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neatness as he is capable of making. At another, he seems to have a rush of ideas with which his pen cannot keep pace, though it flies over the paper at speed, and by no means stands upon the order of its going. At another, it is plain that he labours hard, grows fiercely impatient of errors, and dashes huge ink-strokes through them, or else smears them with his finger after the fashion subsequently adopted by Mr. Samuel Weller. No equable self-contained musician could have produced the "Messiah" manuscript. It is the work of one quick to feel, and by no means scrupulous about manifesting all he felt. Not less evidently was its author a man of careless habits. Accepting the testimony of this volume, it is impossible to suppose Handel worrying himself over a refractory neckcloth, or severe with his tailor because of an imperfect fit. A more untidy manuscript can hardly be imagined. So few pages are free from blots and smears that one is driven to suppose that the master, in moments of abstraction, scattered ink about. Moreover, the work is as innocent of penknife marks as a banker's ledger. Mistakes, great or small, are either crossed and recrossed, or swallowed up in blackness according to the humour of the moment. Something, too, of his physical personality can be gathered from the writing. It must have been a heavy hand that penned such coarse, rude characters. No quill could account by itself for notes with heads so huge and tails so flaunting. The "Messiah" score, in point of fact, is just what might have been expected from the burly Saxon. It reflects his physique not less faithfully than the splendour of his genius.

Interesting as it is to observe all this, and more that cannot be dwelt upon here, the attraction of the volume lies in the fact that it shows us the "Messiah" as that immortal work first sprang from its composer's brain. Conscious of the importance of his sacred oratorio, Handel expended upon it a good deal of loving care; touching and re-touching so long

the fac-simile before us, every change thus made can now be noted; we are admitted into the sanctum of the mighty magician, and can learn the processes by which his results were produced. But no sooner is the volume opened than we are astounded at the little alteration Handel thought it necessary to make. Bearing in mind the unexampled rapidity with which the work was thrown off, and the fact that Handel had a habit of writing without prearranged ideas, the completeness of his original draft would be incredible but for the testimony of the MS. Nor is our astonishment lessened by the knowledge that Handel, as was his custom, used over again some of his old material. After making full allowance on this head, the work still remains a memorable example of perfection from the birth, and more than anything else deserves to be called the Pallas of music. But while this is true, it is equally so that between the accepted "Messiah" and the first score there are material differences. To the more suggestive of these I may invite attention with confidence.

As far as can be judged by what remains of the Overture, and "Comfort ye" (several pages are here missing from the otherwise unmutilated volume), Handel began his work with much ease and fluency. In fact the opening bars of "Thus saith the Lord" supply the first instance in which he is found hesitating. His intention was to set these a tempo, and introduce the voice at the end of a short orchestral passage (nearly illegible) in this fashion :—

Grave

Thus saith the Lord, The Lord

as anything seemed deficient. By help of after which the recitative began as it

The Autograph of Handel's " Messiah."

now stands. A vigorous penstroke, however, disposed of the matter thus written, and the opening familiar to everybody took its place. The following air, "But who may abide," differs widely as it stands in the MS. from what it afterwards became. In fact, only here and there is a phrase retained; a good deal of the larghetto and the whole of the

prestissimo, "For He is like a refiner's fire," being written subsequently. That in this instance Handel's second thoughts were best a comparison between the two versions will suffice to show. But with what vigour he originally set the words just quoted deserves notice. Here are the opening bars :

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tellest," is in the first ritornello, where instead of the violin passage,—

There is no lack of fire in this music, yet the composer did well to replace it by the agitated movement which so strikingly contrasts with the solemn query going before. "And He shall purify the sons of Levi" calls for no remark, being sung now note for note as it stands; and the only point presented by "O thou that

Handel previously wrote this:

How much the amendment affects all that follows need not be pointed out. The airs, "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth," and "The people that walked in darkness," together with the chorus For unto us a Child is born"

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Handel appears to have laboured a good deal at this air (instance an entire line crossed out and re-written), but with no satisfactory result, and, in the exercise of that sound judgment which never failed him, he finally rejected it. Passing over "Glory to God," with the solitary observation that here, for the first time, wind instruments (two trumpets) are found in the score, the florid air, "Rejoice greatly," presents itself in the 12-8 measure which Handel afterwards thought fit to discard for 4-4. He made no other change, but this substitution of groups of semi-quavers for quaver triplets was material. That it was an alteration for the better the result of a performance of the original version given once (and only once) in Exeter Hall, may be taken as proof. Of the final air and chorus in the first part there is nothing to be said. As Handel wrote them so they stand, always excepting the indefensible transposition of "He shall feed His flock."

