("O Lovely Peace"), and a
Hallelujah in the composer's customary exultant style, close this very
brilliant and dramatic oratorio.

The Dettingen Te Deum.

On the 27th of June, 1743, the British army and its allies, under the
command of King George II. and Lord Stair, won a victory at Dettingen, in
Bavaria, over the French army, commanded by the Marechal de Noailles and
the Duc de Grammont. It was a victory plucked from an expected defeat,
and aroused great enthusiasm in England. On the King's return, a day of
public thanksgiving was appointed, and Handel, who was at that time
"Composer of Musick to the Chapel Royal," was commissioned to write a Te
Deum and an anthem for the occasion. The original score, a large folio
volume in the Royal Collection, is headed "Angefangen Juli 17, 1743."
There is no date at the end; but as the beginning of the Dettingen Anthem
is dated July 30, it is probable that the Te Deum was finished between
the 17th and 30th. Both works were publicly rehearsed at the Chapel
Royal, Whitehall, on the 18th and 25th of the ensuing November, and
formed part of the thanksgiving services on the 27th at the Chapel Royal
of St. James, in the presence of the King and royal family.

The Dettingen Te Deum has been universally considered as one of the
masterpieces among Handel's later works. Never was a victory more
enthusiastically commemorated in music. It is not a Te Deum in the strict
sense, but a grand martial panegyric, and, as Rockstro says:--

"It needs no great stretch of the imagination to picture every drum and
trumpet in the realm taking part in the gorgeous fanfare of its opening
chorus, while the whole army, with the King at its head, joins the
assembled nation in a shout of praise for the escape which was so
unexpectedly changed into a memorable victory."

Schoelcher, in his reference to this work, notes that Handel set the hymn
of St. Ambrose to music five different times in thirty years, and always
with new beauty and fresh color, though it is somewhat remarkable that he
gave each time a plaintive character to the verse, "To Thee all angels
cry aloud,"--a fact also observed by Burney, who says:--

"There is some reason to suspect that Handel, in setting his grand Te
Deum for the peace of Utrecht, as well as in this, confined the meaning
of the word 'cry' to a sorrowful sense, as both the movements to the
words 'To Thee all angels cry aloud