Thanks for your blog, Eugene. I wonder if anyone HAS ever presented Handel's Messiah at a Salvation Army or at a prison or a battered women's shelter. The first performance of the Messiah was in 1742 in Dublin,and was itself a charity event. Handel divided his share of the proceeds (about £400), as did the other performers, among Dublin's three most important charities. Wouldn't it have been grand if a tradition of performing the Messiah for the benefit of charity had been established?

Email: randy118@comcat.net

Wow, that's a great revelation. So Handel was really God's helper THEN in a practical, Jesus way. How helpful it would be if this great Hit Parade of music could be used today for AIDS, homeless, and imprisoned as you suggest. I've always wondered who chose the texts for him?

Randy and Eugene, great thoughts on Messiah, whose unfailing ability to move people renders it the classic it so obviously is. (Our fine choir and soloists will be performing bits of it tomorrow morning.) I think the idea of using it as a fund-raiser is fine, but what has really made it "helpful" over the course of its history is its ability to inspire and point to the better angels of our nature. But I do like the idea of "benefit" performances, where the "take" could acturally go to helping the poor.

I think Handel chose the texts himself, and he couuldn't have done a better job of it. Or of setting them to music.

Email: rclarsen@optonline.net

Bob, The texts are an amazing tapestry. I assume Handel was Church of England? At the time of it’s writing, was the Catholic church still opposed to the common people reading the Bible in their own language? I like to listen to the Robert Shaw/Atlanta recording from the 80’s, the tempos are faster. Shaw was probably taking a little nip between takes.

Georg Friedrich Handel was, of course, a German who emigrated to England and became thoroughly anglicized, including, I presume, becoming C of E. Or at least composing his Oratorios with English texts and with a C of E audience in mind.
I did 6 choral workshops with the greaat Robert Shaw at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s. He was by then "off the sauce," with which he had apparently had a problem. But he was a genius and a truly spiritual believer, without espousing any particular creed. Every majoy choral work he touched with his superbly trained Atlanta Symphony and Chorus was and remains definitive. Glad you're a Shaw fan. I couldn't be more of one!

Email: rclarsen@optonline.net

This window says that I'm replying to Randy's post, but I'm trying to reply to Eugene's question about who chose Handel's texts. When I was a kid, we had a set of *records* from that company that goes door-to-door selling bible stories in 10-volume sets. My brothers and I would listen to the records for hours. One of the sets was "Stories of Great Lives," and included everyone from Lou Gehrig to G. F. Handel (my favorite). Handel's story captured my imagination by telling how, when he was penniless, someone gave him a set of texts which greatly inspired him. He reportedly stayed in one room and composed The Messiah in less than 6 weeks, requiring that no one interrupt him (food was left outside his door). The following web site seems to validate that, but I don't know if it's accurate. Does anyone else?
http://www.bottomlinecabaret.com/spotlight_messiah2002.html

And, yes, I know that I'm not sticking to the subject, but maybe it's still in the thread.

Returning to the subject of grand music for all, that would be wonderful. We have changed dramatically, though, since the days of state churches and kings employing official composers. Perhaps one of the reasons that Handel's Messiah is only attended by those who can afford the tickets and costuming is simply because it no longer appeals to the general populace enough to draw a crowd. It falls into the category of "activities for the elite" partly because it is no longer in the category of "the music of today."

Don't anybody get your underwear in a twist, though. Remember, it was my favorite story! And I love the idea of someone presenting it for free for "the outcasts." Any ideas about how that could happen?

Mir

Email: mishnu3@yahoo.com

My recollection was that a clergy friend of Handel's chose the text and Handel wrote the music in the 6 weeks mentioned. Randy and Laura sung portions of the Isaiah 40:1-11 reading today using Messiah. Beautifully done and a creative way to integrate great music and great scripture.

Email: d2mryan@verizon.net

Bob, Robert Shaw and Alice Parker both had/have a warm spot in their hearts for the Mennonites and our tradition of 4 part acapella congregational singing. My undergrad alma matter, Goshen College, a little Mennonite College in Indiana, was the smallest venue to which Shaw brought his Atlanta Symphony on a yearly basis! They played in the Gymnasium then I had the privilege to sing under Alice Parker’s direction on several occasions in college choirs (Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis). Parker was a frequent visitor to our campus, worked with our own Mary Oyer on hymn projects and even directing our Mennonite High Schools choir festival. Anyhow, just wanted to tell you I’m a fellow Shaw lover.

Eugene, Alice Parker was present at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, where those Shaw workshops took place. She led any number of hymn sing-alongs in the evenings and was absolutely terrific. What a lovely and creative and fun lady she was! (Is she still alive?) She also was a friend and sometimes participating colleague of the director of the Greenwich Choral Society when I sang with them in the 80s. Coincidentally, my absolutely terrifying "baptism by fire" in that first Shaw workshop was the "Missa Solemnis," which has to be the most challenging choral work ever written, anc by a stone deaf madman! And Paul and I are going to a performance of it prepared by a friend of ours at Suny Purchase, NY, this Friday evening. I'll send some thoughts your way as we immerse ourselves in it.

Email: rclarsen@optonline.net

According to AliceParker.com she is "a resident of western Massachusetts." Which one then assumes she is still living.

Email: iczimm@comcast.net