How George Frederick Handel composed the "Hallelujah" Chorus

Résumé du document

The text is a collective prayer to celebrate the resurrection and the future of our world. The kingdom of Earth is becoming the kingdom of the Lord; in other words the domination of God has to take the place off the domination of Men. The word Hallelujah means "the Lord be praised": it is a call for the believers to pray together for the Reign of God.

Therefore it is also a way to broadcast a message of humility to the powerful Men: the fifth text "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" reminds them of the superiority of the Holy power and of humility and submission they have to feel. The power and the infinity of God are expressed in the second and the fourth text through the notions of omnipotence and eternity of His reign.

Like in every prayer, the words are very simple and the most important ones are repeated to make them easily remembered by the audience: Hallelujah, Lord, Kingdom and King are repeated four times, as a possible illustration of infinity and permanence of the sacred world. At the opposite the words God and Christ are unique and Christ is placed with a particular attention, at the end of the central phrase, the longest one: that could describe the inaccessibility of this Holy entity.

Extraits

[...] There is a clear change of mood, firstly because of the nuance. The chorus was singing forte since the beginning and it suddenly sings piano. The composer is telling us something new, something different, and wants to make the listener feel more quiet. This will is underlined by the rhythm and the different components of the melody: each syllable is on a quarter note except the two last which are longer; the melody is going down by steps on a small range. [...]

[...] Then a tutti celebrates this climax, illustration of transcendence. All the parts before are preparing it and the parts after are the release of this explosion. Then there is a transition (not really a part by itself). It repeats the fifth part but faster. It directly leads to the seventh part. The seventh part repeats the scheme of the sixth part but also faster and in a more static way (no progression). The feeling is much more solemn with the drums and the lower range. [...]

[...] The rhythm is slow (quarter notes and whole notes) and the words are sung on a single note by the entire chorus. That gives a strong feeling of unity and release after the prayer. After having discussed the specific melodies for each text, I have now to explain how Handel set up his piece to convey a message and different emotions dealing with the texts. The first part is the exclamation Hallelujah, which will also close the piece. The melody with the four Hallelujah (stressed by the acceleration I talked about) is repeated twice with a harmonic progression. [...]

[...] Handel wants to make this second set of Hallelujah. In fact the entire piece is a huge progression, with rests sometimes, creating a strong feeling of rise from Earth to Sky by prayer and praise. Furthermore theses sets are a little bit different because they are all on the same fast rhythm (so the first and the last one are faster): this acceleration, omnipresent in the piece, takes part to the rise. This all shape is repeated lower to create a kind of rest before the third more complex part. [...]

[...] This layout (repetition and acceleration) has a powerful effect on the listener. After having focused the attention of the audience with the two first strong Hallelujah, Handel brings it into the music with this obsessive repeated announced on the first syllable. The small range of this line gives the impression of a scream coming from the sincere love of God, like a physical expression of belief. At the opposite the second text is much jerkier with a complex rhythm and a large range (on the D octave). [...]