In another lifetime, a boy asked me to go with him to a community choir that was singing Handel’s Messiah. I had done Messiah sing-a-longs in Utah before, but we pretty much just hit the high parts of his work, and I never paid close attention to what I was singing.
This choir gave me the chance to really connect with the text and actually learn how to sing the alto parts on all the songs, instead of just kind of looking around for whatever note I happened to land on, be it alto, tenor, bass, or soprano.
Most everyone is familiar with the Hallelujah chorus, but less familiar with the rest. So here’s my two favorite pieces. The first one I love because it’s an alto solo, which hardly ever happens (skip to 5:00 for the choir to join in). And the second one I love because of the scripture it’s taken from–Isaiah 53:4.
