30 by 30, #24: Listen to The Messiah in its entirety (sing along when possible)

In case you aren't familiar with the 30 by 30 Project, here is the original post, with the big fat list.

As I'm sure you are aware, I'm a music lover. I play the piano, I sing, I used to dance, (I miss the dancing. Sigh.), and I listen. And I've always loved The Messiah. It's an inspired piece of work, and I get goosebumps just thinking about the Hallelujah chorus. (I've got to move to Philadelphia. Random Act of Culture? Yes please! Though, they did it in Michigan, too. I like that they called that one a Random Act of Joy. Sure, it's not as professional, but it's still inspiring.) But I came to realize that I don't think I've ever sat down and listened to the whole thing. We have it on CD, and we listen to it at Christmas time, but I haven't ever just sat and listened. I listen to my favorite choruses, and then the other pieces are either relegated to background music or skipped over. So I decided the time had come.

Then I realized that I'm a stay at home mom of 2 little girls, and it's virtually impossible for me to have 2 solid hours of free time. So I decided to break it up into parts, as The Messiah itself is so conveniently broken into parts itself. I actually listened to Parts I and II during a single naptime, which was amazing. I kept waiting for someone to wake up, but they never did. Part III was later that evening. I followed along on the score for most of it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very inspiring. "Worthy Is the Lamb that Was Slain?" I was not very familiar with that chorus, and now it is definitely one of my favorites. I now appreciate Isaiah a bit more and his poetic words. Also makes me want to go to a sing along.

Oh wait! We did go to a sing along! A lady in our ward put one together for the day after Christmas. Except I wasn't singing. I was playing the piano or turning pages. I'm not exactly sure why we agreed to play the piano for that, Handel is hard stuff, but we did, and it turned out fine. My one wish is that I could have been singing. Maybe next year?