Christmas Musicals for Church
Issue link: https://read.jwpepper.com/i/1487789
Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata is a skillful adaption of the Easter portion (plus the chorus Hallelujah! ) of Handel's Messiah Handel's Messiah. There are several characteristics of the work that make it very useful: • An optional chamber orchestra accompaniment, including strings, flute, oboe, two Bf trumpets, timpani, and a continuo keyboard part for organ or other selected keyboard instruments. • The variety of possibilities offered by the flexible orchestration, the simplest being the use of the keyboard reduction of Handel's orchestration with selected instruments. The maximum would be to use all the instruments including keyboard. • A practical length (Approximately 20 minutes). • A Sinfonia prelude for keyboard adapted from the chorus Worthy is the Lamb. Four choruses: Since by Man Came Death, But Thanks Be to God, Hallelujah! and Amen. • Two solos: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth (Soprano) and The Trumpet Shall Sound (Bass). • Optional narrative readings making use of some of the texts of the unsung portions of the Easter segment of Messiah Messiah. For a more practical length these selections have been truncated: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, The Trumpet Shall Sound, But Thanks Be to God and Amen. Creative adaptation of Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata is encouraged. Whether the entire work is sung as a complete work or performed in parts, this work can easily be adapted to various liturgical and concert situations: • Sing a service or concert using this work as a centerpiece with added anthems. • Sing as an extended prelude on Easter Day. (This is often experienced on Christmas Eve.) • Sing by assigning various parts in lieu of components of the liturgy such as the Prelude, Scripture Reading, Sermon, Final Hymn and Postlude. • Sing the entire work as the heart of a worship service and add necessary parts such as The Prayers of the People, The Lord's Prayer, The Creed and The Offertory and any other components relative to a given situation. • Sing selected parts throughout The Vigil of Easter. In whatever manner you choose to utilize Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata Handel's Easter Messiah: A Cantata may it serve to heighten your celebration of the resurrection. — The Publisher NOTE: The tempo indications and some of the dynamic suggestions are those of the editor. Foreword Foreword