Handel's Messiah

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As some of you know, I sing in the Walker County Christian Chorus and we put on a concert of Handel's Messiah on the first Monday Night in December every year. We did this concert last Monday Night at the local First Baptist Church and I'm happy to say that it went very well. I had a solo and I'm glad to say that it went well, too. I'm going to be truthful and say I did make a few mistakes but in all my years of performing, I've learned that the audience doesn't know it unless you try to correct it. You just have to keep going. I did everything that several mylotters said to try to keep from getting sick and I'm happy to say that it worked. "Messiah" is actually another name for Jesus Christ. The Messiah in this case is an oratorio written by G.F. Handel in 1741. It includes songs about Jesus's birth, which is the Christmas portion, his life, and his death. We do songs like "And The Glory Of The Lord", "And He Shall Purify", "O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion". The songs from his life include songs like "Behold The Lamb Of God", a medley of "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs", "And With His Stripes We Are Healed", and "All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray". The songs about his death include songs like "Since By Man Came Death", "Worthy Is The Lamb", and we always end with the famous "Hallelujah" chorus. It's always traditional for the audience to stand on the Hallelujah chorus. These are just a few of the songs we do. It would take forever to mention all of them. It would take three hours to do the whole Messiah. Our concert is usually about an hour and a half. There are several solos throughout the evening. My solo was in the part about his death and the title of it was "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth". It was a little bit more difficult than the solo I had done in the past, which was in the part about his life. It required a little more breath, in other words. The solo I had done before was "How Beautiful Are The Feet Of Them That Preach The Gospel Of Peace". We sing scripture, in other words. According to G. Schirmer's Editions Of Oratorios And Cantatas, which is the book we sing from, Handel composed the Messiah in 24 days, from August the 22nd to September the 14th. Also according to the book, it was first performed at a concert for charitable purposes in Dublin, Ireland on April the 13th, 1742, Handel conducting the performance in person. I don't know if this is true or not but I was told that Handel composed the tenor part at 2:30 in the morning! These are just some interesting facts I thought I would throw in. We start our rehearsals the first Monday Night after Labor Day in the Fall and go to the time of the performance. During the rehearsals, we have a girl who accompanies us on the piano. During the concert, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra accompanies us and they are so good. They come all the way from Birmingham both the night before the concert for dress rehearsal and then the night of the concert. The whole orchestra doesn't accompany us, only about 20 of them do. There are a lot of violins, violas, cellos, about 2 bass fiddles, 2 bassoons,2 oboes, a few clarinets, flutes, trombones, trumpets, tympani player, organist, and I guess that's about it. It might be more than 20, come to think of it. The chorus represents people from about 28 area churches. The chorus here in Jasper has been performing since 1982 or 83. However, I didn't join until 1999 so this is my 10th year. I know this is a long discussion but there was just so much I wanted to say about it in order for those who don't know what the performance is to better understand it. Have you ever been to a Messiah concert? Have you ever sung with a chorus that performs the Messiah every year?