I just got back from a performance of Handel's Messiah by our local premier ward, probably one of the three or four most powerful wards in TSCC.

I always understood that "The Messiah" was shortened because of time constraints (which really don't exist). But, with the full libretto in hand, I looked at the parts omitted - 19 out of 53. It wasn't time which dictated the shortening, but Mormon doctrine. The first twenty parts were intact (except for #7) but when it came to 21, I noted that it was: "His Yoke is Easy and His Burden is Light". Quite contrary to Mormon doctrine. I leave it to others to note and explain the other omissions: 23, 25-28, 31, 32, 34-41, 49-52. If you don't know why they were omitted, I do.

Gee, I just though TSCC limited it's changes to such things as putting sleeves on old masters, erasing wings, changing "and heaven and angels sing" to "saints and angels", etc. Doctrine trumps everything.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2012 09:32PM by rhgc.

23 - too much plucking off of hair and spitting? After all, we've all been through one too many sacrament meeting with young kids...

25 - haven't a clue other than 'by his stripes we are healed' implies that the entire job has been done, ie, no 'works' are needed (such as being temple worthy...)

26 - Too much reference to sin? All that stuff about sheep going astray, every one to his own way; at the end 'God laid on (Christ) the iniquity of us all'

27 - One word: laugh.

28 - Driving the point home over and over again from the cruel crowd's chant that the one (Christ) who trusted in God thought he'd deliver him if he delight in him = but of course that didn't happen. I dunno - maybe TSCC thought it was a downer, or because they skipped 27 which is a direct lead into 28 they had to nix both.

31 - No idea, it is super short, however...it leads directly into

32 - refers to Jesus having been to hell "but thou didst not leave his soul in hell". Meaning he did go there (but I would imagine for TSCC this is yucky doctrinally)

34-36 - dunno

37 - too much talking about 'the lord gave the word: great was the company of the preachers' No brainer there, lol

No idea on the rest, I'm going to bed :-)

Hope that at least what parts you did hear were well done.

Powerful ward...curious if you are on east coast?

Yes. You can find more in my bio post.

Good post! Wonder if a local music director could sneak "His yoke is easy" into a local sacrament service, or maybe even a stake conference. That would be awesome!

In researching your post, I did not have a libretto at hand, but found this link on wiki, which taught me a lot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_Handel's_Messiah

Also, I think it said the entire text was on wikisources?

I once sang in a community sing, and the director and her husband were alto and tenor, so they sang the duet, "O Death where is thy sting",(#50), which I guess is rarely performed,
I remember it as incredibly beautiful, and have not heard it since, but see now there are several performances of it on Youtube, so I'll have to listen.

Hard to sneak things in. We had a music director who did and got reprimanded for anything outside of the LDS song book.

You know the problem with Handel and his ilk, quantity over quality. Don't get me wrong there is very good music in the Messiah, but it can't make up for the fact that it takes forever.

i'm with you, jacob. that damn piece is relentlessly boring! my last attempt to endure it to the end was years ago, the so cal mormon choir performed it at the dorothy chandler pavilion in los angeles. the first few minutes were thrilling, at 20 minutes my friend and i were out of there! we went down to the bar and had drinks until it was over and we could meet up again with my tbm parents who, as per usual, were able to endure to the end.

btw- i'm a huge fan of classical music, and attended two concerts just last week. however, i prefer music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Handel playd a minor role in my eyes being opened to the truth.

STORY!

Back in December of 1989, I was a mishie. I arrived in Japan first week in December. I came armed with inapropriate music. "Tell me I can't do something, and I will" kind of thing. Anyway, my mom gave me a tape that was from Hallmark of all places. It was the holiday album for 1989. She justified it because it was chock full of good old mo-tab.

Anyway, one of the songs was "The Hallelujah Chorus". I listend to this stupid tape all the time, it being xmas & all.

Weeks went by and I was reading the BoM and got to Isaiah (you know the part - the part that got lifted directly from the bible). As I read the words verbatim that I was listening to on my tape.......I said "I didn't know Handel was a mormon". Worse than that, I actually said it to the guys in the apartment. What a fool. Handel kicked it over 100 years before the morg was started!

So the other mishies told me that he wasn't a mormon at all.

I went back to my futon to read some more. I pulled out my tape and tried to figure out how the words to the music were verbatim to the book of mormon. I couldn't figure it out, so I just put it on the proverbial shelf.

Anyway, it went to show me a few things:

I knew nothing of music.
I knew nothing about the BoM.
I knew little about the Bible.
I knew ZERO about Smith's plagiarism.

I love it now - for MANY reasons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2012 11:59PM by Levi.

It could have been for musical considerations like:

* That chorus is too hard
* My bass soloist is weak
* That wasn't Handel's most interesting aria
* I don't have a bassoon

Believe me the talent pool is a big consideration in planning these events (I speak from the trenches). I had the orchestra half full with my Jewish friends one year.

The orchestra and soloists were pros. It was a very impressive cast. And I mean VERY impressive - equal to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir etc. No, perhaps better.

rhgc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The orchestra and soloists were pros. It was a
> very impressive cast. And I mean VERY impressive -
> equal to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir etc. No,
> perhaps better.

Wow, the church IS true!!!

Actually, maybe I would have tried to fake it if I were rubbing shoulders with some real talent on a regular basis.

Often the performance at Christmas time is just 1-21 with the Hallelujah (44) added on. 22-44 are from the passion scriptures, appropriate for Holy week and 45-53 the resurection for Easter sunday.

Just wait till Tommy Monson finds an ancient score written during the renaissance, but done on the American Continent & brings it to light by the power and will of God.

A divine composition, comparable to Handel's Messiah, with such songs as:
--"New Jerusalem"
--"Other Sheep I Have"
--"Four Beasts and Forty Wives"
--"Despised and rejected of men, Joseph parallels Jesus?"
--"If God be for us, who can be against us? Y'know, except that gun wielding mob over there."

lol

pieces get taken out for all sorts of reason including, I'm sure, one does not like that particular lyric.

I have a harder time imaging that a ward choir, and available soloists, could do a credible job. But maybe I'm becoming a snob.

Best not mention any yokes.

is that of course the yoke is easy if you are already living a christ-like life. The yoke is hard if you are burdened with filthy habits. That's what I remember from some class somewhere at the TSCC.

In the 1980s, I spent a lot of time with musicians from the Utah Symphony, this during the Abravanel years. Most of them had Messiah gigs at this time of year. Their running joke was the 'All We Like Sheep' chorus.

My stake changed the words to the Rent theme song from cups of coffee to cups of cocoa. Totally lame

...and totally illegal. any changes must be ok-ed by the publisher/author. but since when do mormons obey the rules that are inconvenient?

Reviewing what WAS included, one notes virtually no difference from LDS doctrine.
Explanation of more of the omissions:
35. The angels worship Him.
36. Christ as God dwelling among men.
37. Great company of preachers prior to JS.
38. Preaching gospel of peace to the ends of the world - after "great apostasy" and before JS.
39. "Their sound is gone out into all lands".
50. Refers to the law being the strength of sin and to Christ's victory over the grave, eliminating the sting of death in sin. I says that works are not the way to God.
51. We have victory through Christ.
52. "It is God who justifieth" and Christ makes intercession for us.

Omitting important parts and presenting the Messiah to the outside community without telling them why parts were omitted is deception.