Performances of Handel's Messiah have become a traditional pre-Christmas event, but it wasn't always so. Like everything else, it's been subject to the whims of fashion, Charmian Smith reports.
When you hear ''Glory to God'' in Messiah you feel Christmas is really upon you, says Dr Jenny Burchell. Author of a book on the 150-year history of the City Choir Dunedin to be published next year, she says the choir has presented 118 Messiah concerts since 1863.
The next one is on Tuesday, conducted by David Burchell and with a chorus of 122 it is the biggest he has conducted, although not the biggest performance presented in the city. That was probably at the 1889 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which had a choir of more than 400, although not all of them may have been present; the Messiah performance for the opening of the Town Hall in 1930 had about 250 in the chorus, a combination of the Choral Society (predecessor of the city choir) and other choirs, Dr Burchell said.
Mr Burchell thinks Messiah has retained its popularity because it encapsulates the Christian message in the way no other piece of music does. Despite the passage of 260-odd years since Handel wrote it, the musical language remains fresh and attractive, and it's easy on the ear but full of interest.
''It's a really good sing and has a lot of attractive movements for both choir and chorus, and from the listeners' point of view, probably one of the most famous pieces of all time, the ''Hallelujah Chorus'' - one does get the impression that some people spend the first two parts waiting for it,'' he said.
Although he has conducted it many times - the choir does it every second year - he says it's always instructive to go back to the text and think about Handel's mindset when he was writing it.
''How the music grows out of the text and how you can bring that out in the way it's sung. You are just aiming to ensure the music dances all the way through as much as possible because much of it is bubbly, effervescent music. It can be sombre and solemn, but I don't think that's what Handel intended most of the time. There are still solemn and majestic moments but that's not what I'm seeking overall.''
A lot of music written in the baroque period (c1600-1750) is derived from dance forms and Handel wrote a lot of dance-inspired music in the form of suites for various instruments but also slipped it into other works as well, but that doesn't mean it's all fast. There are slow dances as well. For some conductors, baroque means fast and for some orchestral players it means staccato, but he thinks he's weaned the Sinfonia off that, he said with a laugh.
''As dance is never far away, vocal shapes and vocal technique is never far away in baroque music either, because the voice is very important in the baroque. There's always a lyricism you get from the voice in the music and you want to bring that out as well, and a sense of gesture you get from setting language. A particular phrase fits a particular melodic shape and then very often in Handel is reiterated and varied and shared with the orchestra.''
Handel wrote many oratorios, partly in response to the theatres in England being closed during Lent. They proved popular with British musical societies clamouring for copies.
Dr Burchell explained Handel didn't have a patron and had to make his own living by having performances of his music and had his own opera company which, during Lent, could not stage operas but still had to be supported.
His oratorios, unlike the Italian ones of the time, were full-scale dramatic works that told a story on a biblical theme. Because of the religious theme and because they did not have sets and costumes, although they were still performed in the theatre, they could sneak past the Bishop of London's Lenten prohibition, she said.
In Messiah, however, only the first of the three parts is more or less narrative while the second and third are more reflective. In 1741, Handel originally wrote a small orchestration with strings, a few wind instruments and organ or harpsichord continuo but the work went through several versions with more additions. However, as baroque music fell from fashion, Mozart ''modernised'' it about 1789 for a larger orchestra which gave a more solid harmonic structure, Mr Burchell said.
''A lot of Handel's textures in the aria accompaniment are very simple - there's the voice line, a melody line in the strings and there's a bass line and the rest is filled in by the keyboard player.''
The harpsichord was on the way out and the piano, its replacement, didn't have the right sonority to fit in as a continuo instrument, he said.
Over the years Handel's original chorus of about 12 grew enormously, as did the orchestra, and by the mid-19th century a performance at the Crystal Palace, London had 1000 in the chorus. With such a large choir, the pace had to be slow and a full performance would have taken about five hours, so often large cuts were made.
''You can't push things along with large forces. You have the distance element - the sound will take a while to reach the front from the back, so if you go too fast, there will be different things happening in different places at the same time,'' Mr Burchell said.
Variations on the Mozart version were widely used, and it was only in the 1960s, with a new approach to baroque music in general, that the Dunedin choir, then under Prof Peter Platt, returned to Handel's own versions with strings and continuo (organ and harpsichord), according to Dr Burchell.
''There have been a number of patches where the choral society came to regard it as the financial saviour for the year and it turned out not to be. At the beginning of the 20th century it only took a really hot day or a terrible storm for the audiences not to turn out, so major disaster all round, especially if they'd spent up large on soloists,'' she said.
During World War 2 when things were difficult, the society decided that Messiah was the one concert it would do, even if other activities had to be reduced, and sometimes it collaborated with other choirs.
Dr Burchell found it fascinating during her research to see how people's views changed.
Alfred Walmsley in 1932 modernised the performance, resulting in howls of outrage because of the increase in tempo, but by 1946 when he left, audiences and singers had become used to his brisk approach. His successor, Charles Collins was more conservative and reviewers noted the choir and orchestra tended to bolt.
In 1961, Peter Platt's faster speeds were described as ''buoyant'', ''exultant'' and ''exhilarating'', she said. This year's Messiah features Jonathan Lemalu as bass and Mr Burchell has given him an extra aria which Handel set for different voices but is usually sung by the mezzo.
''The other three singers are all well worth coming to hear, as well. I'm looking forward to working with all of them. Lois [Johnston, soprano] has a lovely clear voice and very agile technique; Amanda [Cole, mezzo-soprano] has an attractive mezzo voice and I've had many dealings with David Hamilton [a Scottish-born Australian tenor now based in Germany].''
See it
City Choir Dunedin, accompanied by the Southern Sinfonia conducted from the harpsichord by David Burchell will perform Handel's Messiah on Tuesday, December 10, at 7.30pm in the Dunedin Town Hall. Soloists: Lois Johnston (soprano), Amanda Cole (mezzo-soprano), David Hamilton (tenor) and Jonathan Lemalu (bass).
