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Moments From Messiah
An announcement goes out in September:
help perform Handel’s Messiah for Christmas
From pre-teens to late-seventies,
seven dozen motley singers gather weekly
All we like sheep that have gone astray,
are brought together by patient Choral Society leadership
A talented director, a pianist mastering complex accompaniment,
soloists with voices transcending all earthly bounds
Beginner singers learning to count rests and measures without
speaking, tapping, nodding or moving any body part
Keeping mouths round and voices resonant,
instructed to smile broadly if notes go too high or too low
Remembering to look up,
never buried in the score
Immersing in the music in between rehearsals,
even scripture readings float into arias
Practicing impossible runs of notes
in the shower and the car
Waking in the night to strains of the Hallelujah Chorus
yet the house is completely silent
Performance night is delight,
pure privilege to share this majestic masterwork
With an appreciative community who come,
young and old, to listen rapt
With glistening eyes, grateful smiles and glad hearts,
ready now to take on Advent in all its glorious expectancy
But thanks be to God, who gave us Handel, now departed 250 years,
who continues to move us, always, every time, through his music.