for the enemies of the Most
High; 'He smote.' And when for variety's sake the scimitar-phrase is
transferred from orchestra to voices, it is admirable to see how the
same character of the falchion--of hip-and-thigh warfare, of victory
predominant--is sustained in the music till the last bar. If we have
from Handel a scorn-chorus in the 'Messiah,' and here a disgust-chorus,
referred to a little while since,[3] this is the execution, or revenge
chorus,--the chorus of the unflinching, inflexible, commissioned Angels
of the Sword."

After their savage mission is accomplished, we come to a chorus in
pastoral style ("But as for His People, He led them forth like Sheep"),
slow, tender, serene, and lovely in its movement, and grateful to the ear
both in its quiet opening and animated, happy close, after the terrors
which have preceded it. The following chorus ("Egypt was glad"), usually
omitted in performance, is a fugue, both strange and intricate, which it
is claimed Handel appropriated from an Italian canzonet by Kerl. The next
two numbers are really one. The two choruses intone the words, "He
rebuked the Red Sea," in a majestic manner, accompanied by a few massive
chords, and then pass to the glorious march of the Israelites, "He led
them through the Deep,"--a very elaborate and complicated number, but
strong, forcible, and harmonious throughout, and held together by the
stately opening theme with which the basses ascend. It is succeeded by
another graphic chorus ("But the Waters overwhelmed their Enemies"), in
which the roll and dash of the billows closing over Pharaoh's hosts are
closely imitated by the instruments, and through which in the close is
heard the victorious shout of the Israelites, "There was not one of them
left." Two more short choruses,--the first, "And Israel saw that Great
Work," which by many critics is not believed to be a pure Handel number,
and its continuation, "And believed the Lord," written in church style,
close this extraordinary chain of choral pictures.

The second part, "The Song of Moses,"--which, it will be remembered, was
written first,--opens with a brief but forcible orchestral prelude,
leading directly to the declaration by the chorus, "Moses and the
Children of Israel sang this Song," which, taken together with the
instrumental prelude, serves as a stately introduction to the stupendous
fugued chorus which follows ("I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath
triumphed gl