_Messiah_ public sing on Sunday afternoon

[Karl Moyer]

Hi, fellow AGO-ers,

With Murray Foreman’s "blessing" tonight after choir rehearsal at Grace, let me invite you to this year’s annual public singing of parts of Messiah (Handel) on Sunday afternoon, 3 p.m., at Grace Lutheran Church, North Queen & James.  

Murray tries to plan for about 90 minutes of singing each year at these events but with a break at some point, thus requiring choices of what to sing and what to omit for the year at hand.  We  always sing a fair representation of Part I, which deals meditatively with Advent and Christmas themes.   More unusual this year, though, is singing a number of items toward the close of Part II, passages that meditate on the Ascension, Pentecost and mission work (spreading the Gospel), some sinners’ rejection of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, and finally the “Hallelujah” chorus, which in this context does not celebrate the believer’s deliverance from eternal punishment but, rather, God’s on-going sovereignty over the world and those who reject his gift of salvation.  

So after some texts that meditate on the suffering and death of the Messiah, we’ll be singing “Lift Up Your Heads,” and then “The Lord Gave the Word” and the lovely soprano aria “How Beautiful Are the Feet of Them” and leading to the very dramatic but seldom-sung tenor aria about God’s punishment of the unrepentant, “Thou Shalt Break Them in Pieces.”  

As always, there is a chamber orchestra in the chancel area, with tenors and basses seated in chairs between the chancel and the front pew screen, and sopranos and  altos seated in the front pews.   Listeners — there are always lots of them! — sit further back and enjoy the “glowing” sound of the singers’ efforts further forward in the nave.  You may sing from any edition you own, but there will be extra copies of the Watkins Shaw edition for folks who have no music at all.  

Three of our chapter members will be conducting:  Paul Reese, Dick Kline, and myself, plus Todd  Sullivan.  Paul and Todd will be playing violin in the orchestra when they are not wielding the baton.  We don’t worry about minor differences in editions.                                             

Plan to park in the General Hospital parking garage just north of the church on the east side of North Queen Street.  Access the parking garage by driving past the garage; then turn right on to Frederick Street and then very soon turn right again on to  Christian Street, a one-way street that takes you to the entrance to the lower level of the parking garage allocated to the church.   (An early pastor at Grace, Rev. Dr. C. Elvin Haupt, was a founder of the hospital, and the two institutions have maintained a hand-in-glove relationship ever since, with many large-atttendence events in the nave at Grace, including nursing school graduation ceremonies in earlier years.) 

  Bring folks from your choir, too, who are able to sight-read music well enough to make their way through things like “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” or “Glory To God” or the “Hallelujah” chorus.   We tend not to push the tempi too fast.  :-)   Individual vocal sections sing arias appropriate to their voice designations, too, starting with the tenors all singing “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted.”     

I think we all find it a spiritually moving and enriching experience to deal with this marvelous music and its marvelous message. 

Welcome.  Peace.

Karl, F.A.G.O.

(Formerly A Good Organist)