Letters
Raise the Roof: It’s a Singalong
UPDATE: The singalong has been extended through midnight on January 4, 2021. Get on it!
Dear Ann,
As we settle in for the MDK team’s annual week off, I will be taking Max Daniels’s sage advice, and dialing our celebrations way back. I got a pint of candy cane ice cream to make ice cream floats with Swiss Miss hot chocolate, and that may be the high point of festivities around here.
A Time-Sensitive Opportunity to Raise the Roof
Here’s a fun thing that I want to share: Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir is presenting a Singalong Messiah, with Handel himself conducting. (Possibly conductor Ivars Taurins dressed up as one of Handel’s Helpers, but shush, let’s go with this.)
Here’s a message from the maestro:
For over three decades, George Frideric Handel (aka yours truly) has stepped onto the stage to lead Tafelmusik and an audience chorus of thousands through his timeless masterpiece, Messiah, in a sing-along version. This year we must come together in spirit rather than in person. So, until we can join our voices once again to “raise the roof,” I sincerely hope that our Messiah sing-along film presentation, and Handel’s music, will rekindle the flame of all that is best within us, bringing joy, peace, and hope to your homes. —Ivars Taurins (G.F. Handel)
It’s beautifully filmed and recorded, full of heart. You really get an appreciation of what a rock star Handel was/is. The orchestra and soloists all do their bits, and then for the choruses, an audience of 1,000 (imagine! 1,000 people in a room! singing real loud!) joins in.
And you can, too! Here’s a link to the chorus score that you can print out. (And if you’d like to grab the nearest baroque instrument, you can play along by downloading the instrument parts here.)
This lovely video will disappear at 11:59 p.m. on January 4, so time is of the essence. This evening I’m going to don my nicest (and only) caftan and sing the hell out of the alto part, and I’m hoping to convince my housemate to chime in with the tenors, or on the cello, in a spirit of family solidarity.
I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas has the merriest, most memorable one ever.
Love,
Kay
Thank you. I’m going to sing the hell out of the soprano part, even join in with the soloists. 🙂
What a beautiful idea! Thanks so much for sharing the links and I wish you all at MDK peace, love and joy!!
What an awesome gift to all of us. Many thanks. Just what we’ve all been missing, joyous singing with a crowd of friends, family and all sorts of people. Perfect Holiday Gift.
Thank you. What a wonderful idea for Christmas Eve this year for my hubby and me celebrating alone despite being just several miles from family — staying safe. Hubby, a former barber shopper, may sing three parts while I will, as usual, mouth the words so with my not so lovely voice I won’t spoil the moment. Merry Christmas everyone and a happy and safe New Year.
Sing your heart out. For all of us
Diane, if not now, when? Sing at the top of your lungs? You won’t spoil a thing!
Thank you for this wonderful gift! I’ll be belting out a joyous alto part. My dog will be sleeping through it I’m sure!
fellow alto here, thanking you for posting this link. i miss group singing!
I’m an alto and I really miss singing in our church choir, especially at this time of year and all the wonderful music of the season.
Each year at my daughter’s high school concert they would play this as their finale. All the alumni in the audience would run up on the stage to join in. The joy on their faces was something to behold and that Joy was transmitted to everyone in the audience compelling us all to join in. Thank you for helping me to relive that moment!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful event. Now I won’t be spending Christmas alone this year.
Thank you for sharing! I listened to this right away! What a lovely way to start Christmas Eve Day!
There is a wonderful podcast from public radio in Utah, Radio West. (Highly recommend!) This morning I listened to the story of the Messiah, which will help when I try to fit my second soprano all girl glee club voice into the others!
My grandfather, who departed us in 1973 was a great tenor, a gift that slipped away from his heirs. His gift to the community was to start a church choir. As we all know, Music is art written in the air.
He so enjoyed Handel. You’ve made all those years slip away.
So excited about this. We are totally doing this tonight for our holiday celebrations! Thanks!!
How fun! Thanks so much for posting this!
Thank you for the links. We loved it. Merry Christmas Everyone from across the Pond in London
Thank you for posting this! We just sat in our kitchen eating our homemade chicken noodle soup while listening. It’s cold and rainy here in North Carolina today so filling our home with this beautiful music gave it a celebration feel, despite COVID!
