Many many years ago (the early 70s) I went to a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Handel Choir of Baltimore. I was surprised to see a number of audience members following along with a personal score. Why? Are they hoping to catch the tenors missing a note? Are they planning to audition for the next year’s choir? Are they being ever-so-precious? And, most of all, is this something people typically do or was it a Baltimore thing?
Is it just Handel, or is it done with other performances? To me, it’s like bringing a script to a play and reading along. What’s the point?
And this has occurred to me 50-ish years later because I’ve been hearing about upcoming performances of The Messiah and the memories came flooding back.
I’ve seen it (years ago when I lived in L.A. Also saw it during visits to London). Not a Baltimore thing, I don’t believe.
It’s not so much about catching-out the performers, as it is sort of reading-along with a beloved piece of music. (Also my belief; I haven’t been lucky enough to live long in an area with major orchestral offerings, so haven’t done this myself.)
Some (Many?) Messiah performances include audience sing a longs. Not all. But of the ones that do, it’s a lot of fun. Even if you’re not much of a singer. Like me.
I read scores while listening to recorded music all the time. It wouldn’t occur to me to bring a score to a concert, but I can totally understand musicians doing that. It’s an enhancement, a way to get deeper into the music by experiencing it two ways simultaneously.
There is an annual sing-along performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach every December 23. My mother and I try to make it a point to attend whenever our physical and mental health permits.
We’ve had to miss the last two years in a row because of my mental health. We hope to go this year.
We have our own scores, and sing alto and bass.
They have soloists that sing the solos, and the audience joins a choir for the choruses.
But I would assume that anyone who loves Handel’s Messiah enough to act like a fanboy would also know it by heart.
Do any of those aficionados who brought the score along (to a non-singalong) really need it?
.
eta: Now I’m imagining some guy behind me rustling his score and making comments like “Oh… “All we like sheep”, the lyric is SHEEP! Okay, now I get it, that makes sense. …”
And his wife going “Shhh! I knew you bringing that along was going to be annoying…”
Well – maybe not to the Messiah, it’s so well known that to a musician, a score might seem almost redundant. Probably it is a fanboy thing in this case. But I doubt if very many serious musicians know every note, every phrase, of every orchestral part, of even pretty major works. At least, I don’t (but I’m not that serious). If I were so pretentious as to bring a score to Bach’s B Minor Mass, say, I’d absolutely be referring to it while listening.
Think of it like reading a book. Even your favorite and best-loved books probably have to actually be re-read, not simply recited word for word inside your mind.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sung Messiah. I could probably pull off 80% of Part I without a score, but I’d definitely make mistakes.
The thing about being a professional musician is that no matter how often you may do a particular piece, you still have to learn a bunch of other stuff, and that tends to push even the old familiar stuff to the side.
Anyway, count me in with those who will follow along in the score of I’m listening at home. I wouldn’t bring a score to a concert, but I’ve known people who would.
There is a type of YouTube video that reproduces the written music score on screen as the recorded performance is playing. Some of them are done with far too many visual effects, but some of them are very straightforward, and I like to look/listen to those from time to time. @Sherrerd had it right, it adds another dimension to the experience, even for someone like me who only sort of reads music.
Maybe some of them are about to perform the piece itself in an upcoming concert, and they came to this concert with the score as sort of a rehearsal-from-the-audience, following along as someone else performs what they themselves will do months later? Just guessing from my choir experience.
I was that guy when it came to the words “’For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” (“That does make a lot more sense than ‘oh, uh oh-AH-uh-IH-eh-AY-eth’…”)
Going to a live performance of Handel’s Messiah was a longstanding Christmas tradition in our family. Later, my eldest sister sang Messiah several times with a major Midwestern chorus, and one Christmas gave me a paperback copy of the score with all of her rehearsal notes from the chorus’s famous director written in. Very interesting. I’ve taken it to performances a few times, but don’t do so every time.
Now, if only “Pifa/Pastoral” would be performed in its entirety every time! It’s one of my favorite parts of the oratorio, and too often shortened.