Messiah

Author: Jonathan Keates
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Category: Baroque Music (c 1600 To C 1750), Baroque Music (c 1600 To C 1750), Social & Cultural History
Book Format: Hardcover

The story of the composition, first performances and cultural afterlife of one of the best-loved and most widely performed works in the entire history of music.



In 1741, in just 24 days, the German-born, British-naturalized composer George Frideric Handel wrote an oratorio rich in tuneful arias and choruses of robust grandeur. Coolly received in London at first, after Handel's death Messiah enjoyed an extraordinary surge in popularity: it was performed at festivals across England; other composers rushed to rearrange it; it would be commercially recorded on more than 100 occasions. Jonathan Keates tells the story of the composition and musical afterlife of Handel's masterpiece: he considers the first performances and its place in Handel's output; he looks at the oratorio itself and its relationship with spirituality in the age of the Enlightenment; and he examines why Messiah became such an essential element in the national culture of Britain. Illustrated with beautiful images, including the original score of the work, Messiah is a richly informative and affectionate celebration of a high-point of Britain's Georgian golden age.

About Jonathan Keates
Jonathan Keates is a distinguished and prize-winning biographer, novelist and travel writer, and author of lives of the composers Handel (1985) and Purcell (1995). He is chairman of the Venice in Peril fund.

(BK-9781784974008)

SKU BK-9781784974008
Barcode # 9781784974008
Brand Head of Zeus
Artist / Author Jonathan Keates
Shipping Weight 0.5300kg
Shipping Width 0.194m
Shipping Height 0.023m
Shipping Length 0.194m
Assembled Length 2.300m
Assembled Height 19.400m
Assembled Width 19.400m
Type Hardcover

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