Page "Messiah (Handel)" Paragraph 120

Although Messiah is not in any particular key, Handel's tonal scheme has been summarised by the musicologist Anthony Hicks as " an aspiration towards D major ", the key musically associated with light and glory.

As the oratorio moves forward with various shifts in key to reflect changes in mood, D major emerges at significant points, primarily the " trumpet " movements with their uplifting messages.

It is the key in which the work reaches its triumphant ending.

In the absence of a predominant key, other integrating elements have been proposed.

For example, the musicologist Rudolf Steglich has suggested that Handel used the device of the " ascending fourth " as a unifying motif ; this device most noticeably occurs in the first two notes of " I know that my Redeemer liveth " and on numerous other occasions.

Nevertheless, Luckett finds this thesis implausible, and asserts that " the unity of Messiah is a consequence of nothing more arcane than the quality of Handel's attention to his text, and the consistency of his musical imagination ".

Allan Kozinn, The New York Times music critic, finds " a model marriage of music and text ... From the gentle falling melody assigned to the opening words (" Comfort ye ") to the sheer ebullience of the " Hallelujah " chorus and the ornate celebratory counterpoint that supports the closing " Amen ", hardly a line of text goes by that Handel does not amplify ".