G.F. Händel: JEPHTHA - How dark, O Lord

[@anselmkersten4454]

Handel wrote this when he was going blind. One of the saddest things I've seen is his own manuscript of this piece. He put in the noteheads, but when he went back to put in the stems in the instrumental staves, he couldn't see well enough to do it. That's why the page contains only noteheads in these parts. In the bottom right hand corner, he wrote a pathetic (in the original sense of "pathos") remark, in his native German, that he couldn't go on due to the weakening of sight in his left eye. The chorus he was working on was this very one: "How dark O Lord are thy decrees, all hid from mortal sight". The last line, "whatever is, is right" is from Alexander Pope's poem "An Essay on Man". Handel's librettist, Morell, changed this to "What God ordains is right", but Handel changed it back. You can't help seeing his own feeling about his situation, and his determination to accept the inevitable, in his emphatic setting of those words. How poignant and moving!

[@philipthonemann2524]

Lovely stuff - many thanks!

[@ferdiriordan1]

Stunningly beautiful. Thanks for upload.

[@nocturne-memories3629]

This song is sublime and divine to worship with this choir does a lovely way o playing it

[@ernani54]

j'aime beaucoup cette oeuvre

[@marciodesouza225]

Vida longa a genialidade de Handel!!!

[@jtomasel]

amazing

[@johnlyons6374]

very moving piece.

[@rafaelbanusirusta5430]

Una obra maravillosa. Muy dramática.

[@sylviajk1]

Very timely