by John Waters

On Sunday December 19, the Christian Choir of the Big Bend sang their inaugural concert with a performance of the Christmas portion of George Fredric Handel’s oratorio, Messiah. The group of 52 singers was conducted by John Carnagey and accompanied by organist Ellen Boyd to perform before a standing room crowd of over 200 at Alpine’s First Baptist Church.

Premiering in Dublin in 1742, Messiah sets the libretto, or lyrics – taken from the Old and New Testaments of The Bible, as selected by Charles Jennens, a literary scholar and editor of Shakespeare’s plays – to Handel’s musical composition.

Originally a work performed at Easter, the oratorio is divided into three parts: the prophecy of the coming messiah, the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ, resurrection and redemption.

Handel composed Messiah at breakneck speed within 23 days. When finished, he commented to a friend, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself.”

The singing of Messiah in Alpine has been a longtime dream of Alpine residents Dan Logan and Ron Boswell who spearheaded the effort. The two are acquainted from Boswell’s Asher Community in Praise Production Center, an interfaith prayer center located in Alpine. While at the center one day last fall Boswell asked Logan if he had any interest in performing Messiah by Handel. Logan had longed to perform the complex choral piece of music, but various obstacles (lack of a choir, director, conductor, and musicians) had kept the realization at bay.

In a series of events Logan describes as “divine,” the realization of performing Messiah began.

As Logan and Boswell stood outside the center in Alpine that day last fall, Logan noticed their friend Penny Hardaway across the street, behind the counter in her shop, Rainbows End Books. Logan turned to Boswell: “Ron, if this is to happen I want Penny to come over and talk with us.” At that moment, Hattaway left her shop crossed the street, and came over to talk with them.

Buoyed by these fortunate occurrences, Logan was joyful, and began setting into motion his dream.

A few days later, Logan, a professor of clinical psychology at Sul Ross State University, ran into Rex Wilson of the school’s music department, and received permission to use the choir room.

Realizing he would need an organist, Logan decided to give Ellen Boyd a call. When he opened the phone book, he was amazed to find he had opened the book immediately to the page with her phone number. Another divine message, thought Logan. Ellen Boyd, who is retired from SRSU where she taught music for 30 years, agreed to Logan’s proposal.

Logan then contacted Alpine musician John Carnagey to be conductor, who agreed, telling Logan, “Dan, I have wanted to do this in Alpine for years.”

With the backbone in place Logan began organizing a choir, and chose the name: the Christian Choir of the Big Bend. According to Logan, the name accomplishes several things: “Christian implies the multi-faith basis, and ‘Big Bend’ exhibits the regional nature of the choir.”

With conductor, organist, church venue, practice room, and choir in place, practices began in October and culminated in a dress rehearsal December 18 at First Baptist Church, the day before the concert.

On Sunday December 19, before a packed house, promptly at 3:00 p.m., Ellen Boyd began playing the organ, flawlessly performing the opening overture to Messiah, followed by Tenor Norman Porter’s stirring solo “Comfort Ye.” The concert continued smoothly and concluded with a rousing rendition of “The “Hallelujah Chorus.” In keeping with Messiah tradition, the audience stood up for the duration of the piece, as audiences have done since 1743, when King George II stood when he first heard the piece.

“Having choir members from many churches,” said Logan, “I feel Messiah brought down barriers between churches. We were one, praising God in song as one body.”

Added Boswell, “It felt like Christmas having done Messiah.”

Dan Vrudny, Deacon Chair of First Baptist Church, said “The church was thrilled to host the performance. It was great to fire up the organ and great to have a full house…. It was fun to have a cross section of churches; I think we had someone from every church in town performing.” Vrudny sang as a tenor in the performance.

The choir boasts members from Alpine, Marathon and Fort Davis.

The choir will not rest long, as practice for the Easter concert begins January 13. Penny Hardaway noted, “John Carnagey is on the ball; he has already purchased recordings of the upcoming portions. We’re raring to go. We go back to rehearsal in two weeks.”

Dan Logan encourages those with an interest to sing and the ability to read music to join the choir, assuring, “There’s always room for more, we’re not an elitist group.”

The Christian Choir of the Big Bend will perform the Easter portion of Messiah at First Baptist Church in Alpine on March 20, 2005 at 3:00 p.m.

Messiah Trivia

Composed in only 24 days (some musicologists say 21 days), composer George Frederic Handel closeted himself in his room for the duration, refusing to talk with anyone, nor to eat, and is said to have had virtually no sleep.

The title of the work is simply “Messiah” not “The Messiah.” To appease clergy in London, Handel later changed the name to “Messiah, A Sacred Oratorio.”

The Dublin premiere in 1742 was almost prevented by the Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, who threatened to forbid the choir from performing in a commercial venue a work containing biblical text. The Dean, Jonathan Swift, relented -- and is better remembered as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.

The oratorio was originally sung with a choir of 26 boys and 5 men. Most performances today have much larger choirs and often full symphony orchestras. In recent years, however, there has been a movement to recreate period performances using original instruments and smaller choirs, to be more authentic.

Messiah has many versions; in 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made the first major revisions to the work, some of which still are heard today.

The first American performance was in 1770, at Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York City’s Lower Manhattan. Two years later, Messiah was first performed in Handel’s native Germany.

The custom of the audience standing during the singing of the “Hallelujah” chorus dates to March 23, 1743 when King George II stood as he was overwhelmed by the grandeur of the music. During that time when the King stood, so did everyone else. Some music historians dispute this version, believing instead the King had dozed off and when awakened by the loud choral entry he shot up out of his seat. 

Handel never profited financially from Messiah. The first performances benefited several charities in Dublin, and from the London concerts, Handel bequeathed profits to the Foundling Hospital. This organization exists to this day as the Coram Family Foundation.

George Fredric Handel died in London on April 14, 1759, a Good Friday 17 years to the day after the premier of Messiah. The last musical performance he heard was on April 6 – of Messiah.