Unfinished movements

Here are the movements that we did not accomplish, and the plans I had envisioned:

#26 chorus: All We Like Sheep. I had hoped to sing this very difficult chorus with a quartet, including two professional guest soloists during one of the summer services. Alas, our schedules are not cooperating.

#34 recit: Unto Which of the Angels. This brief recitative leads to Let All the Angels of God Worship Him, which we played as a string quartet.

#41-43: Let Us Break Their Bonds Asunder (chorus), He That Dwelleth in Heaven (tenor recit), Thou Shalt Break Them (tenor aria). These often omitted movements were difficult to program. I had hoped to have the recit and aria done during the summer by a professional tenor, but was again thwarted by the schedule. The chorus was difficult and hard to program liturgically. Does the fact that we did #44 three times make up for these lapses? :)

#49-50 : Then Shall Be Brought to Pass (alto recit) and O Death, Where is thy Sting? (alto/tenor duet). My original plan was to present these two on May 3rd- when a bluegrass band was here to play for worship. The big idea was that they band would do Ralph Stanley's O Death and then we would follow with the Handel O Death, Where is thy Sting? Events of May 3rd did not go as planned.

#51: But Thanks be to God (chorus). As noted previously, we scheduled this one for Christ the King Sunday, but found ourselves too busy to learn it completely.

#52a: Amen (chorus). The majestic final chorus of Messiah was scheduled for the close of the school year- June 14 or 21 - but with our recent losses, it will be too much for the choir to tackle.

throwing in the towel

At this point, I can foresee that we will not complete the entire project. There are a few more weeks of the school year, with a full choir, and then five weeks of summer services with soloists providing music.
The number of singers decreases as the summer draws closer... and we are still dealing with the loss of strongest tenor. One of our strongest basses will be graduating and leaving for college soon. The choir has responded very well to this long project, but I think they are tired and might not appreciate one final push. These final Sundays of the school year are also jammed full of special events- church school Sunday, teacher recognition, graduation, confirmation, etc.