Handel's Messiah:
April 13, 1742
Dublin, Ireland
I chose
this artifact because I love music and to me this represents an important
learning curve in the music world. George Frederick Handel, the composer of
Messiah, was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685. From and early age he
recognized his love for music although his family wasn’t very supportive of him
developing musical talents. His Father reluctantly agreed to provide music
lessons for him and his talents really developed quickly, landing him as an
“assistant choirmaster at the local church” at only the age of 12. (S,D,H pg. 256) After
exploring a variety of opportunities presented to him because of his music
prestige, Handel headed to London where he explored the genre of Opera. His
success didn’t last long there, however, and was concerned about being able to
provide for himself financially. Taking a suggestion from one of his
librettist, Charles Jennens, Handel decided to explore the musical world of
Oratorio and used one of Charles’ libretto’s already prepared which was titled Messiah. At the request of the Duke of
Devonshire, Handel began preparing a work for a charity based event in order to
support and Irish hospital and decided to use Messiah for that event. Messiah
was a huge success after it’s small performance debut in Dublin and I think
it was largely in part because Handel was concerned about moving people by his
music. He didn't just want to produce a nice song that people liked, he wanted
his music to change them when they heard it. He said that “Messiah was not intended to entertain, but to change lives.” (S,D,H pg. 257) His
hope was for them to learn about themselves and their Savior. I was so touched
by the story of Handel that I definitely wanted to include this as an artifact
knowing that it would inspire people to not only observe with physical senses,
but to listen meditate on those things that we can’t see with our physical eyes
or hear with our physical ears.