Hallelujah! The Messiah is Coming.....

                                                                                                                                                                                       December 2013

My friend, Dolores Otte, and I always knew we had a lot in common.  But, it wasn’t until we both started singing along to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus one afternoon that we discovered that we have an almost fanatic obsession with Handel’s Messiah.  We both sang the Hallelujah Chorus in high school; and while we knew there were other choruses to his Oratorio, we never thought about learning them.  Until one year, 20 some years ago, early in the holiday season.

You see, we had heard that the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra was sponsoring a “Messiah Sing Along” at the Ordway Music Hall.  All amateur sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses could sit in their own section and have the opportunity to join professional soloists and The Minnesota Chorus in singing the entire Messiah.  How cool was that?  Dolores and I quickly signed up to attend this concert and even spent $8 each for a bound score so we could follow along and learn the music.

What a wonderful and uplifting afternoon!  We then read about other sing-along opportunities around the Twin Cities and attended as many as we could.  It took us a couple of years, and many, many hours of practice in our living rooms, but we were soon singing the right notes to most of the choruses.

This ritual of joining the sing-along concerts kept us happy and fulfilled for quite a few years.  We even encouraged six other girlfriends to join us in our quest of conquering the Messiah!  Of course, we had to entice them with lunch at the St. Paul Hotel, but, hey!  Whatever it takes!  To show you how enthusiastic we were, we even bought green sweatshirts printed with the words, “I sang Handel’s Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.”

Does anyone remember wearing a Letter Sweater for sports in high school?  Remember the stripes on the sleeves that signified how many years one participated in sports?  Well, since Dolores and I were from an era in which only boys wore Letter Sweaters, we decided that this was our chance to “show off” how many years we’ve been involved with the Messiah.  We made stripes out of white felt and ironed them on the sleeves of our green sweatshirts.  Pathetic?  Yes.  But, why not?  We stopped ironing on our stripes when we ran out of room on our sleeves, which was about ten years.  This was good timing since the St. Paul Chamber stopped sponsoring the concerts then.

What did we do then?  No sing-along’s to attend.  No weekly practicing to cassette tapes of the choruses.  We went through Messiah withdrawal.  Well, a friend of mine who knew about our obsession with the Messiah, sent me a news article that appeared in one of the neighborhood papers in South Minneapolis.  The article featured the choir at St. John’s Lutheran Church on 48^th and Nicollet and how, for the past ten years, had performed Handel’s Messiah with professional soloists and selected members of the Minnesota Orchestra.  The Minnesota Orchestra?  Well, this is BIG TIME, folks.  The choir must really be good for the Minnesota Orchestra to consent to perform with them!  Upon reading further, the article said that the choir was made up of amateur singers from the church, surrounding communities, and even some who traveled from many miles away, and that anyone could join them.  Of course, Dolores and I attended the concert.  We brought our little scores along so we could join in the Hallelujah Chorus and read along as each soloist sang their aria.

The two-hour concert quickly came to the last chorus that consisted of “Worthy is the Lamb,” “Blessing and Honor,” and of course, the great “Amen.”  Dolores and I had never sung the Amen portion of this chorus before, so we were especially diligent in singing along (very softly) so we could learn this part.  The Amen is actually seven pages long and the word Amen is repeated about a hundred times.  I may be exaggerating a little; however, it is a complicated chorus to sing.  Especially for first timers such as Dolores and me!  Anyway, the choir started to sing and we sang along as best we could (again, very, very softly).  Suddenly, everyone was done singing.  The audience was on its feet clapping and yelling, Bravo, Bravo!  Dolores and I looked at each other in amazement.  You see, everyone else was done; but, we still had three pages to go!

Obviously, we needed help.  The conductor had stated at the beginning of the concert that anyone could join the choir to sing the Messiah the next year.  You can be sure that we were the first ones to sign up!  Granted, we travel the farthest and, hey, we’re not even Lutheran.  But, it doesn’t matter.  We have been welcomed into this wonderful musical community year after year, and this year will be our fourteenth time participating in St. John’s Lutheran Church’s rendition of Handel’s Messiah.

I know that many of you enjoy listening to, or even singing, parts of the Messiah.  So, if you’d like to join Dolores and me, and our friends and families, and enjoy a wonderful and enriching concert this holiday season, please plan on attending one of our concerts on Saturday, December 14 at 7:00 PM or Sunday, December 15 at 4:00 PM.  There is no charge – just a free-will offering.  We’d love to have you join us!  Think about it.

Merry Christmas to all!

Mary (and Norm) McGraw