Music for the Holidays
For me, it’s hard to imagine the month of December without countless concerts, singing Christmas carols, and planning for church services on Christmas Eve. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it can certainly be a busy time of year, especially for musicians. Maybe you sing in a choir and have been rehearsing Christmas carols since October. Maybe your child is preparing for their school’s winter concert or music recital. Or maybe you simply like to listen to Christmas music on the radio. It’s clear that music is an integral part of the holiday season.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has certainly made it challenging for choirs and musical groups to perform, let alone rehearse together. To be honest, like many musicians during 2020, I didn’t have any public performances. Thankfully I was able to sing for a weekly service with Fairfield United Church. The service is streamed online but we weren’t allowed to have anyone in the congregation.
Fast forward to now and in person concerts have been happening again. At the beginning of December I have the privilege of performing Part 1 of Handel’s Messiah with the Malaspina Choir and Nanaimo Chamber Orchestra. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to perform and share the gift of music with others. There’s something very special about being part of or watching a live performance. Just to clarify, when I say live performance I specifically mean with an audience. The energy and excitement in the air during a performance is electrifying. There’s nothing quite like it and I think this is why we as musicians do what we do.
Handel’s Messiah
Over the last decade I have had the privilege of being involved with many productions of Handel’s Messiah either as a member of the choir or as the Tenor soloist. This piece of music is very dear to my heart and somehow Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas without it.
Messiah is considered an Oratorio — a large musical work written for choir, orchestra and soloists. This style is very similar to Opera, however it is performed as a concert rather than a fully staged production. Oratorio became popular in early 17th century Italy due to the established popularity of Opera. The Roman Catholic Church however prohibited “spectacles” or staged productions during the season of Lent and therefore Opera performances were not allowed. The Oratorio quickly became the best alternative choice of music for the Opera audiences. These performances often took place in the church as opposed to a theatre and as such the plots and themes of Oratorios were often sacred and biblical in nature.
This brings us to Handel’s Messiah, perhaps one of Handel’s most well known choral works. You may not know it by name but I’m sure many of you have heard the famous “Hallelujah” chorus at some point, in person perhaps, or on television or in a movie.
Here is one of my favourite recordings of Handel’s Messiah featuring The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir
Did you recognize it?
This chorus along with the many other movements instantly make me think of Christmas. There is actually an interesting tradition associated with the Hallelujah Chorus where people often stand when they listen to it. At its premiere in London it is rumoured that King George II stood during this chorus and so the audience would have been obliged to do so as well. It’s unclear whether the King actually felt inspired and leapt to his feet or if he was simply stretching his legs during the long performance. There is no evidence that this is actually true but nevertheless the tradition has remained. This is particularly exciting when you have what’s called a “Sing-along Messiah” where the audience is encouraged to join in on many of the choruses. In the past Tafelmusik has done a Sing-Along Messiah every single year at Massey Hall in Toronto. Their director Ivars Taurins dresses up like Handel himself and leads the whole production.
Apart from Christmas, Handel’s Messiah can also be performed at Easter as Part 2 focuses on the the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection . It may be a North American tradition to always do Messiah at Christmas, most likely because the text is in english. I believe in Europe it’s much more common to hear Bach’s Christmas Oratorio rather than Messiah.
I would like to note that at the time of writing this there is some uncertainty surrounding the Omicron Variant and rising cases of the Covid-19 Virus. I sincerely hope that we are allowed to continue performing and making music in person as we enter the year 2022. No doubt it has been, and continues to be, a challenging time for us all. It is for this reason that I firmly believe we need music and community right now more than ever.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It means a lot to me. If you would like to hear more from me then I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on social media.
I look forward to seeing you in the studio and online!
Sincerely,
Adam
