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© Il Grande Mistero Marco Tibaldi1

BarcelonaSagrada Familia, May 28th 2015

George Friedrich Händel Messiah – Hallelujah

The Author

George Friedrich Handel (Halle 1685 - London 1759) was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach (Ei-senach 1685 - Leipzig 1750). The music critics commonly sum up the relationship between the two in the familiar expression: “Bach is introspective, while Handel looks around himself ” (Massimo Mila, 1977, 154), which indicated Handel’s more versatile personality, open to the horizontal searching that characterized his musical career. Initially, his father destined him to the legal profession, but he quickly discovered his true calling. In Germany for the first twenty years of his life, in 1706, in a salon, he made the decisive meeting with the Italian authors Corelli, Pasquini, Marcello, and Steffani; later, in London, he also met Domenico Scarlatti. He remained fascinated by Italian opera, although he initially despised it. In 1710, he began his stays in London. Finally, settled there permanently, in 1720, he became the director of the Haymarket Thea-tre. There, he performed the first of his oratorios, Esther (1718). Yet, he soon had to face the hostility of the king and a good part of the court, whose moralism did not appreciate Italian opera. Through the vicissitudes of success and failure, his works - such as Riccardo Primo (1727), Siroe (1728), Poro (1731), Orlando (1733), Alcina (1735), Arminio (1737), and Xerxes (1737) - were generally appreciated by the public. After being chided by critics for not wanting to use fully the English language, he dedicated himself to the production of the most famous oratories, and “created those masterpieces that were to exert an incalculable influence on the choral and musical taste of the English nation: Debora (1733), Atalia (1735), Israel in Egypt (1739), The Messiah (1742), Samson (1742), and Jephtha (1751)” (Massimo Mila 1977, 153). After a short stay in Dublin and Halle, he returned to London, now completely blind and paralyzed, but still working actively on Jephtha. In short, “He was a man of great moral integrity, energetic, with a majestic, solemn demeanor, and tall, religious but not alien to the world and life, a hardened wrestler, and the master of an intense and active life” (Massimo Mila 1977, 153).

AN IN-DEPTH PRESENTATION


The Work The Hallelujah in Handel’s oratorio The Messiah (1742) is one of the most famous compositions of this Ba-roque musician. It was composed in just 24 days as a charitable work, with a libretto by Charles Jennens. Per-formed for the first time in Dublin in 1742, the oratory describes the essential moments of Christ’s life, with constant reference to the Old and New Testament Scriptures. This oratory is, however, not actually sacred art intended for the liturgy.The first part is centred on Advent and Christmas, and the second part, on the Passion and Resurrection, cul-minates in the famous Hallelujah; the third takes up the theme of God’s glorification and the destiny of man.

The Text 39. Chorus Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. (Rev. 19:6)

The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev. 11:15)

King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. (Rev. 19:16)

Musical Commentary

In this passage, the following five elements can be distinguished:1) the famous melody on the word “Hallelujah”;2) a second melody on “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”;3) another more intimate theme, with a simple, descending line, on the words “The Kingdom of this world is become”;4) a fugue on the words “And He Shall reign for ever and ever.”5) a recitation of “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”

The last two parts, built on a daring fugue, are particularly effective and impressive. The fugue is a way of composing a piece of polyphonic music in which different voices enter one after the other in imitation. The fugue on the theme of “and He Shall Reign” alternates with a recitation on the words “King of Kings.” Later, we have the Sopranos’ recitation of the words “and Lord of Lords,” repeated first identically and then a third higher. Here, there is a strong final entanglement, enriched by the echoes of the fourth theme, “and He shall reign...”Towards the end, the men’s voices repeat the recitation “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,” which in this grand final is mixed in turn with the “Hallelujah,” with “for ever” and with a repetition of the fugue’s theme “and He Shall Reign.”From the perspective of the lyrics, we can notice the emphasis on the last two phrases in the text set to music. The emphasis on the presentation of the kingship of Jesus, the incarnate Logos - now recognized and cele-brated as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” whose kingdom will last forever - is particularly striking.

