Choruses: Hooray for the Lord!

In the late summer of 1741, Composer George Frederick Handel, plagued by ill health and spurned by a once-adoring public, isolated himself in his London house to work on a new oratorio. Falling into an almost trancelike state, he slaved feverishly day and night with little food or sleep. At one point a servant found him at his desk, tears streaming down his face. "I did think I did see all Heaven before me," Handel cried, "and the great God himself!" After 23 days Handel emerged with his monumental Messiah, the profoundly moving testament of Christian faith that has be...

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