Today marks the anniversary of when George Friderick Handel’s famous opus “Messiah,” was first performed in seventeen forty-two. The composition includes the “Hallelujah” chorus which is sung in churches across the United States at Easter and Christmas. The sacred oratorio received its world premiere at a concert hall in Dublin, Ireland. Handel composed the music in just twenty-four days, after having received the lyrics from Charles Jennens, who drew almost exclusively from the King James Bible.
How about this for a family dinner conversation? Kids need to know the great composers and their enduring musical contributions. Handel’s “Messiah” is worth not just recognizing but also understanding its message— the birth, the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Handel signed the work SDG—Soli Deo Gloria—“To God alone the glory.”
