Handel's Messiah is one of the best loved and most performed works in choral literature and probably "classical" music in general. There have been a number of editions of Messiah published over the years, many of which are full of additions by editors and composers including many done by Mozart. In the last 50 years there has been a great deal of research into the performances that Handel gave of the piece in his lifetime and the manuscripts used for those performances. From those manuscripts editors have come up with a number of scholarly printed editions suitable for performance.
This year we will be using Watkins Shaw edition, named after it's editor and published by Novello. Unfortunately neighborhood music stores don't really exist anymore, if you are interested in picking it up locally you might want to try Allen's Music Center in La Mesa. Of course this edition is available from a number of online retailers.
In terms of part learning resource, it is hard to go wrong with Cyberbass.com. Don't let the name fool you, it has all of the voice parts for each of the choral movements of the Messiah.
http://www.cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Handel_GF/Handel_Messiah.htm
If you were ever interested in hearing what it might sound like if you had a chorus of robots then this sight might be for you http://savedsounds.com/Messiah/Messiah_parts_mp3/index.html
The benefit of this site is that they are mp3 files and may be downloaded to your music player.
For those that want extra help but do not want to be tied down to their computer, there are training cds available at note-perfect.com and other sites.
There is a playlist on YouTube of the various choral movements, it features a rather fine recording but does not have the sheet music available to view. You may find that playlist here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL69564B74489180A1
I have yet to find a YouTube video of all of the choruses with sheet music but I have been able to find individuals, I will be posting those as we go.
At some point I will make a brief list of some of my favorite recordings of Messiah but for now I will leave you with just one. Arkiv Produktion's recording of Messiah conducted by Mark Minkowski featuring Brian Asawa (the countertenor from our performance in 2008) other fantastic soloists and an orchestra playing instruments from the time period or reconstructions of historical instruments.
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=3639
also available on iTunes and Amazon Music
This year we will be using Watkins Shaw edition, named after it's editor and published by Novello. Unfortunately neighborhood music stores don't really exist anymore, if you are interested in picking it up locally you might want to try Allen's Music Center in La Mesa. Of course this edition is available from a number of online retailers.
In terms of part learning resource, it is hard to go wrong with Cyberbass.com. Don't let the name fool you, it has all of the voice parts for each of the choral movements of the Messiah.
http://www.cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Handel_GF/Handel_Messiah.htm
If you were ever interested in hearing what it might sound like if you had a chorus of robots then this sight might be for you http://savedsounds.com/Messiah/Messiah_parts_mp3/index.html
The benefit of this site is that they are mp3 files and may be downloaded to your music player.
For those that want extra help but do not want to be tied down to their computer, there are training cds available at note-perfect.com and other sites.
There is a playlist on YouTube of the various choral movements, it features a rather fine recording but does not have the sheet music available to view. You may find that playlist here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL69564B74489180A1
I have yet to find a YouTube video of all of the choruses with sheet music but I have been able to find individuals, I will be posting those as we go.
At some point I will make a brief list of some of my favorite recordings of Messiah but for now I will leave you with just one. Arkiv Produktion's recording of Messiah conducted by Mark Minkowski featuring Brian Asawa (the countertenor from our performance in 2008) other fantastic soloists and an orchestra playing instruments from the time period or reconstructions of historical instruments.
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=3639
also available on iTunes and Amazon Music
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