Commentary to the text

The text of the Alleluia is a collection of quotations from St. John’s Book of Revelation. Let’s see what they mean.The first quotation: “Hallelujah. He took possession of his kingdom the Lord, our God, the Almighty” (Rev 19:6), expresses the invitation to praise and the exultation that Christians raise to God for the victory over the “Great prostitute,” over Babylon, which is spoken about in chapters 17 and 18. Both are symbols of the powers of evil that have tried in every possible way to impede the establishment of God’s kingdom through Jesus. In fact, Revelation recounts, in symbolic terms, the great struggle that took place between Jesus and


the satanic powers. Two mentalities clashed: On the one hand, the logic of submission to political power and the military or economic power, personified by Babylon, with clear reference to Rome, the hegemonic power of the time. On the other hand, Jesus and the Father, who intend to break this mentality, by proving, at the cost of personal sacrifice, that it is possible to love unconditionally, thus putting humanity back on the trail that the Creator had intended for it. The decisive moment was the sacrifice of the cross, where Jesus, as sac-rificial lamb, showed to all what a loving heart can do. This is why the people of his disciples now celebrates and invites to praise, as Handel’s Hallelujah majestically does. This is a people that celebrates the feast of its liberation together with the choir of angels in heaven, who rejoice over the resulted achieved by the sacrifice of the Father’s beloved Son.The second quotation: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15), is the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom by the angel that concludes the sounding of the seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet, like the seventh seal, repeats the theme of the fulfilment of the good news foretold by the prophets (Rev 10:7). The event is not described directly, but rather in its effects: the prostration of the heavenly court and the opening of the temple, with the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant. What now happens in heaven is also what occurred on earth at the moment of Jesus’ death (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45).Finally, the third quotation: “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 19:16; also see Rev 17:4, where the term refers to the lamb that symbolizes Christ), is an explicit reference to the knight who appears in chapter 19, i.e. Jesus himself, the true and faithful witness who fought and won the decisive battle against all his enemies.

The music and the other arts

The Hallelujah and the Sagrada FamiliaBetween Handel’s Messiah and the Sagrada Familia, there is first an essential similarity. The Messiah’s tripar-tite structure - composed of the Nativity, the Passion and glorification - is also present in the architecture and the iconography of the Basilica’s three grand façades. Gaudi in fact wanted to emphasize the symbolic dimen-sion of the church’s door, understood as openness to the world of God. Likewise, we can consider the three parts of the Messiah as so many introductions to the Christianity’s fundamental mysteries: the Incarnation of the Son of God, his passion and death, and the glorification in afterlife that he has given to humanity. It is interesting to note how these two artists converge by presenting, among the many elements that characterize the Christian religion, the most fundamental ones, surprisingly in line with the themes proposed by the new evangelization and the rediscovery of the first proclamation.

Revelation in stone The text of Revelation as a whole was one of Gaudi’s most important references, as he de-signed his masterpiece. In fact, the basilica has been built on Eixample (“expansion” in Cat-alan) Square - a district created to enlarge the city - precisely to recall symbolically the heaven-ly Jerusalem, described as a perfect square, the bride of the Lamb who “comes down from heaven” to dwell with people forever (Rev 21).


The theme of the square is also reflected in the cloister that surrounds the entire basilica in the shape of a Latin cross.Likewise, in the Book of Revelation, the divine throne on which the Lamb sits is surrounded by the four living crea-tures, identified by tradition as the evangelists. The Lamb, “standing, as though it had been slain” (Rev 5:6), recalls Jesus’ death and resurrection. Therefore, “if we consider Gaudi’s final project, and especially the arrangement of the central towers (not yet built today), we discover that it is modelled after the three-dimensional medieval representation of the Pantocrator surrounded by the “four living creatures.” The central tower (Christ) is surrounded by four towers repre-senting the four evangelists. They are the witnesses of the di-vine Revelation, of the opening of heaven. However, in their midst, on the central tower, Gaudi did not place a throne (as the texts of Revelation and Ezekiel would indicate) nor even a “Pantocrator,” but a Cross. In other words, for Gau-di, God’s “throne” is the Cross - or rather, the Cross alone is God’s “throne.” His omnipotence is the ability to love to the last drop of blood. The capacity for self-giving. Precisely on the cross, Christ is the king who “draws all people to him-self” (Jean Paul Hernandez, 2007, 33).