I wish I could sight-sing well enough to sing alto from the score, but I can’t. So I’ll just have to be a soprano for the day! Thanks for sharing this.
Wonderful! I sang along with the altos. Our first date was to a live oratorio performance of the Messiah 53 years ago. The music has endured and so have we.
Thank you for the suggestion! My Mom is 98 and sang in the chorus of the Messiah years ago – she is enjoying the program, even though she couldn’t find her music score today.
That was spectacular!! Thanks so much for posting!
I was just thinking the other day how much I missed singing Messiah, which I did as a university student long ago. I can sing a few bits of the alto part from memory. One fond memory is how much we altos loved the orchestra’s French horn, which always had our note, to keep us on key.
Thank you. That was just what I needed today!
Thanks so much for this. The best performance I’ve heard in a very long time.
I just sang along with the alto part while cooking! I missed doing live performances this year so much. Thank you for this, Kay.
I live in Toronto area and have been a Tafelmusik subscriber for almost 30 years now. I miss their live concerts very much. Their Sing Along Messiah is a lot of fun. They do a non-sing along version every year – I always attend. Never get tired of going. They’re brilliant!
Thank you for the link and have a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2021!
Don’t sing, but am a very experienced audience member, and have sent this to friends, one of whom is in serious withdrawal after not being able to sing with her local symphony chorus. I will enjoy taking in the performance, but it would have been much better if I had read this in time to hunt down candy cane ice cream for embellishing hot chocolate. (Although that will probably taste just as good on Boxing Day, come to think of it.)
Thanks to MDK and this community for bringing such light to our lives all year!!
It was wonderful to celebrate Christmas Eve with this presentation. The music really puts you in spirit of the holiday!!! Thank you so much for sharing. May all of you have a Joyous Holiday and a Fabulous 2021.
Peace,
Caryl
Thank you for sharing! It was wonderful particularly on a damp night her in Connecticut
This sounds wonderful – definitely going to sing along, and will recommend to my best friend. We were altos together in high school and just were emailing about the music we were listening to today. Since there won’t be anyone who will mind, maybe I’ll go wild and join in on a tenor or alto recitative or two!
Thank you for this gem! I grabbed my score and sang along with my fellow sopranos. What lovely memories this evoked, of community choir singing and previous sing-along Messiahs. My warmest holiday wishes to all at MDK!
Thank you for this link. It was just what I needed for a solo Christmas Eve. It was beautiful and joyous and a balm for an aching heart.
Thank you so much. Mendelssohn, the Ryman and Batiste— WOW
Kay, this was such a gift. I’m incredibly grateful to you for finding it and flagging it. Messiah sing-alongs were the thing I was missing most about this holiday season! I never miss my seasonal Messiah performance and I love a good singalong. You’re an Upper West Sider, have you been to the one at Lincoln Center? I sang in it every year of high school and I still go back when I can. The film really captures the vibe. I caught this just before it ended yesterday evening and I can only say that I sat in front of my screen and blissed out. Thank you! Happy New Year to Modern Daily Knitting and keep spreading the joy!
Thanks so much! So bummed I missed it. I wonder if I still remember the alto 2 line from my junior high school chorus. (I dropped out of the high school chorus when I had to correct the teacher on the line she was teaching the altos for this same masterpiece. )
It’s not too late! The video is still up & it’s glorious, I just did the sing along. I used a score I happened to have but it looks like the link to their score still works, too. Go for it, no better way to spend an hour & a quarter!
This is such a great choral piece, and such fun for Altos! As someone in the video says, all parts have the melody at some point, but the Altos kick off the first chorus, and often in sing-alongs they far outnumber any other section. So lovely to hear all parts together, and what fun to have GFH in period costume leading the way!
I’ll downloading the cello part for my daughter who plays trombone, timpani for my niece, and do the vocal myself as there’s no flute part. Thank you for sharing this great idea! Happy Holidays!
I got in just under the gun. Listened until almost 10:30 pm Central time . Thank you so very much. It was just what I needed to escape all the words…the same words…covid, votes, immunizations, deaths, and all the vernacular that is swirling around. INstead, I heard The Mighty God, The EVerlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. THanks