In 1784, the composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was commemorated in London through a series of concerts. According to Charles Burney’s account (1785), the two performances of Messiah at Westminster Abbey during the event were both “magnificent to the sights, and … mellifluous and grateful to the ear.”
Yet, amongst leading figures in the British evangelical movement, not all were pleased with the grand spectacles. In a “short drama,” the poet William Cowper (1731–1800) tersely pronounced that “God is greatly dishonoured” with the worship of Handel. The former slave-captain, author of “Amazing Grace,” and preacher John Newton (1725–1807) responded to the celebration more loquaciously with his Messiah: Fifty Expository Discourses, on the Series of Scriptural Passages, which form the Subject of the celebrated Oratorio of Handel (1786). In these sermons, Newton describes Handel’s music as mere “entertainment” and “an ornament of the words,” offering only temporary “pleasure.” He denies that the oratorio, as sung by a massive choir which surely included unbelievers, was truly “sacred music.” He warns of the dangers of being “captivated by the music” and diverted from the “weighty sense” of the divine words, which he declares “sublime.”
Building on the work of Jonathan Aitken (2007), John Harris (2008), Calvin Stapert (2010), and Larry Sowders (2016), this paper will compare Handel’s musical rhetoric with Newton’s sermons, considering the attention that each gave to the “sublime” Scriptures for Messiah as well as the value and possible benefits of “earthly” music. Despite their differences in approach and aesthetics, both Handel and Newton give particular attention to heavenly scenes of worship, anticipating (each in his own way) the joys of heavenly song. This paper will contribute to an understanding of the roles and methods of music and preaching in eighteenth-century British evangelicalism, as well as the rhetorical skills of both Handel (as composer) and Newton (as preacher).