Finally, we have heard the Hal-lelujah that sings the definitive establishment of the kingdom of God, in which Christians are the protagonists, the “liv-ing stones,” as the Apostle Peter says (1 Pt 2:4 - 9). This theme is admirably depicted by Joan Vi-la-Grau in the beautiful stained glass windows, where “every piece of glass is a “precious stone.” In the Book of Reve-lation, just as in Christian ar-chitecture, the different stones

symbolize each of the faithful. For primitive man, gemstone was already a surprising synthesis of two seem-ingly contrasting elements: the heaviness of the stone and the “immateriality” of light. In Christian sym-bolism, gems represent the union of our human weightiness with the light of God’s grace. In Hebrew, stone has the same root as the word “son” (b’n). The walls of the heavenly Jerusalem, the walls of the “Church” are therefore formed by “sons,” who are heavy (sinners) and at the same time “filled with light,” “full of grace” (Jean Paul Hernandez, 2007, 38).


Actualization

Who is the real king?Revelation - also called The Apocalypse - is one of the most fascinating and misunderstood books in the history of Christianity. The word apocalypse is in fact synonymous with disasters and natural or manmade catastrophes understood to be divine punishment for men’s sins. Nothing could be further from the origi-nal meaning of this text, which ends and seals all Scripture. In fact, The Apocalypse is a “Revelation” of the deeper meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, in which the entire history of salvation is summarized and where we can read about events from after his death until the end of time.One question In particular marks the entire book: if Jesus defeated death once and for all, why are Christians persecuted? How is it that the forces of evil seem to prevail? The theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar has drawn the readers’ attention to a kind of law in the Book of Revelation that explains the dramatic events. With God’s definitive “yes” to humanity, welcomed by Mary’s “yes” to the incarnation, and especially with the Son’s willingness to die for man’s sake, all of the opposing forces in history - the anti-divine powers represented by different symbols in Revelation (the beast rising from the sea, the great whore, the dragon, the Antichrist, Satan) - broke loose. In fact, just as when the doctor arrives, all the diseases are recognized for what they are and are manifested with all their virulence. Paradoxically, however, Revelation invites us to see the reality of the world in a way that differs from our usual assessment. The outbreak of evil, as in a Rossini crescendo, is a symptom of its ultimate defeat. This wild wounded beast is infuriated because it feels threatened and per-ceives its inevitable end. Those who, following the example of the Apocalypse, have accepted this view based on the recognition of the power of Jesus’ loving death, no longer fear anything; they are the martyrs who have not faltered under any persecution, from Diocletian’s to those of our time. The many young people today, in various parts of the world, who unhesitatingly and courageously accept to die rather than renounce their faith, are proof that evil does not win and that love is as strong - or even stronger than - death.

The family and the City: Subject of Evangelization

The Church of Barcelona has decisively invested in the family as a subject of evangelization in the urban context of the big postmodern cities. Cardinal Sistach, in a recent pastoral letter to the Archdiocese, made an interesting link between the family and the primitive community: “Both the Pauline letters and the Book of Revelation show an ecclesial model linked to the city and the home. There is talk of different forms of com-munity linked to a home and the expression domestic or home church is used. Thus, in Rome, we find the church that meets in the house of Prisca and Aquila (Rom 16:3 - 5), of Aristobul (Rom 16:10) or of Narcissus (Rom 16:11). In large cities (Rome, Ephesus, Corinth) and because of the number of Christians, the Church adopted the model of domestic or home church, and communities gathered in people’s houses.Thinking of non-believers or non-practicing Christians and working toward the first objective of our Pas-toral Plan and in Pope Francis’ program of evangelization, we should give great importance to Christian families as domestic churches. These families are already on the geographic and existential borders because of where they live. These domestic Churches are everywhere, and they must become very conscious of their evangelizing mission” (Una iglesia samaritana, 14).

