Posted on 12/22/2009 7:59:03 AM PST by rhema
Lauren Green was third runner up in the 1985 Miss America contest and a winner of the talent competition for playing immaculately a Chopin etude, "Opus #4 in C Sharp." She continued her music while working as a television journalist in Minnesota, Chicago, and New York: She entered the Van Cliburn Competition and has written a fascinating theoretical essay about the connection of music, physics, and faith.
Green grew up going to church and Sunday school. Today she goes to Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York and is a FOX News religious correspondent. One continuity throughout the years, since she was 17 and first heard Handel's Messiah, is her love for the piece that is played and sung in hundreds of cities every December.
One reason for her fascination: The Messiah "is the only piece of music that has the narrative of redemption put to music. It's all scriptural; it is God's plan for humanity and it's the only piece like this in the world." She notes that Handel wrote it when he was "at the end of his rope. After being the toast of England he became a broken man, financially, physically, and emotionally."
She recalls many legends about how Handel wrote the three-hour oratorio in about three weeks. One is that "when Handel was composing the 'Hallelujah!' chorus, his servant came in on him (he had been locking himself up in his study) and found Handel weeping. He said to his servant, 'I do believe I've seen the gates of Heaven.' I believe he did, because when you study the musical tonality of it and how it affects us, you say, 'this is more than just a nice piece. God's hand is in it.'"
When she analyzed the "Hallelujah!" chorus, she found "this incredible tonal center that was being uplifted. That made sense, because when you look at the Ten Commandments, everything is defined first by its relationship to God and second by its relationship to everything else. The Ten Commandments are a hierarchical system in which the First Commandment is primary, and everything else falls in line because of it. You can't break Commandments 2 through 10 without first violating No. 1, which is, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me."
How does that connect with music? There "you have a fundamental note that has overtones, and the overtones are created when a string vibrates. When a string vibrates, it vibrates in the half, the quarter, the third, and all the way up, and these vibrations create overtones according to a mathematical equation related to the fundamental note. These overtones help form the harmonic series, or the major scales. . . . So when you write something like Handel's Messiah, which has an incredible working out of that harmonic system, you create stronger and stronger tonal centers."
She concludes, "In Bach's time, which is Handel's time as well (they were born the same year), they tempered the scale so that every note is the same distance apart. I realized, 'It's glorifying the tonal center. That's exactly what's going on. If you go to psychologists they will tell you that in man's innate nature he needs to glorify, he needs to worship and pour out his soul into something outside of him. Music creates this opportunity, not just because it creates these tonal centers, because it's vibratory. It resonates within us. Even if you're deaf, it still resonates."
Thanks for posting.
I heard a sermon on this once. SOrt of a “rest of the story”. Handel had a friend who was a cleric and asked him if he could write a specific piece of music. One that already existed. In Revelation the angels sing a song around the Throne. Holy, Holy, Holy. He asked Handel to write the music to THAT SONG.
I Love Lauren Green on every level of human endeavor!!!
One of my favs on FNC. Wish she was more visible with her reporting, but love that she’s wrapped her career and her faith into one.
You want to be in that chorus.
More than anything you could wish for in this world.
Lauren Green was third runner up in the 1985 Miss America contest
'God's hand is in it': Lauren Green analyzes why Handel’s Messiah 'is more than just a nice piece'
Absolutely, it's more than just a nice piece. It's because it's quoting God's word... :-)
Even so, many fail to understand what it means -- but they will "understand" when the Messiah of Israel returns to this earth, sets His feet on the soil of this globe, and sets up the ruling authority -- the one-world government -- that He puts into place over all nations, including the United States.
He's the Messiah of Israel, that He is coming back to earth, to set up a one-world government, with His headquarters in Jerusalem, ruling over all the nations of the world, including the United States and will rule over all who are still alive (from who are living right now today) -- and that He will definitely scrap the Constitution of the United States and make Himself the supreme ruler over all that we do.
The "day of reckoning" is coming for all of those who are trying to take over the world and put it totally under their control in an evil one-world empire. And they do admit that they want a one-world government -- their government, not God's...
When the Messiah of Israel comes back to this earth to set up His one-world government and subject all the nations of the world to His authority and rule -- He'll be making real short work of any of those yahoos... LOL...
And you can be sure that He will be utterly destroying anything to do with any of these yahoos, since whatever they say and do is a total perversion of anything to do with the Messiah of Israel.
And for sure -- we all, in this world, need the Messiah of Israel back, here on earth -- to destroy this coming one-world government and to install His own one-world government in its place.
I'm looking forward to the coming Kingdom on earth and the one-world government that the Messiah of Israel will be setting up, after He destroys, by His own hand, the present and evil one-world government that we see forming right now.
Isaiah 9:6-7
For unto us a Child is born.
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Dear Rhema:
Thanks for the post. I have admired Lauren Green ever since she moved over at FNC to cover music and matters of Faith. She’s a real sweetheart.
I also love Handel’s “MESSIAH” for the music and all; but especially, like Lauren said, because it is the Word of God set to music. I love to play it on my Ipod with ear buds in, and just let God’s Word wash over my soul while I do mundane activities and chores throught the day.
Thanks again.
Wrong photo, pal!
Lorne Greene was a Canadian who always gave me the impression that, when not on the screen, he was a commie lib in real life. Hope I’m wrong.
Until then, will this do?
I never understood how he ever got through the swimsuit round of the Miss America contest.
And “more than just a nice piece” herself.
SORRY!! HADDA Do IT!!
Colonel, USAFR
Lorne Greene was a big Dem. For a few years in the Seventies the Democrats ("the party of the people") had an annual telethon to raise money and he was the host on the first one.
Also, Dan Blocker was (as I understand it) a friend of some of the Commie "folk singers" of the Sixties and occasionally brought them to the "Bonanza" set.
**When she analyzed the “Hallelujah!” chorus, she found “this incredible tonal center that was being uplifted. That made sense, because when you look at the Ten Commandments, everything is defined first by its relationship to God and second by its relationship to everything else. **
I pray all the time that the 60s music may disappear from Catholic Churches and we might come back to real hymns.
You might be. Lorne Greene's wife actually worked for the Army as a civilian, my dad knew her, and met her famous husband in person when his wife asked him to emcee a banquet they had. My guess is that he strongly supported our military, or he would not have done that for the missus.
Wow! She goes to Tim Keller’s church!
ping
Please, show some respect for the topic and for conservative women.
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