Advent: Week 2 - Handel's Messiah, A Holiday Must-Hear

The second week of Advent had our family taking in Handel's exquisite oratorio, sitting in a brick Presbyterian church in West Palm Beach. The young conductress and featured soprano was my eldest son's friend.

Lesson to self:

When hearing Handel, always have a handkerchief handy.

There are few words that describe the glory of his music, and the human response is one of pure tears of joy. The telling of Advent from the prophets to the angels is no better conveyed than through this baroque musical story-telling medium. And Handel created it best.

Soloist, choir and orchestra combine to bring a transcendent offering of the greatest story ever told.



Being in a beautiful church added to the richness of this morning when we heard an abbreviated version of the oratorio.

Arched windows that let in the morning glow,  diffused by leaves of mature trees. My home church meets in a windowless, renovated Target building, so daylight during worship was a welcomed change from my weekly practice.

Fluffy clouds that had just showered, broke to reveal a powder blue sky.

And strains of "Comfort Ye my people" and "For Unto Us  Child is Bo-rn" rang clear, accompanied by an small ensemble of violin, flute, cello; the rest of the orchestral parts transcribed and quite adequately filled in by the small church's lovely pipe organ.

What would Christmas be without a recital of that classic cantata?

But it's not for just this time of year. Many church's reserve that household tune, the Hallelujah Chorus for Easter services.

My Led Zeppelin-Jimmy Hendricks- husband used to listen to the Messiah every morning before he left for high school.



I have no idea where he got the notion to do so, but he bought himself a vinyl record set of the Messiah and blasted it every morning before class.



It charged him up, got him in a Jesus mind-set, ready to face the day and spread his joy through his high school halls.




Annie W. Patterson authored a book on Oratorios that describes a concert of the Messiah from over 100 years ago in her book The Story of Oratorio. Here's an excerpt:

A large concert hall brilliantly lighted. Ladies and gentlemen in evening dress are being bustled into their seats by stewards. the capacious orchestra s filled with chorus-singers and instrumentalists. The bright dresses of the soprani and alti form a broken crescent of brilliant colour, surrounded above and intercepted in the center or rows of black suited male vocalists. Aloft, the organ peals forth the pitch note...all tune their instruments.

...and immense outburst of applause....four soloist singers take their place....the conductor bows solemnly.....applause sinks to a murmur....conversation subdued....click of the wand...

The opening chord - a chord which resounds in anticipation already in the mental ears of many cultured musicians present. At last it comes; solemn, grand, pathetic, and yet heroic in its strength and nobility - 
the full e minor common chord that ushers in the fugal opening movement of Handel's Messiah.

...The solo tenor, "Comfort ye...Every valley shall be exalted...And the glory the glory of the Lord"...
While tears rise in the eyes of many as they hear, Come unto me, all ye that labour...ye that are heavy laden..
Through the music of the Messiah many have felt their hearts burn within them as the divine words of scripture wedded to Handel's sublime music have fallen upon their ears..

Even for the free thinker and agnostic, therein is the triumph of Purity and Truth, the symmetric harmony of the universe, the evolution of perfection and purification of all things good and evil, the glorious consummation of the Faith, Hope and love that rules the universe.

Perhaps the genius of the composition is found in George Frederic's quote after emerging from a feverish 24 days of sequestered composing:

"I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself. "

The Messiah, an Advent must-hear for all.

And be sure to carry tissues.