The city, as well as the family, is a place where new cultural paradigms are developed, as Barcelona’s pastoral letter recalls : “The Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization noted that today the changes taking place in these great spaces and the culture which they create are a privileged locus of the new evangelization, as the Holy Father has reminded us: “The proclamation of the Gospel will be a basis for restoring the dignity of human life in these contexts, for Jesus desires to pour out an abundance of life upon our cities” (EG 75). Therefore, the Pope continues by telling us, “What is called for is an evangelization capable of shedding light on these new ways of relating to God, to others and to the world around us, and inspiring essential values. It


must reach the places where new narratives and paradigms are being formed, bringing the word of Jesus to the inmost soul of our cities” (EG 74) (Una iglesia samaritana, 16).

Catechetical Card no. 1: Jesus’ Kingship

Objectives:• Go through a catechetical path that begins with listening to the music.• Present the theme of Jesus’ establishment of the kingdom, as we read it in the Book of Revelation.• Connect the piece that you have listened to with some architectural elements and art in the Sagrada Fa-milia.

Recipients: Children / adolescents / adults with no special musical skills

Development

1 ListeningThe path starts by listening, in a suitable place and with appropriate equipment. At this stage, the guide should not introduce the piece, the author’s intentions, etc. that will be discovered in the course of the guided tour. It is much better to involve the participants in the process of discovery, instead of making them mere spectators or listeners of what others have experienced. The piece can be listened to several times (2-3); the second time, the text with the translation should be provided.

2 Questions for the understanding of the pieceTo promote the understanding and decoding of the piece that has been heard, the guide asks the following questions:

• Did you like the piece of music that you listened to?• Describe in three words the feelings it aroused in you.• Have you already heard this kind of music before?• What instruments did you recognize?• Can you repeat the melody?• IS it simple or complex?• What do you think this music was used for?• Do you know anything about its author and his time?• What accents do you note in the lyrics?

3 ComparisonsYou can now compare what emerged in during the discussion with the observations contained in the musical score and the commentary of the text, which can be read individually or in small groups.

4 To continue the reflectionAfter listening to the music and decoding its movement, the guide can draw attention a series of paradoxical statements that correspond to queries that can be summarized in the following questions:

• If the Lord reigns and has already conquered death, why do we still see so many evil acts that apparently makes His sacrifice ineffective?• To put it in the language of Revelation: Is Jesus truly the King of kings and Lord of lords? Or are there other people who actually reign on earth - with power in its different forms, whether economic, political, military, and so on?


4.1 You can look to see how Gaudi has represented the theme of Jesus’ kingship, observing and com-menting on the pictures and text in the section “The music and the other arts,” and asking the following questions

In relation to picture 1• What do you see?• What geometric shape do you recognize?• What does it make you think of?• Do you know what it means?

After reading the text of The Apocalypse in stone in the section “The music and the other arts” summarize in a sentence what struck you most

In relation to picture 2• What do you see?• What emotions does it stir in you?• What does it make you think of?

After reading the text The Apocalypse in stone in the section “The music and the other arts” summarize in a sentence what struck you most

In relation to picture 3• What do you see?• What emotions does it stir in you?• What does it make you think of?

After reading the text The Apocalypse in stone in the section “The music and the other arts” summarize in a sentence what struck you most

4.2 Later, the lyrics of “Who is the real king” can be read together. In the section “Actualization.” The guide can ask the following questions:

• What is the good news that the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar has described in talking about how to read the Book of Revelation?• Do you share it?• Do you know any other examples of this way of seeing reality?

(Prof. Marco Tibaldi)

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