Dan, Rebekah and I attended the presentation of Handel's Messiah, at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Wichita Sunday afternoon. I have seen Messiah several times, once driving to Lindsborg to Bethany College, where this oratorio has been performed every year on Easter Sunday since 1882. I love this work and I look forward to hearing it every year that I can go.
After the Overture, the first piece is "Comfort Ye", a a tenor recitation, followed immediately by the tenor continuing with "Every Valley". The chorus then sings "And the Glory of the Lord". Isaiah 40:1-5 is the basis for these first 3 compositions. Verse 1 is especially poignant - "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for." And in verse 5 - "And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." I don't read these words without hearing that stirring music along with it.
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