George Frideric Handel's Halleujah Chorus

When George Frideric Handel was a little kid, his uncle gave him a clavier which was a small keyboard-like instrument in secret because he knew that George loved the beautiful notes of music. One night, his parents heard music wafting throughout the house in the middle of the night and knew not from whence it came. When they searched the house, they found George playing melodies on his instrument. This was one of the first times that he would experience music for himself and lead him to have a career that would produce one of the most inspiring pieces of all time: the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah. When all seemed lost to mendelson after a period of musical failures and it looked like he was going to debtors prison, he

When the invitations were sent for this performance, the ladies were told not to wear hoop skirts and the gentlemen were told not to bring their swords so that they could fit as many audience members into the space as possible.The hall was heavy with silence until suddenly, a cacophony of harmonious noise was instantaneously and continuously belted out in the form of the words “hallelujah”. The room was reverberating with the sound of tintinnabulation. King George was in attendance and it was said that while the air was still ringing with the sound, he stood overwhelmed on his feet in support of the music. When he did this, all the rest of the audience members stood up with him which is why in present times people traditionally stand up whenever Hallelujah is

For example, Handel adds variations to the rhythm and continues to increase the pitch on the word hallelujah throughout the piece which makes the lyrics extremely powerful. This is due to the fact that since Hallelujah is repeated so many times, it sound extremely monotonous after a while if it had the same lyrical fluctuation over and over again. At the beginning of the piece, you can see that the word “hallelujah” has the emphasis on the HAA and then the rest of the notes are short but explosive. It is also special because while it has a chorus and a bridge, it has a second bridge which is the “king of kings” segment. Each time the singer sings king of kings with the two “forevers” and “hallelujahs”, it rises higher and higher until it reaches the top of the soprano voice range at a high D. This is a magical experience both to sing and to hear it being performed. Handel could have easily kept the king of kings section the same note every time but it wouldn’t be as great it is with the different variations of the notes. Also, up until this point before the king of kings section, you have accented every part of the word hallelujah possible with the different voice sections as separate parts but the pinnacle point of the whole piece is when everyone goes into unison and accents all the parts of hallelujah together (NPR,2008). This ending, is quite beautiful and