Free Republic

Handel’s Messiah, now as much a part of Christmas as mince pies and mistletoe, is one of the world’s greatest expressions of the Christian faith in music. Its composer, George Frideric Handel, was born in 1685 in what is now Germany. Although his family discouraged him from a musical career, his astonishing natural talent proved unstoppable. Acquiring a wide range of skills, the young Handel found himself in Italy, where he began writing operas. In 1712, Handel moved to London where many were fond of Italian opera and Handel could find a market for his talent. For nearly a quarter...

Nothing announces the holiday season quite as gloriously as the “Hallelujah” chorus from George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Orchestras and choirs all over the nation will be performing the famous oratorio as Christmas approaches. But when Handel wrote the work in 1741, he had a different holiday altogether in mind. “It was actually intended for Easter week,” explains conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, who will lead the Nashville Symphony and Chorus in performances of Messiah this weekend. The first performance of the oratorio took place in Dublin in April of 1742, with the London premiere happening the following year in March. In Europe,...

Done like you've never seen before. This video from the small Yupiq Eskimo Village of Quinhagak, Alaska , was a school computer project intended for the other Yupiq villages in the area. Much to the villagers' shock, over a half million people have viewed it. Click here: Hallelujah Chorus -Quinhagak, Alaska - YouTube

Enjoy this Alaskan rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus assembled by the children of Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat School in the Yup'ik village of Quinhagak in Southwest Alaska. Press the pic! Hallelujah Chorus -Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat 5th Grade - Quinhagak, Alaska

On Nov.13 2010 unsuspecting shoppers got a big surprise while enjoying their lunch. Over 100 participants in this awesome Christmas Flash Mob. This is a must see! This flash mob was organized by http://www.AlphabetPhotography.com to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Special thanks to Robert Cooper and Chorus Niagara, The Welland Seaway Mall, and Fagan Media Group.

The University of Portsmouth choir will play the funeral anthem which was originally commissioned by King George II to be played at the burial of his wife, Queen Caroline in 1737. After the performance Handel wanted to translate the 40-minute piece into Italian but the King refused and ordered the music be thrown away and never heard again. University music lecturer George Burrows will resurrect the long-lost version at Portsmouth's New Theatre Royal on Saturday after his father, Professor Donald Burrows, a leading expert on Handel, found the unfinished translation in a set of archives. Mr Burrows, who also leads...

IN New York and elsewhere a “Messiah Sing-In” — a performance of Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” with the audience joining in the choruses — is a musical highlight of the Christmas season. Christians, Jews and others come together to delight in one of the consummate masterpieces of Western music. The high point, inevitably, is the “Hallelujah” chorus, all too familiar from its use in strange surroundings, from Mel Brooks’s “History of the World, Part 1,” where it signified the origins of music among cavemen, to television advertising for behemoth all-terrain vehicles. So “Messiah” lovers may be surprised to learn that the...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQdlBqQAQ1A