Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Title page of Handel's autograph score
Statue erected in Handel's honour, in Vauxhall Gardens, London; now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
A portrait of Charles Jennens by Thomas Hudson from around 1740; now in the Handel House Museum
The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, where Messiah was first performed
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.
Portrait of Handel, 1726–1728
Handel's baptismal registration (Marienbibliothek in Halle)
Handel House, birthplace of Handel
Halle, copper engraving, 1686