Michael Marissen (born July 31, 1960 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian professor of music at Swarthmore College, where he joined the faculty in 1989.
Marissen's most controversial work began as an essay published in The New York Times on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007, entitled “Unsettling History of That Joyous ‘Hallelujah’", which is the basis for his recently published monograph entitled, Tainted Glory in Handel's Messiah: The Unsettling History of the World's Most Beloved Choral Work (Yale University Press, 2014).
The first half of the book outlines his thesis that Handel and his librettist showed an unattractive and morally questionable anti-Judaism that manifested itself in "triumphalism," a caustic celebration of the defeat of the Jews at the hands of the Romans (in AD 70, with the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple).
The article received a long series of spirited responses, including a follow-up news story in the Times, many letters to the editor, follow-up responses in a wide variety of publications [2][3][4] (including from Watergate-figure Chuck Colson[5] and from the religion author Martin E. Marty), along with extensive blog and internet newsgroup discussions.
Making careful biblical and theological scrutiny of the librettos, he also shows how Bach's pitches, rhythms, and tone colors can create meaning that goes beyond setting texts in an aesthetically satisfying manner.