Concert Band
Chorus and March: See the Conquering Hero Comes
by Georg Friedrich Händel
Grade 1.5 | 4 Mins
Handel’s oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus was composed in a period of not much more than a month in 1746. As with the famous Messiah, use was made of previously composed material and indeed See, the Conquering Hero Comes! was grafted from another oratorio about Joshua.
The oratorio tells of the exploits of Judah Maccabee, a hero from Jewish sacred history who was victorious in battles against their pagan enemies. It was used by Handel as an allegory for the campaign of Charles Edward Stewart, who had returned from exile in France in 1745 in an attempt to raise an army of Scottish highlanders and recapture the throne from Handel’s patron, King George II.