Handel’s Musical Magnificence Lifts Christmas Spirits at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church

Today, Sunday December 6, Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem U.S.A. presented its Annual Christmas Concert of Handel’s Messiah.  It was one of the most beautifully rendered performances of the classic oratorio I have been fortunate to experience hearing over the years. During a period when music education was part of American public education’s curriculum, the Hallelujah Chorus was one movement within a series of complete recitations and choruses cited by Handel’s masterpiece. In choral and band/orchestral classes through mid-twentieth century, many students in secondary schools were exposed to the works of European masters like those composed by Handel, thus learning many of the contours and complexities of music.

This occurred during in an era in which a broad spectrum of American and European music was common fare during many schools’ annual Christmas holiday concerts. This Sunday’s Messiah as traditionally presented annually at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church was its own sermon, much as the brilliant composer Handel had intended, in a massive work that is designed to musically transition the Gospel story from Old to New Testament, in essence from the beginning of humans’ appearance on earth to the nativity of the Christ, hence the climactic Halleluhah chorus ending with the coronation of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords – the crowning capstone of the oratorio when the audience or congregation stands to its feet in celebration.

The Messiah by Handel is meant to remind believers of the true meaning and reason for the season.

A stellar assembly of singers comprised of superb female and male soloists, supported by an ensemble of sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones and basses, were accompanied by a world-class musical ensemble consisting of instrumentalists including strings, brass, piano and harpsichord.

German-born English composer George Frideric Handel, premiered the Messiah in Dublin on April 13, 1742, at Easter rather than at Christmastime, when it is popularly played in the present day. A large-scale semi-dramatic work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, it is the source of the familiar “Hallelujah Chorus.” Messiah is by far the most frequently performed of all oratorios. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! D.Day 12.5.21