Nos. 8-12: Recitative - “Behold, a virgin shall conceive”; Aria/Chorus - “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion”; Recitative - “For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth”; Aria - “The people that walked in darkness”; Chorus - “For unto us a child is born”
Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 40:9, 60:1-3; Isaiah 9:2, 6
“[Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;] Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel - God with us.”
“O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings unto Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”
”For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
The final prophetic section before the narrative of Christ’s birth emphasizes Jesus’ divine and human natures - this child to be born is both a great man to whom Gentiles and kings alike will pay homage, and the mighty God, the everlasting Father, God with us. The sequence of texts is somewhat disjointed from its actual locations in Scripture to emphasize the continuity of these concepts throughout Old Testament prophecy, particularly Isaiah’s writings. The other theme which plays out through these texts in this order is the contrast of the divine light of Christ illumining those who are in darkness. In its prophetic context, the people in darkness are the Jews in captivity; in the Christian context the captive Jews represent all mankind in our fallen state.
The opening recitative and aria are set in D major, that most triumphant of Baroque keys, but we would not know it from the settings. Even when the chorus enters after the mezzo-soprano finishes her part of the aria, the trumpets and timpani are silent, the only accompaniment being oboes, violins, and continuo. For me at least, this is an extremely clever way of portraying as-yet-unfulfilled prophecy - the glory is present in the tonality of the piece, but not yet fully revealed in orchestral splendor. That waits for the angels’ proclamation of the birth of Christ in the next section.
From here Handel moves to B minor, our serious key from the Overture, for the bass recitative and aria exploring the darkness that man brought upon himself and the light which Christ brings to those in shadow. Again, this prophetic saying has more than one meaning, referring both to the captive Israelites and to fallen humanity as a whole, but also to those who have died and are wandering in shadow and darkness in Hades. One is reminded of the noble wandering pagans in Dante’s outer circle of hell (although Dante had a somewhat different theological point he was making, but I digress). Handel’s music is ingenious, containing a sense of futile trudging in the orchestral introductions of both pieces. The bass gives a beautiful image of the Lord raising his people out of darkness with a melisma on the word “arise,” and then a descent mirroring Christ’s descent to us in the Incarnation on the word “glory.” The bass solo has another striking picture of someone trying to walk somewhere with great effort and little result at the beginning of the aria, where the musical line contains a series of repeated half steps that, in the end, are forced down into the depths (a low F-sharp for those basses lucky enough to have a performable range that low).
Finally, the chorus caps off the era of prophecy by proclaiming who it is that brings light into darkness - the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, now present with us [Immanuel] as a man. The famous melismas that bounce around the choir throughout this piece, including a particularly striking double-third duet between soprano and alto near the end of the movement, express our joy at this miraculous birth. The key of G major gives a flavor of buoyancy, light, and forward energy.