Hallelujah!

My roommate as an undergraduate often compared the satisfaction she took in doing physics to the satisfaction she found in music.  Now, she was good at both physics and music, so I think this had a lot to do with the connections and "bigger picture" stuff that people who love physics seem to go on about.  I see that in music, easily, and there have been a few rare moments when I've seen that in physics.  Very rare.  So I can admit a vague understanding of the notion that the beauty of good physics--whether solving a problem or just reading about a theory--is similar to the beauty of good music, whether playing or listening.

There.  Is that enough justification to spend one post writing about music?

Handel's Messiah is a marathon of a piece.  My orchestra performed it on Saturday evening at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, England.  Simply put, it's an oratorio with libretto taken mostly from the Old Testament to illustrate the coming of Christ; the birth and miracles and ascension of Jesus; and Christ's final victory over death and sin.  But while we're actually playing the Hallelujah chorus (Hallalujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, Hallelujah!), and the audience stands for the duration of the number as is tradition; on the occassion that I can take my eyes away from Leon's conducting, I see rows of people with broad smiles whom I think would attest that in those few moments of music, Handel managed to write down pure JOY and HAPPINESS.

Although it's traditional to stand up during this movement (that's what King George II allegedly did during a performance in 1743), I'd like to think that people WANT to stand in some expression of respect or reverence or hope for something beautiful and harmonious that we the orchestra are doing our best to convey.  If there's actually meant to be a Messiah turning up on earth one of these days to bring world peace, a cure for cancer, and a railway service that runs on time, Handel's oratorio would make a pretty good theme song.