Facsimile of the composer's conducting score from the library of St Michael's College, Tenbury Wells, with an introduction by Watkins Shaw, published for the Royal Musical Association on the occasion of its centenary. Oblong folio. [vii] pp., 82, 140 ff. Publisher's printed cloth. Very fine.

Handel's most celebrated work, the English-language oratorio was composed in 1741, the text compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April, 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Handel's "Messiah retains the iconic status it had acquired by 1750 and has never relinquished, and will no doubt continue to do so while the great Christian festivals are celebrated, but it now takes its place alongside many other peaks of Handel’s achievement which a happy combination of scholarly advocacy and the enthusiasm of practical musicians has, after much struggle, revealed." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online