Handel's Messiah

Handel's "Immortal Masterpiece". The Messiah, differed little from the usual mammoth performance accorded it at Christ mas-time each year, but a welcome improvement in choral diction was evident—the words, oddly enough, are worth hearing—in that such phrases as "the glory of the law" and the "erniquity of ussall" were absent. (Listeners will recall similar perversions of the English language that have the sanction of long usage to incorporate them as part of the text.) There was also a general lightening of the tonal texture, despite the size of the choir, which ensured greater clarity: it cannot be necessary for the male members of choirs to use the full power of their lungs all the time—vocal straining and loss of quality are the inevitable results, to say nothing of the performance in toto. This "Messiah" will prove. I hope, to be an Indication of better choral singing to come.