According to the autograph manuscript, George Frideric
Handel put the finishing touches on his Nisi Dominus,
HWV 238 for vocal soloists, chorus, and string
orchestra on July 13, 1707, making it probably the last
of the composer's sacred Latin choral works to be
written during the first of his two or three extended
visits to Rome.
When Handel moved from Northern Germany, his lifelong
home up to that point, to Italy in 1706 it was for the
express purpose of gathering up a real first-hand
...(+)
According to the autograph manuscript, George Frideric
Handel put the finishing touches on his Nisi Dominus,
HWV 238 for vocal soloists, chorus, and string
orchestra on July 13, 1707, making it probably the last
of the composer's sacred Latin choral works to be
written during the first of his two or three extended
visits to Rome.
When Handel moved from Northern Germany, his lifelong
home up to that point, to Italy in 1706 it was for the
express purpose of gathering up a real first-hand
knowledge of Italian opera, a genre in which he had
already begun to dabble while still living in Hamburg.
However, Handel's choice to travel to Rome near the end
of that first Italian year, or perhaps at the beginning
of the next, was a little counterproductive if the
opera-houses were really his goal, since Papal edict
had put an end to all dramatic, theatrical
entertainment in the city all the way back in 1677.
Handel had no trouble finding employment as a composer
of pure sacred music, however, and it was in this
fashion that he filled the time until he found it
possible to move on to Venice at the end of 1707 (he
had meanwhile found a sponsor in the person of the
Marquis Francesco Ruspoli, however, so he did return to
Rome several times over the next couple years to write
secular music for the Marquis).
Nisi Dominus is not nearly as sizeable a work as its
better-known companion piece Dixit Dominus, HWV 232,
but it too is a setting in several small, oratorio-like
sections of a Psalm (Psalm 127, or 126 in the alternate
numbering scheme), to which is added a setting of the
Lesser Doxology traditionally read after the
Psalm-reading; the total number of musical sections,
including the gloria Patri Doxology, is six.
The violins usher in the opening chorus (not a pure
chorus, but one to which the three soloists--an alto,
or more properly countertenor, a tenor, and a bass--add
their more individual thoughts) with some energetically
spinning arpeggio figures--the same kind of figuration
that begins Dixit Dominus. The tenor aria that follows
is really something of a duet for the singer and the
cello/bass, which plods steadily forth with a
dotted-rhythm idea. Cum dederit, for alto solo, floats
along on a gentle repeated-note string background,
while the following bass aria, Sicut sagittae, plunges
forth with hair-raising string viruosity (as the text
refers to "arrows in the hand of a mighty man"), only
to immediately calm down as the singer moves on to
consider the "young children."
The tenor gets a second aria, Beatus vir, before Handel
divides both the chorus and the orchestra into two
ensembles each (i.e. double chorus and double string
orchestra) for the final, splendiferous Doxology,
Gloria Patri; the result is some of the most
acoustically stunning music Handel ever wrote. As the
Doxology moves forward, the opening tones of the first
movement--violin arpeggios, chorus in unison--are
reprised just enough to set the stage for a rich choral
imitation that moves with great joy towards the final
AmenNisi Dominus (HWV 238). Note that Friedrich
Chrysander had prepared the 'Gloria Patri' (which was
seen as an independent work, at the time) for volume 49
of his edition of Händel's works, but that volume was
never published and is not included here.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/composition/nisi-dominus-psal
m-for-soloists-chorus-amp-orchestra-in-g-hwv-238-mc0002
362052).
Although originally written for Mixed Chorus & Baroque
Orchestra, I created this Interpretation of the Aria:
"Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere" (It is vain for
you to rise) from "Nisi Dominus" (HWV 238 Mvt 2) for
Viola & Cello Duet.
SHEET MUSIC