Handel’s Messiah Through the Years
Maranatha Baptist University will present some of the best-loved portions of Handel’s Messiah on December 8, 2017 as part of Maranatha’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.
A good amount of MBU choir alumni have registered and will sing with the combined choirs for this special event.
While the concerts have changed through the years, each Messiah performance at MBU has been memorable.
The Performances
In the early years, the Messiah performance was the last event on campus before Christmas break started. Students who were especially eager to leave would leave their vehicles running in the parking lot during the performance, so they could leave for home as soon as it was over.
The concerts were held in several different venues through the years. Unlike this year’s performance, which will be held in the beautiful auditorium of Calvary Baptist Church of Watertown, the beginning, performances were held in the Watertown High School auditorium. The concerts were also held in different cities a couple times, including Milwaukee and Rockford, IL.
The Memories
Mrs. Ruffin recalls one of the Milwaukee performances especially well. “My most memorable and scary Messiah performance ever was in December 1976,” she reminisces. The performance was often done two times, at two different locations, one often being a good distance away from campus. This particular concert was in an auditorium in a Milwaukee auditorium which Maranatha had rented for the occasion.
With the orchestra being short on strings, Ruffin played her viola in the orchestra for that concert. She was also the soprano soloist that year.
“Things got off to a good start,” Ruffin recalls. “The performance was going well.”
Mrs. Cedarholm had finished singing “O Thou That That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion”, and the orchestra was beginning the introduction as Dr. Donald DeGraw, the bass soloist, stood to sing, and the lights in the auditorium went out!
“While the lighting crew stumbled around backstage trying to correct the problem, the orchestra kept on playing,” Ruffin reminisces. The next piece was “For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover the Earth.” When the lights finally returned, the orchestra was all smiles as the piece went on without a hitch. Büyük ikramiyeyi vur 1 xbet mobile
The Rehearsals
The rehearsal times for the performances have changed as well. Although now the choirs practice Fall Festival, tour, and Messiah music all during the regular choir times, Dr. Ledgerwood remembers when regular choir rehearsal was reserved for only tour and Christmas music, and special rehearsals on Monday and Thursday evenings were held for Messiah practice, with Dr. Budahl and Dr. Ledgerwood alternating leading them.
Instead of having students audition for most of the solo as they do today, the parts were sung mostly by faculty and staff in the earlier days. The soloists were typically Mrs. Bernice Linder (soprano), Mrs. Cedarholm (alto), Dr. Don Scovill (tenor), and Dr. Don McGraw (bass), with advanced students sometimes taking solos.
Mrs. Ruffin also sang some of the soprano or alto solos, as noted earlier, and this led to another memorable performance. The temperature was below zero this particular year, and Ruffin could feel herself coming down with a cold.
“I was pretty sure I had enough voice left to crank it out,” she recalls. But on the night of the concert, her car broke down, and she had to stand in the cold waiting for it to be fixed.
“During the concert intermission I tested my range,” remembers Ruffin, “and my high A was gone!”
She quickly grabbed one of her advanced voice students, Anne Ronemus, to take her place. Anne discreetly ran through the recitative with the orchestra during intermission, and when the concert resumed she performed the solo almost perfectly!
The Program
The content of the program itself has not been immune to changes through the years. It used to be that half of the concert was split between Chambers and Madrigal, with each one doing a package of Christmas music. The second half would then be selections from the Messiah by both choirs.
Dr. Ledgerwood remembers one of the two-part concerts very well. He recalls how during the first package, whichever choir was not performing would wait in the wings until it was their turn. One particular year, several of the Chamber Singers lost track of time. They completely missed their entrance, and were stuck back stage while the rest of their choir carried on the concert! Says Ledgerwood, “I couldn’t figure out why there were gaps in the lineup!”
The choir outfits, too, used to be different. The men’s tuxedos and ladies’ formal dresses were not introduced until later on. Ladies originally were told to wear a white blouse and black skirt, while the men were to wear white shirt, bow tie, and black pants. For a time, though, the ladies’ mass choir dresses were red instead of the black that is used now.
The 2017 Messiah Performance
Though the Messiah performances of the past have changed in many ways from what they are today, they are still a highly anticipated part of MBU life and a great opportunity to glorify God through music. Come and enjoy an evening of beautiful music, December 8, as alumni and students sing selections from the Messiah once again.
Article Written by Peter Holloway