Music Professor Offers New Interpretation of Handel's "Messiah" in New York Times

The singing of Handel's "Messiah" is a popular staple of the Christmas season. Daniel Underhill Professor of Music Michael Marissen offers what the New York Times calls an "unsettling history of that joyous 'hallelujah'" in its Sunday April 8 issue.

Marissen writes: "'Messiah' lovers may be surprised to learn that the work was meant not for Christmas but for Lent, and that the 'Hallelujah' chorus was designed not to honor the birth or resurrection of Jesus but to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in A.D. 70."   Read more. (subscription required)

A profile of Michael Marissen, an internationally acclaimed Bach scholar, appeared in the September 2003 issue of the Bulletin.  Read it here.