Georg Friedrich Händel - Highlights from "The Messiah"

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Handel was German, and made England his adopted home - as did the Hannovarian Kings.  While he wrote The Messiah for an Easter performance, it has become traditional to perform it - often with audience participation - at Christmas.  Because of the "Messiah singalong" tradition, there are an amazing number of people who can actually sing this.

I myself was able to sing without a score for many years - and not just hum along, but sing the proper baritone line.  The tradition of standing for the Hallelujah chorus is said to come from King George II standing when he first heard it.  That likely never happened, but it adds a jolly good audience participation bit.  This takes that participation and - accompanied by the world's largest pipe organ and the Opera Company of Philadelphia - dials it up to awesome:



But to really pull this off, you need quite good soloists.  This example - The Trumpet Shall Sound - is not at all easy to pull off.  That so many of the performances around the land do pull it off speaks to the drawing power of the piece.



But this isn't my favorite part of the piece.  The finale is one of the most magnificent endings ever written, and to me drives home the reason for the day.  I never fail to get goosebumps listening to this ( the bit at 6:36 is what closes the deal for me):



Amen.  What an ending.

May the peace of the day surround you and your families.