William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

HWV. 57; Year: 1743; Genre: Baroque Period/classical Handel's masterpiece oratorio Samson , which was based on John Milton's drama Samson Agonistes , first premiered in the year 1743 and happened to be the same as my song number pick today, so I decided I would choose it. Handel seemed to be quite a busy man during the early 1740s; another one of his oratorios, the epic and well-known The Messiah (HWV. 56) had just premiered a year or so prior. Even though he has a huge list of great composition, which is longer than many others', his name is synonymous with The Messiah . Today if you asked someone to name one of his pieces they would of course say something like: "Oh yeah, Handel's Messiah !"; there is no mistaking that it is by far his most famous piece, and rightfully so. If you listen to this one and have already heard The Messiah , you'll hear more than a few similarities between the two pieces. However, there are quite a few of his works th...

1095 Sky - Sarabande Felt like adding another Rock interpretation of a classic; this one, of course, was originally composed by Handel . Quite a few of the songs in Sky's catalogue are these Rock arrangements of classical music. This one actually stays somewhat traditional sounding until about 3/4 of the way through the track, then becomes a bit more raucous. Here is the studio version on YouTube. Here is a live performance circa '81 on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Lynyrd Skynyrd - On The Hunt My song pick two years ago today: Ian Anderson - A Better Moon +

I have been having a very good weekend and this beautiful piece of music fits my mood quite well. This is an Aria from the first section of Handel's epic Oratorio The Messiah ; to those who are unaware, an Oratorio is an opera with a religious theme. Most would remember the famous Hallelujah Chorus , however this is probably my favourite movement of the entire Oratorio; it takes a tenor with excellent vocal control to sing this one properly. For the music Handel employed a technique that is known as text painting, which is basically where the melody is written to imitate the lyrics. While this is his most famous work I would implore people to listen to more of his music. Here is a performance of the piece performed by The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis on YouTube. +