Confessions of a Choral Junkie...and subsequent instruction

I am a choral junkie. I love choral music and grew up listening to my parents various CD collections: I progressed through the years of playing with my dolls, to card games, to reading, to reading, to reading...to playing with my dolls...just kidding - but all happening with classical music playing in the background. As I entered my teenage years and discovered groups such as Delirious, The Grits, Michael W. Smith, Rich Mullins, et al. the classics started to fade into the background. Many people my age didn't listen to the stories of Scripture set to "flowery" instrumental music with male vocalists who sung vibrato. Instead, various guitars with bass that made your lungs vibrate and drums that made you question you ability to return to sanity, grew in popularity.



When I entered university and had the oppurtunity to sing in a choir - I jumped at the chance. Having had exposure to more popular Christian music I was excited to see that choral composition was still occuring - with Biblical truth embedded in the songs, that didn't need drums or volume to promote feeling but through use of voice, melody, dissonance, and contrast, were able to let the music come alive.



I am NOT saying that this does not happen with contemporary worship music, but it happens less frequently because we can find ourselves "feeling" the music by the beat and volume rather than by the truth and words of the song. I feel a sadness that people have missed out / are missing out on the richness of a multi-century tradition that has a lot to offer contemporary music in this way. So, the next few posts will be dedicated to opening this world up to people - specifically in the context of Christmas with one of the most famous choral compositions of all time: Handel's Messiah.



Start here by listening to the Overture. This is a total instrumental piece of music that opens Messiah. Messiah is the story of the life of Jesus Christ, from the prophecy about his birth until His return: BUT ALL SCRIPTURE IS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE BIBLE AND PUT TO MUSIC!! The Overture is exactly that: an introduction...an opening to the story of the life of Christ. I have selected this choral piece because it is usually sung at this time of year.



Next post : background on the writing of the Messiah and more pieces. Enjoy!!