Music: An Appreciation, Brief 7th Edition (Kamien)

Chapter 15: George Frideric Handel

Music to Express Belief

Religious music in the baroque era demonstrated strong emotions through all musical elements. Compositional technique in musical texture was a particularly important tool. Handel used a variety of textures in the Messiah to emphasize meaning and affect.

Find a brief text of religious scripture or poetry that you feel deeply about. Describe in an essay your musical decisions for each line, phrase, or word in terms of texture and several other musical elements. Will you use monophony, homophony, or polyphony for certain words or phrases? Why? Remember that in polyphony, the words are not heard as well as in the other textures, because the music is more complex and the voices enter at different times. Carefully review the Vocal Music Guide for Handel's Messiah in Chapter 15 for this project.