The Vision Behind a Musical Performance

I feel as though one of the most important things about musical performances is the pieces that are chosen. They need to work well together, and be something that fits the performers, and entertain the audience.

This brings me to this old newspaper article I came across.

This article was released on Jan. 30, 1824. Published by The Times, it talks about a “performance of Ancient and Modern music”. It appears that the performance was split into three parts; Part I included the “ancient” music, whilst part III included the more “modern” music (for their time, of course). Interestingly enough part II is its own thing. It is The day of Judgement. At first, it seems as though this section, though it could arguably be considered another “ancient” piece of music, it isn’t grouped together in part I with the other older pieces.

Regardless, another thing I can’t help but to wonder while reading this. The article was vague when talking about which pieces they were going to select for The Messiah. I wonder what they chose, and why they chose it.

Yet another thing, considering it was only a few sections of The Messiah, I also think about the fact that The Messiah is a story. Going back to how they never specified which pieces were selected, I wonder how the story or meaning behind the music really came across its audience. Was that even thought about while selecting the pieces? I know when it comes to my old performances back in highschool, we often did the same thing. We played a piece that was a part of a larger story. However, It doesn’t have nearly as strong of an effect. The audience, or even sometimes the performers, don’t have the full story to the piece. Would Handel be unnerved by the fact that people pick and choose his story?