As I wrote in my piece, 1776, during my last two years of high school, I had the privilege of being part of Mrs. Charlotte Caldwell’s Concert Choir class.  What an incredible and educational experience that was!

Mrs. C exposed young hooligans like me to a wide range of music such as the aforementioned 1776 as well as The Music Man, Man of La Mancha,  Godspell and, for each Christmas season (we were allowed to say the “C” word in public schools back then), our program consisted of performing parts of Handel’s Messiah.  Despite my rock and roll tendencies, this was my personal favorite.

As she did each of the two seasons, Mrs. C would have us rehearse endlessly, focusing on one segment of each verse until we had it perfect.  To this day, I can remember her yelling “Snatch breaths! Snatch breaths” as we were doing the real tricky part of “For Unto Us A Child Is Born”.  Later, we would mesh our practices with the school orchestra to deliver the complete package.  It was absolutely beautiful!

During one rehearsal, not long before we were to present our program, we were going through the Hallelujah chorus.  We went through that beautiful song perfectly – and I do mean perfectly.  As we were approaching the climatic ending of the song, Mrs. C was smiling with pride at how great we sounded.

As we sang the last “Hallelujah”, our star soloist, Steve Pearch (who had, and has, such a golden voice), broke rank and sang it with the most powerful blues flourishes that, no doubt, had ever been attempted with the song.  Mrs. C was not happy.  However, I loved it and glad-handed Steve while laughing.

To this day, I have two reactions whenever I hear recordings or live performances of Handel’s Messiah. First, I get chills at the sounds of the intricate parts and melodies of the historic classic.  Second, to this day, when I hear the Hallelujah chorus, I find myself humming or singing along – somewhat remembering the bass parts that I sang over 30 years ago.

And, yes, at the end of the song, as the last “Hallelujah” is sung as it was written, my mind dubs in that golden of voice of Steve, delivering the blues ending.

Those Christmas seasons from long ago seem, now, to have been much more peaceful, with kindness and goodwill all around. Yeah, I know. They really, probably, weren’t. But you can’t argue that things are more “innocent” now than they were then.  Well, okay (and I’m speaking strictly for myself), I was at least much more blissfully ignorant of things then than I am now, viewing people in the best possible light.

That said, and with the bluesy “Hallelujah” playing in my head, I do wish “on earth, goodwill towards men.”