Return of Messiah

Last year, you may remember, I wrote of my fascination with the performance history of Handel's Messiah. I teach the work as the last piece in my undergraduate music history course, and so every year consider anew how this work captivates the Western world, has seeped into high and low culture in numerous and unexpected ways, and in some ways has become a parody of itself. No section of Messiah is more abused than the "Hallelujah Chorus," which appears in countless movies and commercials in settings from the slightly appropriate to the absurd. And so, in the spirit of Christmas, I offer to you this Christmas Eve my favorite abuse of that venerated musical work: