When The Transcendental Invades The Mundane: Handel At The Mall Food Court

Much to say about this, but OS first invites you to watch:



OS, as a kid, once sat in on a lecture by composer Warren Benson, then on faculty at Eastman School of Music. One thing stuck in his young brain that day, when the grizzled old guy declared: 'A well-written piece of music not only works well when performed well, it stands up well under abuse!'

Handel knew how to write music that 'stands up well'. This performance was certainly not abusive, but it was a far cry from what he first heard in Dublin in the late 1740's. It was heartening to see the diners begin to rise to their feet and begin to sing along, which means the piece has not totally departed our cultural memory, despite the best efforts of the joyless secularists who would have us scoff at this and listen to Schönberg instead.

Much of what the man wrote was work-a-day stuff, well-crafted, but not the stuff of inspiration. Every so often, and throughout Messiah, Handel located his true voice, found his eternal mojo.

Mojo + command of craft=immortal creations. The ones that never fail to inspire, stop us in our tracks, bring tears to our eyes.

Menotti did it when he composed 'Ahmal and the Night Visitors' in 1951, for live performance on NBC Television. OS just attended a local church staging of the piece, a far cry from that first performance, and so many professional performances since. The piece moved everyone to their shoes, with tears of joy daubed from many an eye that afternoon.

Ralph Vaughan-Williams, in the final years of his life, achieved it with his Christmas cantata 'Hodie', still neglected by many. OS has watched the most cynical musicians and audiences nearly come unglued when they first hear the setting of Thomas Hardy's poem that opens with

'Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock;
'Now they are all on their knees', an elder said,
as we sat in a flock,
by the embers in hearth-side ease.'

Inspired command of craft. And the transcendental breaks through, even in the most mundane locations, for the least likely people.

OS hopes this Christmas, his readers have at least one of those moments.