Everyone needs Messiah at least once in their lives
OrchestrasFrom a BBC sermon by the ‘restless’ Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines:
…I want to weep at the beauty of Handel’s oratorio. In both cases the audience is an essential part of the event – not just listening or being entertained, but responding in body, mind and spirit to what is being performed.
This might sound odd, but I think every person in the country should experience Handel’s ‘Messiah’ at least once in their life. It’s really hard to explain, but the intricacy of the orchestra and voices combining creates a sound that is greater than the bits that make it up. And key to this is that playing in a band or an orchestra, and singing in a choir, offers a unique experience of listening to others around you, moderating your own voice or instrument in order to fit in to the whole, creating together something that transcends any individual contribution.
I take two things from this. First, that every child should have an opportunity to sing or play in a band or choir. Nothing compares to it. But, secondly, the content of what is sung or played matters.
There’s a lot of darkness and understandable anxiety around at the moment: strikes, energy and food costs, inflation, war in Europe, and so on. Handel looks the darkness in the eye and, quoting the prophets of 3000 years ago, boldly affirms: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light…”
More here.
Well said. The power of great music, no matter how old, is something to cherish. And singing or playing in a group that can bring great music to life is a life-affirming activity that too few people nowadays participate in. And while we’re at it, I sure wish the brilliant Goosens arrangement of Messiah would get played; the one Beecham recorded. Enough of these wimpy, historically informed small orchestras and choirs!
He is absolutely right. Messiah is a staggering masterpiece and I never tire of hearing it. To think that Handel apparently completed it in 2 weeks time is mind-boggling.
The Bishop of Leeds makes some interesting points but I suspect he’s writing about a rather different Messiah situation than we face here in the benighted US of A.
Speaking as a one-time (and never very gifted) orchestral musician, I have had a few opportunities to do Messiah, not enough to grow tired of it, although I do not think I have ever done each and every number in the same given performance. One I recall was in a Lutheran church with that church’s choir and while Handel is not really part of the Lutheran tradition by any means, having good voices in your church choir most assuredly is, so it went well. It appeared the director had never worked with an orchestra before but things went mostly OK except for when he fell off the absurdly tiny podium he was standing on. My stand partner was maybe the most unpleasant stand partner I have ever endured (she felt that she should have been concertmaster, and here she and I were a good 9 iron shot away from the first stand. And by the way BOTH of us were sitting exactly where we deserved).
The audience/congregation at least had the advantage of being accustomed to hearing real trained voices and I think that plays a huge role in how the piece goes over with an American audience. And they were familiar enough with the piece to stand, as per tradition, for the Hallelujah Chorus — and just as importantly, knew enough to sit down again when it was over.
The polar opposite was a Messiah in one of Milwaukee’s many modern American evangelical mega-churches which decided to do Messiah using their “choir” of totally untrained voices accustomed only to singing the (to my tastes) utterly insipid “praise songs” (i.e. sort-of sacred words set to sort-of Coca-Cola advertising jingle music) that have infected modern church worship in the US, protestant and Catholic. The orchestra consisted of a handful of church members who at one time perhaps could sort of play a few instruments, plus a small set of hired ringers for whom the church lacked the money or the will to pay for a rehearsal so were all going to play just the performance, and yours truly who reluctantly agreed to play the rehearsal and performance for free because the conductor was a friend of a friend of my wife’s. In common with the “choir” she (the “conductor”) really only knew “praise songs” and was utterly at sea in starting a musical number, much less anything from Messiah. I am not bragging but for all practical purposes I was conducting from the violin at that rehearsal, just as the “real” concertmaster at the performance (warned by me) had to do. One key difference: at rehearsal as the lone violinist when it came time to run through the Pastoral Symphony I was so pissed about the situation that I lavished it with every bit of Mischa Elman type portamento I could muster, and that is a lot of portamento. Even Beecham would have cringed.
At the actual performance our audience was not familiar with or receptive to this kind of music, or the kind of singing it needs, and thus Messiah fell flat. For them it did not have “the power of great music” that J Barcelo refers to. Knowing only their banal “praise songs” I do not think the audience or singers even recognized it as sacred music in any way.
Afterwards a little boy came up to me asking to look at and hear my violin. The conductor urged me to play him a “praise song” so he could hear what a violin sounded like. I was unable to oblige. I am sure I played something.
I am told my old high school no longer does the Hallelujah Chorus as the grand finale to their annual Christmas concert and indeed no longer calls it a Christmas concert or plays other overtly sacred music as we used to 50 years ago. When I was a student all alumni who played or sang were invited to come on stage for that, so we had huge orchestras and choirs. That was fun and we always looked forward to it. One year we added “For Unto Us a Child is Born.” That is an even better workout for violin.
Sorry for this stream of consciousness run-on. Merry Christmas!
A wonderful story, David!
The whole of London no longer stands for the “Hallelujah” Chorus.
Sign of times. Just saying.