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Monday, December 31, 2012

Music Monday - Old School

Y'all know I love music, but I heard a lyric yesterday that I said, "Yes! Exactly!"  I can't remember the exact words, but it was something like, "A melody is like hearing a memory."  It's so true for me.  I can hear a song and it's like I'm right back in the moment where the event or time is happening.

Today's Music Monday is like that for me. One of my earliest musical memories is of this work.  My dad would put it on during Thanksgiving at our house, and it would play all through the Christmas season.  My parents always asked people who didn't have anywhere else to be on Thanksgiving to our home to share the meal with our family.  So although our company changed through the years, this piece of music was always with us.

Handel's Messiah.  Most people know the Hallelujah Chorus, but the entire work is amazing.  The orchestration gives me chills.  It is a work describing Jesus as our Messiah.  For us as Christians, it is a triumphant work, reminding us that He is, He was and He is to come.  I have so many "favorites" in the work. The Amens at the end of the work are what I envision it to be like when Satan is defeated and Jesus is done with him.  Amen, Amen, Amen.  At the end of the Messiah, Handel wrote S.D.G. for Soli Deo Gloria "To God Alone the Glory".  It means much more to know that the writer of this work believed what he was writing.

If you haven't gone past the Hallelujah Chorus in The Messiah, please do.  You will love it, and may find a new "favorite"!

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