on 17 March 1733.
The Light of the World is an oratorio composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the libretto with the assistance of George Grove, based on the New Testament. The work was inspired by William Holman Hunt's popular 1853–54 painting, The Light of the World. The story of the oratorio follows the whole life of Christ, told mostly in the first person, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts, listed here in tables for their musical setting and biblical sources.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. The wordbook was supplied by Charles Jennens. This article covers Part I and describes the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his virgin birth by several prophets, namely Isaiah. His birth is still rendered in words by Isaiah, followed by the annunciation to the shepherds as the only scene from a Gospel in the oratorio, and reflections on the Messiah's deeds. Part II covers the Passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the later spreading of the Gospel. Part III concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part II in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds and reflects the Messiah's deeds on earth. Part II covers the Passion in nine movements including the oratorio's longest movement, an air for alto He was despised, then mentions death, resurrection, ascension, and reflects the spreading of the Gospel and its rejection. The part is concluded by a scene called "God's Triumph" that culminates in the Hallelujah chorus. Part III of the oratorio concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part III in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds as a scene from the Gospel of Luke, and reflects the Messiah's deeds on Earth. Part II covers the Passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the later spreading of the Gospel. Part III concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
The Creation, the oratorio by Joseph Haydn, is structured in three parts. He composed it in 1796–1798 on German text as Die Schöpfung. The work is set for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Its movements are listed in tables for their form, voice, key, tempo marking, time signature and source.
Der Messias, K. 572, is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1789 German-language version of Messiah, George Frideric Handel's 1741 oratorio. On the initiative of Gottfried van Swieten, Mozart adapted Handel's work for performances in Vienna.