Proclaimer Blog
Time for the Messiah
Literally. Off to Christchurch Spitalfields for a production of the Messiah, that perennial seasonal favourite, and rightly so. It's biblical theology in musical form. If you've never heard it you can download the London Philharmonic version (all right, not the best, but all right) for just £3.99 from amazon. Come on, what's not to like? I'll probably take my minitaure score along (sad, I know, but I'll resist the temptation to take my conductor's baton too). There's also an excellent Christian book by Calvin Stapert (great name!) which will take you through the music and text. I found it really helpful. And here are all the Bible texts along with references that Handel uses.
There are, of course, lots of myths and legends surrounding the piece, though it's also true that he wrote SDG (Soli Deo Gloria) at the end of the score which he completed in a very short time. However, the King George story is probably apocpryhal. If you don't know it, the story goes that Georgy was incredibly bored so he stood up to leave before the end. Everyone saw him and assumed he was standing for the hallelujah chorus, overcome by the majesty and praise of the moment. And so today people stand for the chorus. Sadly, more likely he was just bored!