Throughout his career, George Frideric Händel (1685-1759) appears to have had a keen ability to make the right contacts. His talent brought him at a young age from his German hometown of Halle to Hamburg, a prosperous and flourishing city, where he wrote several successful operas. Encouraged by Prince Ferdinando de Medici, he travelled soon thereafter – presumably in the summer of 1706 – to Italy, the birthplace of opera. He would spend four years there. In early 1707, he went to Rome, where he immediately made a big impression with a series of Psalms for soloists, choir and orchestra, including Dixit Dominus and Laudate pueri. It was long thought that the cantata Il pianto di Maria was also his work, but very recent research has shown that it is by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (1710-1791).
Psalms for the Vespers liturgy
In Rome, a city with a rich concert tradition in both noble and clerical circles, Handel made a big impression upon his arrival in January 1707. We learn this from a diary entry by a certain Francesco Valesio: “There has arrived in this city a man from Saxony, a most excellent player of the harpsichord and composer, who today gave a flourish of his skill by playing the organ in the church of San Giovanni to the amazement of all present.” Handel quickly worked his way into the upper circles of church and nobility, and received one commission after the other.
Later that year, Cardinal Carlo Colonna asked him to write a series of works based on Latin texts for the Carmelite order’s vespers for the celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of the Carmelites, at the famous Santa Maria di Monte Santo church. And so the Psalms Dixit Dominus HWV 232, Laudate pueri HWV 237 (of which he had written a first version in Hamburg) and Nisi Dominus HWV 238 saw the light. With the masterpiece Dixit Dominus, Handel showed that he had perfectly mastered the Italian style and technique of counterpoint. The Protestant composer sought to emphasize the triumphant character of the Catholic Latin text: the splendid tonal colour, the vocal virtuosity, the powerful energy; these allowed Handel to rival Vivaldi. The lyrical aria, the dramatic refrains, the contrapuntal inventiveness and the impressive effects equalled the style that would mark Handel’s work a few decades later.
The psalm Dixit Dominus is written for soloists, a five-part choir, string orchestra and basso continuo. It is a particularly virtuoso work, with high standards for both musicians and singers. Handel conceived the work as a religious cantata in eight movements, along with a small doxology. In both the opening and the final movements, and very appropriately to the words “as it was in the beginning”, a sustained cantus firmus is heard. Between them, Handel alternated between the choir and the soloists, who sing emotionally charged passages from the Vulgate version of Psalm 109. The text, which was very popular in Handel’s day, depicts Christ as a prophet, priest and king of all peoples and nations.
At the end of the 18th century, Dixit Dominus fell into oblivion, likely because works sung in Latin were less popular in England, where Handel was living from 1710 onwards. Only after 1952 would the work be performed again.
