I just caught the thread about someone not liking Handel's Messiah and it made me giggle because my one main tie to the church of my childhood (other than still having many friends in the different stripes of Latter Day Saintism) is that I still sing in the Independence Messiah Choir, which has performed the piece since 1916, beginning at Stone Church and later at the RLDS Auditorium (now Community of Christ). I have been singing in the choir off and on for years, from 1983-1986 and since 2003. Since 2010, the Kansas City Symphony has underwritten the performance and beginning in 2011, it has been performed at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO. Because the venue is much smaller than the Auditorium, the choir had to be weeded severely. The folks who were "cut," along with some singers who had never been in the IMC, formed another choir, which I also sing in, which performs in the spring at Stone Church. It is mostly Mormons and the director is Mormon.

Since I no longer consider myself a believer in God at all, it does feel a little funny to be singing about something I don't care about--but I love music, and you can't be involved in music without religious overtones unless you are the caliber of a Joan Sutherland or a Jessye Norman, and even they had to put in their time in the oratorio world before the glorious opera years. LOL

I'm not really going anywhere with this except to say that I've loved singing this oratorio for over 30 years and I wish we could do every single part of it every year. We never do, though. The spring choir does some of the more obscure choruses, which pleases me, so it all kind of balances out. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2014 10:21PM by formerrlds.

Sang the tenor solos in the Messiah in high school (dang it was high and the runs were killer to sing). Took my wife on our first date to a Messiah concert. Atheist now, but the music still moves me.

I sang alto in the 80s and the 2003-2004 years. In 2005 I decided since I had most of the soprano notes except the really high ones, I would move up. It was such fun to learn the other part, plus I treated myself to a new score. :) I know eventually I will have to drop back down to alto, but the rehearsal conductor, who is a real sweetheart, says as long as there are 28 other sopranos I don't have to be able to hit every note. haha

IDK if the Norman Nubley Nackler sang Messiah (prolly did & recorded)...but:

-'Deep River' rendition by the SLMTC stirs me

-Pretty sure they eliminated other cities 'Tabernacle Choirs'... b/c they just couldn't tolerate any (possible if not far-fetched) 'confusion' over more than one Tab Choir.

small-minded, 24/7/365

I sang in the Tooele County "Messiah" for years, I found it challenging and exilerating. I'm in KCMO now, nice to know I have some exmo neighbors!
Cinnamint

Cinnamint: *waving at you from over in Kansas* LOL

I once sat through a special sacrament meeting where they had a Christmas cantata written by a living composer. It stunk! Handel did so much better writing "The Messiah."

I left mormonism over 18 years ago. I don't consider myself to be a religious person at all. (However, I consider myself to be a much more spiritual person than I ever was as a mormon, but that's a topic for another thread.)

I've always loved Handel's Messiah. When I was on my mission everyone was amazed at how quickly I could memorize scriptures. What they didn't know was that so many of the scriptures on their list were in Handel's Messiah. I didn't memorize so much as I just listened to the music in my head.

I don't listen to it nearly as much as I used to. But I think that's because I listened to it so much in the past I'm a bit burned out on it. I listen to Bach's Christmas Oratorio more than the Messiah now.

What is interesting to me is that even though religion has become less and less important in my life, my love of sacred classical choral music continues to grow. Some of my favorites are Faure's Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Mass in C Major, the Mozart Requiem and Mass in C Major, etc. It's not the religious subject of the music that appeals to me. It's more an appreciation of all the beautiful music composed around the same subjects.