Page "Messiah (Handel)" Paragraph 16

At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters " SDG "— Soli Deo Gloria, " To God alone the glory ".

This inscription, taken with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine inspiration in which, as he wrote the " Hallelujah " chorus, " he saw all heaven before him ".

In fact, as Burrows points out, many of Handel's operas, of comparable length and structure to Messiah, were composed within similar timescales between theatrical seasons.

The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries ; Handel commenced his next oratorio, Samson, within a week of finishing Messiah, and completed his draft of this new work in a month.

In accordance with his frequent practice when writing new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in Messiah, in this case drawing on two recently completed Italian duets and one written twenty years previously.

Thus, Se tu non lasci amore from 1722 became the basis of " O Death, where is thy sting?

"; " His yoke is easy " and " And he shall purify " were drawn from Quel fior che alla ' ride ( July 1741 ), " Unto us a child is born " and " All we like sheep " from Nò, di voi non vo ' fidarmi ( July 1741 ).

Handel's instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention, where the use of certain instruments and combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by the composer ; later copyists would fill in the details.