Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Leadership
    • Our History
    • The Rainbow Fish
    • Our Partners and Friends
    • Contact Us
  • Worship
    • CGS on YouTube
    • Digital Worship Bulletins
    • Music
  • Living Together
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • Important Documents
    • Library
    • Facilities
  • Renewing Spaces
  • Breeze
  • Donate

George Frideric Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus"

4/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Rey Lambatin, Choir Director


The "Hallelujah Chorus," from Handel's Messiah, is such an iconic piece of music — and is so ingrained as a high church service tradition (Christmas, Easter) — that it's easy to take its exuberance and its greatness for granted.

Rob Kapilow, an American composer, conductor, and music commentator from Yale University, looked deeper into the structure of Handel's popular little chorus to discover why the music has such a powerful grip on singers and listeners — all the way back to King George II of England, who (legend has it) began the tradition of standing during its performance.

Much of the power of the piece, according to Kapilow, lies behind the rhythm of the word hallelujah. Handel could have assigned the four syllables of the word to four notes of equal length. But that would be boring — and it wouldn't be Handel. "What makes Handel great, is that first note is lengthened and then we explode at the end. We have this HAAAA-le-lu-jah." Another key to the chorus' power is in what Kapilow calls the "King of Kings" section.

"The thing that's so amazing about it, is that it's actually based on one of the simplest ideas you could possibly imagine: a single note repeated over and over again, one note per syllable — king - of - kings and lord - of - lords. But Handel keeps repeating the passage in higher and higher registers. "Each one seems to be the highest you could possibly get. That's the climax of the piece," Kapilow says.
​
For CGS, this song has become a part of our music tradition and is sometimes sung as part of our special services. What I think makes this song even more special is when we invite non-choir members to sing along, either up in front or staying in pews, and join our voices together carry out this very familiar and majestic tune. It fills our worship space with this music that creates a sense of unity for singers and listeners, as we all raise up our voices in Hallelujahs!
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Christ the Good Shepherd 

    Various editorials, articles, and other items of interest.

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    September 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Choir
    Community
    Faith
    Music
    Pastor
    Pride
    Racism

1550 Meridian Ave. 
San Jose, CA 95125

(408)266-8022
​
[email protected]
Picture
Picture

El Camino Real Conference

Photo from wuestenigel
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Leadership
    • Our History
    • The Rainbow Fish
    • Our Partners and Friends
    • Contact Us
  • Worship
    • CGS on YouTube
    • Digital Worship Bulletins
    • Music
  • Living Together
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • Important Documents
    • Library
    • Facilities
  • Renewing Spaces
  • Breeze
  • Donate