Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...> wrote: Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...> wrote:
The tricky thing is that what the original psalm means may be different from 1) what a Jewish scholar would think, 2) what a Christian theologist would think 3) what Handel's librettist thought it meant, at least for the purposes of "Messiah" 4) how Handel chose to interpret it (which in some cases did not match the librettists ideas - the librettist was not perfectly happy with Handel's handling of the words)
I think for 2-4, "Thou" is Jesus, whose "gifts" were those of heaven for his disciples. He went up on "high" as in to 7th prayer meditation plane and God (metaphorically), or to heaven as in where people go when they die (literally). In both cases, they would be the keys to the salvation of his people. As for 1), a Jewish scholar would clearly have a different opinion on the text than a Christian one! :-)
I would go with what the librettist/composer took the text to mean...It's basically part of the larger "Easter" section of Messiah. IMO, the alto part is the most Marian perspective of all the soloists. Deeply grateful and tragic, with muted joy. FWIW...
Tako
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