657. Whose “Messiah” Is It Anyway?

All sorts of people have put their mark on Messiah, and it has been a hit for nearly 300 years. How can a single piece of music thrive in so many settings? You could say it’s because Handel really knew how to write a banger. (Part three of “Making Messiah.”)

SOURCES:Charles King • , political scientist at Georgetown University. Jane Glover • , classical music scholar, conductor. Katharine Hogg • , musicologist, head librarian at the Foundling Museum. Susannah Heschel • , religion professor, chair of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Mark Risinger • , teacher at St. Bernard’s School. Michael Marissen • , professor emeritus of music at Swarthmore College, author of Tainted Glory in Handel’s Messiah: The Unsettling History of the World’s Most Beloved Choral Work.

RESOURCES:Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah, • by Charles King (2024). • " Why These Christmas Songs Could Only Be Written in America • ," by Eli Lake (The Free Press, • 2024). • " Reflections on Bernstein’s 1956 “Messiah • ,”" by Mark Risinger (Leonard Bernstein Office, • 2022). Handel in London: The Making of a Genius, • by Jane Glover (2018). Tainted Glory in Handel's Messiah: The Unsettling History of the World's Most Beloved Choral Work, • by Michael Marissen (2014). • “ Handel’s Messiah • ,” performed by The London Symphony Orchestra (2007).

EXTRAS: • " Making Messiah • ," series by Freakonomics Radio • (2025).

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