Unsettling History of That Joyous ‘Hallelujah’

Thats really interesting. I did the messiah for the first time this christmas with my new choir. It was amazing.
I love it for the music though, not the words.

In fact, even though I'm not religious I tend to like oratirios because at least the words are 'decent' as in put together well. Some of the words of mozart operas are awful, i think.

It's funny that you mention that in relation to The Messiah because it reminds me of the time my music professor amusedly pointed out that the text-setting of the "Hallelujah" chorus brazenly (and delightfully) breaks one of the "rules" of good musical declamation--namely, making the rhythm consistent with the words' accents and non-accents:

HAL-le-lu-jah
HAL-le-lu-jah
hal-le-LU-jah
hal-le-LU-jah
hal-LE-lu-jah

HAL-le-lu-jah
HAL-le-lu-jah
hal-le-LU-jah
hal-le-LU-jah
hal-le-lu-JAH!


Every syllable gets its chance to be the accented one! Ever since my professor pointed this out to me, I've always found the "Hallelujah" to be great fun to listen to.

Oh yeah! haha. I never noticed that.

I went to see the Allegri Misere at wichester Cathedral yesterday by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers. It was amazing.