Handel’s Messiah | Dr. Doug Bachorik
This weekend, Maranatha’s Music Department will present Handel’s Messiah at Calvary Baptist Church in Watertown, WI. The new head of the Music Department, Dr. Doug Bachorik, has directed the Messiah twice – once in Minnesota and once in the Philippines. On Friday, December 1, he will direct it a third time with the Maranatha choirs from 7-9 PM, including an intermission. As the big night approaches, Bachorik has agreed to sit down and answer questions about what to expect from the upcoming concert.
For those unfamiliar with the Messiah, could you give a short overview?
The Messiah is an oratorio – a dramatic piece of music that is religious in nature. Handel, the composer of the Messiah, primarily wrote operas. But in England, people were prohibited from performing operas during Lent. Being a religious man and perhaps a believer, he started writing sacred oratorios that could be performed during the forty days of Lent.
With an oratorio, you don’t use costumes, staging, or acting like in an opera. All the drama happens in the words of the music, not in any acting on stage.
Messiah is unusual because it doesn’t tell a chronological story. It’s more of a meditation – in this case, the Messiah Himself – and a view of Him from different perspectives.
Handel divided the oratorio into three parts. The first section covers the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming. The second section meditates on His cross and resurrection. And the third section reflects on His eventual return. In contrast to his other oratorios, the lyrics come primarily from the Bible.
What makes the Messiah such a masterpiece?
When artists and composers try to tell the story of Jesus, they run into difficulties when in depicting Him. When Handel wrote the Messiah, he avoided the trap of just telling the story like a drama. Instead, he helps us understand what our relationship to the Messiah is – everything from the sad spiritual state of humanity to the promise of redemption. And there isn’t a more remarkable story than that – to go from being under judgment and condemnation to being redeemed. Even non-Christians have recognized the beauty of that story.
In addition to the incisive lyrics, the music is just fantastic. Rather than one lengthy single piece of music, Messiah is a collection of standalone pieces, including solos, choral numbers, and orchestral pieces. Each one is beautiful, unique, and very dramatic. One aria begins with the text “He was despised and rejected” – very slow, very thoughtful, very mournful. And then it goes into a second section – “He gave His back to the smiters.” You will hear the whipping and the beating by Jesus’ captors in the orchestra. Later, we hear “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” – a long, beautiful aria that allows us to luxuriate in the fact of Messiah’s resurrection and what it can mean for us. Of course, you have all the choruses that are just so exciting. Typically, oratorios had fewer choral pieces and more solo pieces. But with Messiah, around half of the pieces are for choir.
Those are some of the reasons why the Messiah is so popular – and has been popular since Handel first performed it. It was big in his lifetime. Interestingly, he first performed it for a charity event. He didn’t take any profits from the performances. Instead, they went to various charities in Dublin, London, and elsewhere.
Which selections from the Messiah did you choose, and do you have a favorite?
If we did the whole thing, it’d be almost three hours long. It’s lovely to hear it all the way through. I listen to it with my family every year, and I love going to performances if I can. But for the concert, we’ll mostly do selections from the first section of the oratorio covering the prophecy and birth of Jesus. We’ll then do several from the crucifixion section and several from His promised return section at the end.
While the “Hallelujah Chorus” is the most famous piece from the Messiah, it occurs in the middle of the oratorio rather than the end. The real end is the majestic chorus from Revelation – “Worthy is the Lamb… and blessing and honor, glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” For our concert, we will have the Chorale join the Chamber Singers and Madrigal Choir for “Worthy is the Lamb” and then have the Academy choir participate at the end for the “Hallelujah Chorus.” While purists won’t be happy about us doing it out of order, it will bring a rousing conclusion to the concert.
I don’t have a single favorite. I love the aria near the end, “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” from First Corinthians. In the second section, we are reminded that, “the corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.” It’s a baritone-bass aria, like a duet between the soloist and the trumpet player. It’s exhilarating and such a tremendous promise of Christ’s return. That piece would be close to the top for me.
What can the audience expect from the performance?
We will perform it at Calvary Baptist Church in town, which has a large auditorium and platform. We will have about 65 singers from most of the choral work, and at the end, when we bring everybody up, we’ll have about 145 singers. We will use the university string orchestra, plus trumpets and tympani. And we’ll have a harpsichord and organ as well.
We will also be doing something that is kind of unique…it doesn’t get done this way very often, but Handel wrote that sometimes it should just be one player on a part instead of the whole orchestra. We will follow Handel’s notation to implement a string quartet occasionally. So, at many points, you will only hear two violins, one viola, and one cello. This creates a more intimate feeling.
How can the audience prepare for what they will hear?
It sounds funny, but it’s not a bad idea to listen to a recording beforehand. If it’s new to people, listening to it gives them a sense of what to expect. And hearing something on a recording is a very different experience from hearing something live. Listeners – especially ones not used to classical concerts – will then find the experience of a live performance to be very exciting and gripping.