Two (new) Choruses from Messiah

SATB and Soli Quartet

In 2010 and 2024, I was commissioned by the fine professional choir, The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists, to sort of “deconstruct” two solo movements from Handel’s Messiah and transform them into works for choir. The first was an encounter with the virtuosic “Rejoice greatly” aria for soprano which I ended up titling Daughter Ecstatic and then came a choral version of the “Comfort ye” recitative for tenor.

When paired together in the traditional recitative - aria manner—and with the recit transposed down a half step to E-flat—they make a compelling set which breathes some new life into the old choral warhorse (which, frankly, doesn’t need it at all).

Scores can be ordered separately by clicking the links above.

The Texts

From the Bible

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God;
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness;
prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah 40: 1-3

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
behold, thy King cometh unto thee.
He is the righteous Savior…
And he shall speak peace unto the heathen.

Zechariah 9:9, 10

Bonus

And, just to prove my choral cred a bit, below are some pictures I took during a 2022 trip to Dublin where I made a brief pilgrimage to Fishamble Street to visit the former sit of the Great Music Hall, where Handel premiered Messiah in 1742 in order to benefit The Charitable and Musical Society for the Release of Imprisoned Debtors. By 2015, the only remaining structure was the two-story entrance arch which, at the time, was being used as a gateway to the courtyard of an apartment complex.

Two (new) Choruses from Messiah

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