There are two noticeable points in "Behold the Lamb of God." One is that Handel's first impulse was to give the lead to the sopranos (as in the

ritornello he gives it to the first violins), but that, immediately changing his plan, he assigned the post of honour to the altos. The second favours a notion that he abruptly put an end to what was intended to be a longer chorus; for immediately preceding the last phrase comes the following

world; Behold, behold, the Lamb of God.

Dashing this out, however, the master took advantage of being in the dominant key to get speedily home, and so have done. The air "He was despised" appears from the MS. to have been a genuine inspiration. Its music flowed from Handel's pen without let or hindrance; not a note suffering change or erasure. Surely it may be said of the story about Handel being found in tears when writing this air, Se

non e vero e ben trovato. Anyhow, he was at that instant the medium of a profound pathos, which will go to the hearts of men so long as music shall last. Only one or two important alterations appear in the chorus "Surely He hath borne our griefs," but the close of "And with His stripes" underwent a complete change. Instead of the impressive ending on the dominant that now leads direct to the next chorus, Handel first wrote an ordinary tonic cadence, the weakness of which, when compared with its successor, is sufficiently striking. The only remark to be made about "All we like sheep" is that in point of slovenly penmanship it ranks first; one page in particular where occurs the adagio "And the Lord hath laid on Him"--being little better than a mass of blots. No manuscript

could bear stronger testimony to the headlong haste of its writer. Over the recitative "All they that see Him" occurs the first of Handel's directions as to the singers. "Mr. Beard" is the vocalist thus immortalized; while to Signora Avolio is assigned "Thy rebuke," with "Behold and see," and to Mr. Low, "He was cut off," and "But Thou didst not leave." A good deal of controversy has been excited about the propriety of giving the whole of the "Passion" music to a tenor voice, as is now the custom. It is needless to reopen a discussion practically settled, but here, at all events, is the composer's first intention; an intention not merely disregarded, but till within the last few years absolutely reversed. With respect to the music itself Handel left

it exactly as it was first written. The original of "Lift up your heads" is in like manner undisturbed, while the amendments in the ingenious chorus, "Let all the angels of God," are none of them important enough to deserve quotation. Hence these numbers may pass without comment, as may, for the same reason, the solo, "Thou art gone up on high." In "Great was the company of the preachers" there is one interesting point to be noticed. It must have occurred to most of those who concern themselves with such matters that, when writing this chorus, Handel had in his mind "He spake the word," from "Israel," composed three years previously. Similarity of text seems to have suggested similarity of treatment, and the inference that the master's thoughts reverted to his former work is well-nigh proved by the fact of his first writing "The Lord spake the word" in the "Messiah" score. Discovering the error he marked out "spake," and substituted "gave," but the inadvertence remains a significant testimony.

So far Handel had got through his task unchecked, but in attempting to set "How beautiful are the feet," with its sequel "Their sound is gone out," he found himself in difficulty. Beginning by writing the air as it now stands, the dissatisfied composer afterwards took its theme as the subject of a duet (andante in D minor) for alto voices, to which he appended a chorus on the words, "Break forth into joy." The former is brief, and not sufficiently distinctive to call for quotation. The chorus begins. thus::

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How beautiful are the feet of him of him that bringeth good tidings.

The leading idea is then resumed, and carried on to the end. How far this setting was an improvement upon the original must be a matter of opinion. For my own part I see no reason to regret Handel's ultimate decision in favour of the air. With "Their sound

How

is gone out," the composer had even greater difficulty. These words appear in the body of the MS. set as a second strophe to "How beautiful are the feet," and ending in D minor, with a da capo. The passage is so interesting that I am tempted to give its opening bars :

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