Messiah - Alto

This page was created in response to many requests from choir members for Messiah voice part notations. Due to personal time constraints I have had to rely on leveraging the efforts of others who have made attempts to create voice part recordings for the ever popular Handel's Messiah. After reviewing the various selections of Messiah voice part recordings on YouTube, it seems that one of the "better" set of voice part recordings is the 2015 version from YouTube subscription channel, ChoralParts.

ChoralParts Messiah voice part recordings do have pros and cons. The Pros: Videos contain screen shots of music score systems, one system per screen for each Messiah chorus. The primary voice is played by a piano sound. Secondary voices are played with other instrument sounds. The first measure for each system has its corresponding measure number in the upper left of each system and on the bottom of each video screen the measure number range contained within the system is displayed The Cons: No note to note movement indication and the non piano instruments do not have very authentic sounds. But overall the voice notations from ChoralParts are pretty functional.

Most of the voice notations from ChoralParts are played slower than's Stephen's performance tempo. But there are five choruses, #25 And With His Stripes, #26 All We Like Sheep, #28 He Trusted in God, #35 Let All the Angels of God Worship Him and #46 Since By Man Came Death, whose tempo seems to be a little too fast for part rehearsal "comfort". Through the magic of software, the first four videos have been re-recorded at a slower tempo for the dedicated choir member's learning pleasure. More about #46 chorus in the next paragraph. Recordings from ChoralParts for choruses #24 Surely He Had Borne Our Griefs, #44 Hallelujah Chorus, #53 Worth Is the Lamb / Amen recorded tempos seem to be just about right to support good part rehearsal session efforts. The only changes made to these four videos was to raise the volume of this chorus set.

The last set of Choruses in our 2020 Messiah program repertoire, #22 Behold the Lamb of God and #33 Lift Up Your Gates have several unique rhythm changes in the Novello music score (for example, changing several occurrences of two eighth note patterns to a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note). For these reasons it seemed necessary to take the time to make voice part notations that exactly match these two choruses from the Novello score. Also #46 Since By Man Came Death has a very slow section and a very fast section. The ChoralParts recording for chorus #46 seemed too slow and too fast in its respected sections. This chorus was notated to speed up the slow sections (grave) and slow down the fast sections (allegro). Familiar notation presentation format was used for these three choruses: A button for the focused primary voice played by a piano sound with accompaniment played by other instruments in reduced volume or is some cases very little accompaniment and a button marked "SATB" where all voice parts are played with a piano sound and the accompaniment played with other instruments sounds recorded with lesser volume than the voice parts and of course, the played notes on the beat are highlighted in yellow

Hope You Find This Page a Valued Resource As You Rehearse the Messiah Choruses.