Singing has always been one of my passions; I just don’t sing nearly as much as I did long time ago. There were two people who introduced me to one of the most beautiful and finest pieces of music ever written, Handel’s Messiah, and I owe them a debt of gratitude for their having taught me music of such high quality. They were my choral directors from Walterboro High School and Claflin University, respectively: the late Mrs. Dorothy Mae Graham Buckner and the late Dr. Peter Lester Felder, II. Every year at the high school, we concluded our Christmas concert with “The Hallelujah Chorus.” It just thrilled my soul to joyfully sing those high notes along with Anna Smith Jones, Eleu Frazier, Ellen Smith Fender, among so many others. Mrs. Buckner made you want to sing and feel the music. One year when I sang on the concert choir at Claflin, we performed excerpts from the Messiah, and what a performance! Mr. Felder, as he was known to us at the time, seemed to have had the volume in his hand as he directed the performance. It was the most challenging piece of music that I had ever sung, but it gave me a sense of greatness in the Lord that I still feel to this day. Every year for our performance, Mr. Felder would invite a professional opera singer as our guest soloist. This was always a thrill and a delight!
“The Hallelujah Chorus” is sung around the world in various choral performances, especially during the Christmas season. Audiences stand in reverence during the performance of these stirring lyrics, several based on Scriptures from the book of Revelations. “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns,’” (Revelations 19:6 ESV). No matter what, God does reign supreme, and He will reign forever!
When George Frideric Handel wrote the Messiah, in 1741, he was so absorbed in what he was doing that he hardly left his room and barely ate. The whole Messiah, 260 pages of choral and orchestral music, took him only twenty-four days to complete. One day as a servant came into the room to bring Handel something to eat, he found him with tears streaming down his face. Handel had just finished composing “The Hallelujah Chorus.” He said, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me—and the great God himself.” Later Handel tried to describe his experience by quoting the words of Paul in the Bible saying, “Whether I was in the body or out of my body [when I wrote I], I know not.”
If you have never heard or seen a live performance of the “Hallelujah Chorus” or the entire piece of music, the Messiah, you have been missing a treat. I cannot put into words exactly how this music and the lyrics make me feel when I hear and sing it. It almost makes me feel as if I am having an out of body experience! My choral directors helped me to feel the music and gave me the desire to sing, no matter how challenging it may have been. Just go to YouTube.com, and you will find countless renditions of it. There are several “jazzy” renditions of “The Hallelujah Chorus,” but none measure up to the original version. Just rejoice in the music knowing God still reigns supreme, and you will probably never be the same!
Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, and never leave home without Him!
