Q: I just heard Corelli's Fuga a Quattro Voci and I heard a theme that I absolutely recognized as being a major part of Hallelujah chorus in Handel's Messiah. My question is whether Corelli included this melody in the fugue after Handel wrote it in the Messiah or if Handel included the theme in the Messiah after Corelli wrote it in the fugue? In other words, which one came first?
A: Handel wrote the Messiah decades after Corelli's death, so if one of those is true, it must be that Handel included Corelli's theme.