The video I’m posting below will start at Scene 3 which talks about Isaiah’s prophecy about “Immanuel” being born to a virgin. It will then move through five different parts ending with the famous, “For unto us a Child is born…” It’s 11 minutes to watch this section.
I have always been inspired by the alto part in the first 2 songs and this lady plays the part! I will post the lyrics below so that you can follow along. I am copying this directly from Wikipedia just so you know…no need to “reinvent the wheel” with this oratorio. :)
23:25 : 8. Behold, a virgin shall conceive (alto)
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive" (Isaiah 7:14) is rendered in a short alto recitative, to be "called Immanuel", translated to "God – with us", sung with a rest after "God". This very prophecy is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1:23).
23:49 : 9. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (alto and chorus)
As if the good news was spreading, the solo alto begins "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion" (Isaiah 40:9), and is taken over by the chorus. It is the first music in a swinging 6/8 time. Coloraturas accent the words "mountain" and "glory", and the words "God" and "Lord" are set in long notes. The choir voices enter in imitation, as if gathering, but soon sing together, starting with "arise" (Isaiah 60:1) on a pronounced "ascending fourth"—a signal observed by musicologist Rudolf Steglich as a unifying motif of the oratorio.
29:24 : 10. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth (bass)
In stark contrast, the bass sings the continuation in an accompagnato "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth" (Isaiah 60:2–3) on a background of the strings playing mysterious repeated motifs in major and minor seconds, until the text switches to "but the Lord shall arise" (which the voice presents as a melisma of two measures), followed by coloraturas on "glory" and an upward octave leap to proclaim in the end "and kings [to the brightness of thy rising]".
31:22 : 11. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light (bass)
Although the text "The people that walked in darknesss" is taken from a different chapter of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:2), Handel treats the aria as a continuation of the accompagnato by similar motifs. The darkness is illustrated by the bass and the celli in unison, starting with the seconds of the movement before and proceeding in uneven steps, carefully marked for irregular phrasing. On "have seen a great light", the melody begins to leap, and finally reaches on the word "light" a long high note which the voice holds, while the celli continue their movement. The next occurrence of "darkness" is a broken downward melisma. In the second verse of the text, the gloom of the beginning is intensified by similar unsupported figures on "shadow of death", but once more relieved by "upon them has the light shined", again with the voice singing independently. The aria is not da capo, but follows exactly the two verses from the Old Testament poetry, where the second verse typically parallels the thought of the first.
34:55 : 12. For unto us a child is born (chorus)
The choir concludes the scene, telling the news of Christmas, the birth of a son, "For unto us a Child is born", in Isaiah's words (Isaiah 9:6). Marked piano, the sopranos enter a fugue first, singing a delicate theme with many rests. Their countersubject to the tenors' entry is a shimmering coloratura for more than three measures. The words "and the government shall be upon his shoulders" appears in stately dotted rhythm, culminating in the names "Won-derful", "Coun-selor", "The Mighty God", "The Everlasting Father", "The Prince – of Peace", with the shimmering coloratura in the strings. A second and third round of the development from the tender "child is born" to the proclamation "Prince of Peace" is crowned by the fourth round, with the theme in the bass and the countersubject in soprano and alto in parallel thirds.
Start at 23:25
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