Sinfony

About this scene

The French overture, the Grave's heavy dotted pulses in deep blue, then the fugue's voices of light.

The Grave. The house is deep blue, and every long dotted note of the strings sends a heavy pulse of brighter blue out from the back of the porch along the whole roofline to both ends; each short upbeat that snaps after it is a quick glint on Porch Front. The pulses are heaviest where the bass and the first violins climb, and on the second-time chord the pulses stop and the house holds its breath, dim, waiting.

Then the fugue, and each string part enters as its own light, one run at a time. The first violins alone: the subject in white-gold on Porch Front, the far light, every note a bright point placed along the run by its pitch. The second violins answer in silver on Left; the violas and the basses come in together, the violas in gold on Right and the basses in amber on both porch runs, the way between, until all four voices run at once. At the first cadence the music leaps to the fugue's last entry, fortissimo: one full-house flash on the chord before it, Side joins in gold, and the four voices run brighter than before. The Più lento gathers the points into steady light, and the last E minor chord settles: white-gold on the porch, the wings deep blue, the house still.

The music is Handel's own: Messiah No. 1, the Grave's bars 1-4 and 9-11 with its second-time chord (bar 12), the fugue's exposition, bars 13-25 to the first cadence, and its end from the fortissimo entry at the letter F, bars 86-97 with the Più lento, transcribed from Prout's full score (Novello, 1902) into sinfony.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at Prout's marks, Grave crotchet 60 and Allegro moderato 116, the Più lento at 80. Strings only, as Handel scored it, with a harpsichord continuo; the last chord is held.