Handel completed his oratorio Messiah

On September 14, 1741, the composer George Frideric Handel dated the final page of his autograph score for Messiah, the oratorio that would become one of the most performed works in Western music. By his own notations, he had begun on 22 August — finishing the 260-page manuscript in only about 24 days.

The pace was startling but not unique for Handel, who routinely wrote large works between theatre seasons. Setting biblical texts compiled by Charles Jennens, he raced through the three parts, then spent two days “filling up” the orchestration.

Out of that sprint came the soaring “Hallelujah” chorus, still sung worldwide every December.

Messiah premiered in Dublin the following spring and slowly grew into a fixture of the choral repertoire. Handel’s own dated manuscript — now held by the British Library — remains the evidence that one of music’s enduring monuments was drafted in barely three weeks.