George Frideric Handel's Music: The Glory of the Lord
'And the glory of the lord is a piece of music written by George Friedrich ‘Handel’. This piece has been performed in many orchestras and is known worldwide. The century in which 'and the glory of the lord' was written in, was the 17th century.
This piece of music is a chorus number from the Messiah. The music for the Messiah was completed in 24 days. The vocal work in the Messiah is ‘oratorio’. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestras and choirs. Operas is in a musical theatre, whilst oratorio is a concert piece.
The piece starts with an orchestral introduction, known as a ritornellos. The piece is based on four main musical structures such as SATB, which is soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The alto can also be sung by a man. This is a choir with strings and continuo – the continuo is a part which continues all the way through the music, in this case it is played by the organ and cello. The orchestra doubles with the vocals. It is syllabic and has a descending sequence on ‘revealed’ this is called ‘melismatic’; melismatic is when more than one note is used per syllable. The music conveys joy throughout a ¾ tempo, an allegro tempo and only uses major keys such as A, B and E. Sometimes it is in adagio, sounding like beat 2/4. This piece of work ends in a plagal cadence – the chord 6 is followed by chord 1. The music sounds finished but the sound is duller than the perfect cadence. This includes imitation, where different parts copy each other at different times and alters with homophonic, polyphonic and monophonic but the piece is entirely diatonic.
This piece of music is a chorus number from the Messiah. The music for the Messiah was completed in 24 days. The vocal work in the Messiah is ‘oratorio’. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestras and choirs. Operas is in a musical theatre, whilst oratorio is a concert piece.
The piece starts with an orchestral introduction, known as a ritornellos. The piece is based on four main musical structures such as SATB, which is soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The alto can also be sung by a man. This is a choir with strings and continuo – the continuo is a part which continues all the way through the music, in this case it is played by the organ and cello. The orchestra doubles with the vocals. It is syllabic and has a descending sequence on ‘revealed’ this is called ‘melismatic’; melismatic is when more than one note is used per syllable. The music conveys joy throughout a ¾ tempo, an allegro tempo and only uses major keys such as A, B and E. Sometimes it is in adagio, sounding like beat 2/4. This piece of work ends in a plagal cadence – the chord 6 is followed by chord 1. The music sounds finished but the sound is duller than the perfect cadence. This includes imitation, where different parts copy each other at different times and alters with homophonic, polyphonic and monophonic but the piece is entirely diatonic.