During the course of 1735, Handel's fluctuating operatic fortunes dramatically turned with the success of Alcina and Ariodante at Covent Garden. However, it was now evident to Handel that real prosperity lay in the performance of oratorios, four of which had also been mounted during the same season. In January 1736, he commenced on a new English dramatic work that, although not a traditional oratorio, still shows Handel's commitment to that new, and financially promising, genre.

Alexander's Feast; or The Power of Music is based on an ode written by John Dryden to celebrate St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, in 1697. Her feast day (November 22) had been traditionally celebrated in England since early Restoration times, as witnessed by the settings of odes in her honor by Purcell, Blow, and others. Direct connections between the saint and Dryden's ode are few; the text makes reference to her only in its concluding pages. It was arranged for Handel into a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choruses cast in two parts by a minor man of letters, Newburgh Hamilton.

The "entertainment," as it was described, is set at the famous feast of Alexander held to celebrate the conquest of Persepolis. The musical allegory is enhanced by the inclusion at the feast of the legendary singer Timotheus; the comparison between him and Cecilia forms the climax of the work. There is little dramatic development, but Dryden's picturesque imagery allowed Handel to produce a superbly varied score that includes such famous numbers as the two bass arias "Bacchus, ever fair" (with chorus) and "Revenge, Timotheus cries." The work calls for five soloists (SAATB), chorus, and a large orchestra employing recorders, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Completed in relative haste, Alexander's Feast was first performed at a well-attended Covent Garden on February 19, 1736; on that occasion it was supplemented by several concertos, including the Concerto Grosso in C (now known as the Alexander's Feast Concerto) and the Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 1. Two years after its first performance, Alexander's Feast achieved the unusual distinction of being published in full score by the London publisher John Walsh.

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