uty of expression; the language of Scripture seems to be clothed,
as it were, in a beautiful garment of music which, ever changing as
the oratorio proceeds, appears to give the fullest and most exact
expression to each portion of the sacred story. At one time the music
blazes forth like a jewelled crown when it catches the sun; at another
it soars heavenwards like the song of the lark; once again it pours
forth like the thunderous roar of a huge cataract, filling our ears
with the majesty of its volume; then, again, it sinks to the tender
moan of the wind as it sweeps through the trees; but everywhere and at
all times it seems to exactly fit the words, and to give them their
noblest expression. The oratorio opens with an overture, grand, yet
simple, and designed to prepare our minds for the story which follows.
Then we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'Comfort ye my people,'
telling of the coming of the Messiah, and relating the signs by which
His approach is to be heralded--'Ev'ry valley shall be exalted,'
etc.--and leading up to the revelation, 'The people that walked in
darkness have seen a great light,' and so to the mighty outburst of
harmony--'Wonderful! Counsellor!'--with which the prophecy reaches its
culminating point. When these words are thundered forth in chorus we
seem to have suddenly presented to our eyes a picture of the Messiah
as He was revealed to the mind of the Prophet. But note attentively
what follows. With the concluding notes of that grand choral outburst
still ringing in our ears--the designation of a mighty Prince, a great
Counsellor--we find ourselves, at the ushering in of the Nativity,
not, as the words of the chorus would seem to predict, at the
welcoming scene of a great Prince in all his splendour, but in the
presence of a group of lowly shepherds tending their flocks in the
quiet fields of Judaea. How wonderfully striking is the contrast
between the grandeur of the concluding chorus and the simplicity and
quiet beauty of the scene now presented to us by the Pastoral
Symphony! It is founded upon the ancient melody which Handel had heard
the Calabrian shepherds play at Rome[6] many years before, and soon
the air is ringing with the chorus of the heavenly host, 'Glory to God
in the highest,' followed by the joyful outburst, 'Rejoice greatly.'
Then comes the revelation of what Christ shall be to His people--'He
shall feed His flock like a Shepherd,' 'His yoke is easy and His
burthen is