Dixit Dominus Domino meo in G Minor

Handel’s first surviving choral work, Dixit Dominus, is a flamboyant, risk-taking masterpiece. Composed in Rome in April 1706, it is extraordinarily self-assured in style for a 22-year-old. The vivid text of Psalm 110, the opening psalm for all Sunday and feast-day vesper services, tended to encourage dramatic settings. Handel went further than most: his is on a grand scale, divided into nine movements, contrasting ambitious choruses with intense ensembles and solo arias. This is young man’s music, at every turn demonstrating his ability to write in a wide range of styles—old and new. He was positively fanatical about squeezing every last drop of drama from the powerful Old Testament imagery: when God “shatters” his enemies the chorus follows suit and aggressively breaks up the word con-qua-ssa-bit. In the opening chorus he experiments with the impact of the sopranos singing in slow notes (donec ponam), providing a foil for vigorous banter in the other voices—a technique he later perfected in the “Hallelujah” chorus.