The first incisions

Count backwards from 100, Mr. Sacred Oratorio, you're about to go under the knife....

I have often seen reference to "the Christmas and Advent portions of Messiah”. This is not a particularly clear delineation, however, since the three parts of Messiah do not divide neatly into 1) Advent & Christmas, 2) Lent, and 3) Easter or any other grouping of liturgical seasons. The common practice, of course, when not performing the complete Messiah at Christmas, is to do Part One, plus the Hallelujah Chorus. Sometimes the final "Amen" chorus is added, too.

I am programming all of Part 1 in the month of December, starting with a sizeable chunk on the Second Sunday of Advent while leaving the movements that celebrate Christmas for Christmas Eve. The question is: where shall I divide Part One? The answer is not as obvious as I expected, since I’m finding that some of that Old Testament prophecy sounds as celebratory as the New Testament’s joyful narrative. For example, “Unto us a child IS born,” and “Arise, shine, for thy Light IS come!” would both be texts appropriate for a congregation to hear during a Christmas celebration.

The solution I’m running with is to use the Old Testament texts for the Advent portion, and the New Testament for the Christmas, which places the division after "For Unto Us a Child is Born." The Pastoral Symphony and everything that follows it would be offered on Christmas Eve, everything before it during Advent.

A practical consideration: this leaves only two choruses for my choir to sing on Christmas Eve (along with two arias, four recits, and the symphony.) What if I left "For Unto Us”, with its present tense Messianic birth proclamations for Christmas Eve? If so, the Advent portion ends with the vaguely grim bass aria "The People that Walked in Darkness."

So, I think I will transplant a chorus from Part Two into “my” Advent portion: "Lift Up Your Heads." This trio with chorus is fittingly uplifting for the end of the lengthy Advent portion we’ll be extracting (in fact, the longest single chunk we will sing this year), and allows my choir to sing the closing movement. The text is also one we often hear in Advent: "Lift Up Your Heads, O ye Gates... and the King of Glory shall come in." From the Psalms, and a hymn text by Georg Weissel (1642).

This solves a practical consideration AND helps me find a home for a movement of Part Two, which (I am quickly discovering) is the hardest to plan liturgically. Finally, the crafty teacher in me is a little pleased that the congregation will hear something they are not expecting on Advent II.