Handel's Messiah: A New View of Its Musical and Spiritual Architecture--Study Guide for Listeners and Performers (Cascade Companions)

Athnos, Gregory S

ISBN 10: 1666739057 / ISBN 13: 9781666739053

Published by Cascade Books, 2023

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781666739053

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Handel's Messiah: A New View of Its Musical and Spiritual Architecture--Study Guide for Listeners and Performers (Cascade Companions)
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1666739057
• ISBN 13: 9781666739053
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

We think we know Handel's Messiah, having heard it or performed it so many times. But is there another way to look at this masterpiece? Who assembled the texts? Why? How did Handel incorporate his own spiritual understanding of the texts? In this treatise, we view the composition from the same Baroque aesthetic perspective the composer used: the Doctrine of Affections--an approach heretofore unexplored in relationship to Handel's Messiah--which held that every major and minor key prompted a particular, very specific, and involuntary emotional and spiritual response in the listener. When facing a choice between following the accepted rules of musical composition or using the Affect best suited to the scriptural text, Handel almost exclusively chose the Affect; in other words, he chose spiritual insight over compositional tradition. Overlaying the various Affects on each movement of Handel's composition, we discover the true heart and spiritual depth of the composer's magnum opus.

About the Author

Gregory S. Athnos is emeritus professor of music from North Park University in Chicago, where he served for thirty-two years as conductor and lecturer in music history and literature. He conducted numerous Messiahs, including the first performances in Russia and Estonia since the Bolshevik Revolution. Athnos is the author of three books: The Art of the Roman Catacombs (2011), The Easter Jesus and the Good Friday Church (2011), and his autobiography Eat In Harmony (2016).