Sunday Afternoon Music: A Selection from Handel’s Messiah
As you will remember from my Bach cantata post this morning, today’s Gospel reading is Luke 3:1-6:
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
With that passage being today’s message, I did not want to let the day pass without sharing with you this selection from Handel’s Messiah:
Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry moutain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
Note at places like 1:19 when the tenor sings “the crooked straight.” The melodic line for the word “crooked” is crooked; the melodic line for the word “straight” is straight (a single note, held).
Handel’s Messiah will be performed on December 16 at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. I’ll be there.
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]
Enjoy.
Patterico (115b1f) — 12/9/2018 @ 12:40 pmThank you so much for this. This section is not given enough attention, in my opinion. Good to see it highlighted.
felipe (023cc9) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:31 pmi hate the amazon commercials with the singing packages
it’s just not a brand that emotes in any meaningful way, and certainly not in any way that resonates with any kind of holiday normal human people would like to enjoy
the target ads are ugly ugly ugly – almost old navy ugly
and kohl’s didn’t do any better
and i don’t watch enough ad-supported tv to have seen anything yet what did a nice job
i’m catching up on walkingdead
we went to walnut room for christmas lunch but the wait was too many so we did italian village instead and got one of those super-fun secluded booths
walnut room’s nice though how they do it – you check in on an ipad and they call you when they’re ready for you and they have a place where you can grab a pic of your kid with that fabulous tree and really once you grab the pic you’ve checked the box i think
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:53 pmbtw the lady said the wait was 3 hours and she nailed it – 3 hours later i got my text from them
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:59 pm