The Pure Power Of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus'

[Dave Monroe]

The Pure Power Of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus'


APM, December 23, 2008 - The "Hallelujah Chorus," from George Frideric
Handel's Messiah, is such an iconic piece of music — and is so
ingrained as a Christmas tradition — that it's easy to take its
exuberance and its greatness for granted.

That's where Rob Kapilow comes in. The composer-conductor joins
Performance Today host Fred Child to look deeper into the structure of
Handel's popular little chorus to discover why the music has such a
powerful grip on singers and listeners — all the way back to King
George II of England, who (legend has it) began the tradition of
standing during its performance.

Much of the power of the piece, Kapilow says, lies behind the rhythm
of the word hallelujah. Handel could have assigned the four syllables
of the word to four notes of equal length. But that would be boring —
and it wouldn't be Handel, Kapilow says.

"What makes Handel great," Kapilow says, "is that first note is
lengthened and then we explode at the end. We have this
HAAAA-le-lu-jah."

Another key to the chorus' power is in what Kapilow calls the "King of
Kings" section.

"The thing that's so amazing about it," Kapilow says, "is that it's
actually based on one of the simplest ideas you could possibly
imagine: a single note repeated over and over again; one note per
syllable — 'king - of - kings' and 'lord - of - lords.' "

But Handel keeps repeating the passage in higher and higher registers.
"Each one seems to be the highest you could possibly get," Kapilow
says. "That's the climax of the piece."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98517850

Hear What Makes The 'Hallelujah Chorus' So Great

[8 min 38 sec]

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=98517850&m=98509970