It’s the holiday season - time to go sing Handel’s “Messiah” at a church near you. Make sure you bring:
- Music
- Water
- Friends
- Iron Bladder
- Mouthwash
- a healthy dose of humor
I attended my first Messiah sing-along tonight. Graciously, we skipped all the solos and merely sang the chorus parts, so it was a bearable sub 2-hour performance (sub-standard that is). But you’re not there to ace the performance, right… you’re there to enjoy the music, to experience a community, and to honor one of the great choral works — by completely slaughtering the singing!?!?
After a few of the more difficult passages where you alternate being lost, with only thinking you know where you are… laughter breaks out. “Hey! I hit that last note! Right on.. next!”
But the BEST PART is the HALLELUJAH CHORUS! Oh joy… something almost everyone knows reasonably well. And it sounds good, Hallelujah! (finally hits me why they called it that)
All in all… a great experience. But some of those harder sections… oh man. I’ve GOT to bring a recording device next time. That’d be comedy gold! One more reason to do it all over again next year.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:51 am
How come I didn’t get invited? Sounds like such a wonderful way to spend 3 hours (including drive time and mingling).
So how come the need for the mouthwash? That sounds like a funny story.
Yes! Next time do sneak in a recording device. Make sure to position yourself directly to the well-meaning, but extremely tone-deaf person (as if there was only one).
December 16th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Say, it sounds like it was a “fun-ny” sing-along. Do you think Handel would have been pleased or just be shaking in his grave???? The great thing about that magnificent piece of music is that it is so loved and so performed for hundreds of years after its conception and debut. We all sing “Hallelujah” when we finally make it to that part of the work! Great review. Maybe next year I’ll go along.