Handel's Occasional Oratorio (Vol. iii., p. 426.).
—The "Occasional Oratorio" is a separate composition, containing an overture, 10 recitatives, 21 airs, 1 duet, and 15 choruses. It was produced in the year 1745. It is reported, I know not on what authority, that the King having ordered Handel to produce a new oratorio on a given day, and the artist having answered that it was impossible to do it in the time (which must have been unreasonably short, to extort such a reply from the intellect that produced The Messiah in three weeks, and Israel in Egypt in four), his Majesty deigned no other answer than that done it must and should be, whether possible or not, and that the result was the putting forward of the "Occasional Oratorio."
The structure of the oratorio, which was evidently a very hurried composition, gives a strong air of probability to the anecdote. Evidently no libretto was written for it; the words tell no tale, are totally unconnected, and not even always tolerable English, a fine chorus (p. 39. Arnold) going to the words "Him or his God we no fear." It is rather a collection of sacred pieces, strung together literally without rhyme or reason in the oratorio form, than one oratorio. The examination of it leads one to the conclusion, that the composer took from his portfolio such pieces as he happened to have at hand, strung them together as he best could, and made up the necessary quantity by selections from his other works. Accordingly we find in it the pieces "The Horse and his Rider," "Thou shalt bring them in," "Who is like unto Thee?" "The Hailstone Chorus," "The Enemy said I will pursue," from Israel in Egypt, written in 1738; the chorus "May God from whom all Mercies spring," from Athaliah (1733); and the chorus "God save the King, long live the King," from the Coronation Anthem of 1727. There is also the air "O! Liberty," which he afterwards (in 1746) employed in Judas Maccabæus. Possibly some other pieces of this oratorio may be found also in some of Handel's other works, not sufficiently stamped on my memory for me to recognise them; but I may remark that the quantity of Israel in Egypt found in it may perhaps have so connected it in some minds with that glorious composition as to have led to the practice referred to of prefixing in performance the overture to the latter work, to which, although the introductory movement, the fine adagio, and grand march are fit enough, the light character of the fugue is, it must be confessed, singularly inappropriate.
I am not aware of any other "occasion" than that of the King's will, which led to the composition of this oratorio.
D. X.
Stone Chalice (Vol. ii., p. 120.).
—They are found in the ancient churches in Ireland, and some are preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and in private collections. A beautiful specimen is engraved in Wakeman's Handbook of Irish Antiquities, p. 161.
R. H.
Thanksgiving Book (Vol. iii., p. 328.).
—The charge for a "Thanksgiving Book," mentioned by A CHURCHWARDEN, was no doubt for a Book of Prayers, &c., on some general thanksgiving day, probably after the battle of Blenheim and the taking of Gibraltar, which would be about the month of November. A similar charge appears in the Churchwardens' accounts for the parish of Eye, Suffolk, at a much earlier period, viz. 1684, which you may probably deem worthy of insertion in your pages: