For his next biblical oratorio, Israel in Egypt, Handel took a bold approach that was based on a libretto different from the standard model he had used in Saul. Israel in Egypt tells its story as a collage entirely composed of biblical texts (in the King James translation). Since this of course anticipates the method used for the later Messiah — the only other of Handel’s oratorios to use the Bible in this way — it has been conjectured that the uncredited libretto was indeed compiled by Jennens.
This method would present a problem for Handel’s London audiences when Messiah was introduced there in 1743. The criticism circulated that drawing on a sacred source for such a secular context — and oratorio was self-evidently a close relation to opera — was akin to blasphemy. But the subject matter of Israel in Egypt was entirely appropriate for the Lenten season, during which the work was premiered at the King’s Theatre in London, on April 4, 1739. As per his usual custom, the composer filled out the generous program with performances of organ concertos during the intervals.
A CHORUS-RICH ORATORIO — Originally titled Exodus, the genesis of Israel in Egypt, so to speak, is somewhat involved. Handel began with what became its final section (“Moses’ Song,” which draws from Exodus, chapter 15), composing it in the first two weeks of October 1738. He then turned to the more event-filled Part Two, title “The Exodus” (here, the libretto interweaves passages from Exodus and the Psalms). This took Handel less than a week to compose, and he completed the entire score by November.
But Handel also included an opening part, resulting in a neatly symmetrical tripartite oratorio in which the drama of the Exodus is framed by a lament-filled prelude and a kind of collective ode of joy at its conclusion. For Part One, Handel recycled music he had already composed for the funeral of Queen Caroline, consort of George II. Her death in November 1737 came as a personal loss to Handel, who had known her since his youth.
That earlier work, The Ways of Zion Do Mourn, is a dark, pathos-ridden funeral anthem that also draws from an assortment of Scripture and that Handel had considered incorporating into Saul. By altering just a few details of the text, the composer retrofitted Queen Caroline’s funeral anthem, titling it The Lamentation of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph.
In this form, the essentially pre-existing Part One provides the back story for the reversal of the Israelites’ fortunes in Egypt, which had resulted in their enslavement. Connections between the biblical archetype and contemporary political tangents crop up in the final part as well, in such numbers as “The Lord Is a Man of War.” This is in keeping, observes musicologist Christopher Hogwood, with “the belligerent political mood, as both Whigs and Tories, poets as well as politicians, pressed for a war with Spain.”
Along with a number of other self-borrowings, Israel in Egypt is notable for the amount of pilfering Handel makes from both old masters and some (now) rather obscure contemporaries. It has even been suggested that Handel intentionally drew on what was for him the equivalent of “early music” to give his retelling an archaic flavor. Still, there is no mistaking the signature of Handel himself both in the dramatic details and in the cumulative architecture that make this oratorio such a stirring musical experience.
Israel in Egypt did, however, receive a lackluster response at its premiere. Concerned with so many recent miscalculations regarding his audience, Handel radically changed the piece by cutting out the first part entirely. He seems to have decided that the collective lamentation of the first part was overkill, and Israel in Egypt was eventually published in a two-part version: “The Exodus” followed by “Moses’ Song,” which achieved spectacular renown in the chorus-loving 19th century. Mendelssohn, for example, found much inspiration here, conducting this oratorio frequently and helping to establish its popularity.
“One of the things that was off-putting to the audiences of Handel’s time was the high proportion of choruses in relation to the solo writing,” Gershon notes. “Messiah is the only other oratorio that comes close to the same number of choruses. And, like Messiah, Israel in Egypt has no real direct narrative. But what made it so hard for audiences in 1739 is precisely what makes it so compelling and attractive to audiences of the 21st century — the sense of a collective feeling and response that Handel creates with these extraordinary choruses.”
This evening marks the Master Chorale’s first-ever performance of the fuller, three-part original version of the work.
THE VISION OF KEVORK MOURAD — It’s interesting to note that the single most-famous highlight from Verdi’s breakthrough opera Nabucco is also a chorus: specifically, one that alludes to the situation of the Exodus from the perspective of the enslaved Israelites several centuries after Moses. The sense of historical patterns that recur, strata-like, has inspired the Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad as he developed his vision for this collaboration, his largest-scale project to date.
Part Three centers around the crossing of the Red Sea and the Israelites’ rejoicing at being delivered from the pursuing Egyptians. A brief, harmonically wide-ranging instrumental introduction followed by a short chorus leads into the glorious statement of the oratorio’s central message, set for double chorus: “I will sing unto the Lord.” Handel recapitulates its jubilant theme at the conclusion.
The rest of Part Three recounts the sea crossing from different perspectives, interpolated with reflections on the power of divine intervention. Handel adds another kind of variety by incorporating a handful of arias and duets. There is likewise remarkable diversity in Handel’s depictions of “water music,” from the deceptively lulling phrases of “The depths have covered them” and the vivid use of registral contrasts in “And with the blast of Thy nostrils” to the undulating flow of the soprano’s aria “Thou didst blow with the wind” to describe this supernatural phenomenon.
“It’s easy to be dazzled by the pictorial aspect of Handel’s depiction of the various plagues,” observes Gershon. “But now when I approach Israel in Egypt, I look more toward Part Three and all the different ways that we can give thanks for this miracle — and for this restoration of homeland and identity. It is the Passover story, and it is so resonant because this is the story that has given hope to so many peoples over the centuries.”
Thomas May, program annotator for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, writes about the arts and blogs at memeteria.com.
Part Three centers around the crossing of the Red Sea and the Israelites’ rejoicing at being delivered from the pursuing Egyptians. A brief, harmonically wide-ranging instrumental introduction followed by a short chorus leads into the glorious statement of the oratorio’s central message, set for double chorus: “I will sing unto the Lord.” Handel recapitulates its jubilant theme at the conclusion.
The rest of Part Three recounts the sea crossing from different perspectives, interpolated with reflections on the power of divine intervention. Handel adds another kind of variety by incorporating a handful of arias and duets. There is likewise remarkable diversity in Handel’s depictions of “water music,” from the deceptively lulling phrases of “The depths have covered them” and the vivid use of registral contrasts in “And with the blast of Thy nostrils” to the undulating flow of the soprano’s aria “Thou didst blow with the wind” to describe this supernatural phenomenon.
“It’s easy to be dazzled by the pictorial aspect of Handel’s depiction of the various plagues,” observes Gershon. “But now when I approach Israel in Egypt, I look more toward Part Three and all the different ways that we can give thanks for this miracle — and for this restoration of homeland and identity. It is the Passover story, and it is so resonant because this is the story that has given hope to so many peoples over the centuries.”
Thomas May, program annotator for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, writes about the arts and blogs at memeteria.com.
