Messiah:  A Selective, Annotated Bibliography by David Schildkret Text © 2008 David Schildkret. If this content is used to prepare a concert program or other published/presented work please credit David Schildkret, ASU School of Music, and Music Director, Mount Desert Summer Chorale (also include the URL of this web page).   The second half of the twentieth century saw an explosion in Handel study.  With the 1959 anniversary of the composer’s death and the celebrations of the anniversary of his birth in 1985, there was a great incentive to give Handel and his music a fresh look.  The wealth of material produced can be overwhelming.  Here is a brief guide to some of the best resources.   Books on Messiah   Burrows, Donald.  Handel:  Messiah.  Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge, New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1991.   Part of the outstanding series of music handbooks put out by Cambridge, Burrows’s short study includes all of the latest research on the work.  Like the other books in the series, it is also an excellent guide for a music enthusiast.   Larsen, Jens Peter.  Handel’s Messiah:  Origins, Composition, Sources, second edition.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.   Professor Larsen’s study was pathbreaking when it first came out in 1957 (anticipating the 200th anniversary of Handel’s death).  It remains the most thorough, definitive treatment of the work.  While some of the musicology has been superseded by later work, the most significant findings still hold.  There is an excellent survey of Messiah in Chapter Two that most music lovers will find highly illuminating.   Shaw, Watkins.  A Textual and Historical Companion to Handel’s Messiah.  Revised edition.  Sevenoaks, Kent:  Novello, 1982.   This is the commentary that accompanies Watkins Shaw’s edition of Messiah, published in 1958, again anticipating the 1959 anniversary of the composer’s death.  This was the first edition that systematically offered performers most of the alternate versions of the piece that Handel composed.  The book is fascinating for its recounting of Handel’s own practices in performing the work, including reconstructed cast lists for most of Handel’s performances.   Books on Handel   Dean, Winton.  Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques.  London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.   Winton Dean’s systematic study of Handel’s music was published in two important volumes (the other deals with Handel’s operas).  This book, on the oratorio, first helped performers and audiences to understand that Handel’s oratorios are essentially dramatic works on religious subjects akin to his operas.  This freed them from the ponderous religiosity that characterized Handel performance by the mid-20th century   Hogwood, Christopher.  Handel.  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1984.   Hogwood, one of the leading conductors of the original-instrument movement, produced this biography in anticipation of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1985.  It is by far the most current and authoritative study of the composer available.  A new edition of this book is due out this fall.         Lang, Paul Henry.  George Frideric Handel.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1966.   Professor Lang’s study is thorough, exhaustive, and wonderfully readable.  It remains the standard biography of Handel.   Websites   http://gfhandel.org/messiahlibretto.htm   This gives the complete libretto (text) of Handel’s Messiah and includes the biblical sources.   http://gfhandel.org/messiah.htm               A short essay on Messiah by David Vickers.   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6581236   A set of program notes accompanying an NPR broadcast, written by Christopher Gibbs.   http://www.classicalarchives.com/handel.html               A collection of many online resources concerning Handel and his music.   http://www.npj.com/homepage/teritowe/gfhindex.html               A website created by one of America’s foremost Handel enthusiasts.   http://www.americanhandelsociety.org/   The website of the American Handel Society, an organization of scholars interested in Handel’s music.   http://www.handelhouse.org/               The website for the Handel House Museum in London.