Music for Love and Marriage: Handel’s “He Shall Feed His Flock”

 

Love and Marriage

Love and Marriage is our theme for the week. Notice I say “is” and not “are.” That’s because the two are inseparable. In any case, this is National Marriage Week, starting with World Marriage Day yesterday, and concluding with the Feast of St. Valentine this coming Saturday. I’ll have more to say about this poorly understood saint on his feast day. One thing, however, is clear from his story: for Valentine and his fellow Christians, romantic love was inseparable from Christian marriage.  

In that spirit, I chose for today’s Music Monday selection a piece that has been traditionally played at weddings, “He Shall Feed his Flock Like a Shepherd” from Handel’s Messiah. Although most of us today tend to associate the Messiah with the season of Advent and the run-up to Christmas, Handel originally composed his oratorio for the season of Lent. 

Never out of Place

As it happens, Lent is just around the corner. And in fact, if you attended the Traditional Latin Mass yesterday, you probably noticed that father was already wearing the purple vestments of the penitential season.  For many centuries the Church observed a pre-Lenten season known as Septuagesima. The first Sunday of pre-Lent is Septuagesima Sunday, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Septuagesima disappeared for most of the Roman Church in 1969 in the same reform of the liturgical calendar that removed St. Valentine’s Day as a formal observance.

It’s not surprising that the Messiah has shifted to the less somber penitential season of Advent, since the exuberance of much of its music seems a little out of place for Lent. “He Shall Feed his Flock Like a Shepherd,” with its quiet intensity, however, never sounds out of place.  It starts out with the description of the Good Shepherd from Isaiah 40:11: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd . . .” Midway through the piece we shift to Matthew 11:28-29 “Come unto Him, all ye who labour . . .” In this context “He Shall Feed His Flock” emphasizes the love of the God who is Love (see John 4:8) for all of us, but especially for our own love as expressed in the Sacrament of Marriage.

Featured image top of page: The Good Shepherd, by Phillippe de Champaigne, 17th century

He Shall Feed His Flock

Soprano Regula Mühlemann sings in the clip below, accompanied by the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, with Ramus Baumann conducting.

 

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs
with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are
with young. (Isaiah 40: 11)
Come unto Him, all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and
He will give you rest. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He
is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(Matthew 11: 28-29)