We’re rounding the corner on the big day, so I think we can now declare the birth. We’ve got today and tomorrow to get our ducks (or partridges and French hens) in a row; shepherds are minding their flocks; the caravan of Wise Men is en route (hope they don’t pitch up along the Rio Grande—we could have a whole new ending to this story), Joseph and Mary are within a day of Bethlehem…
Yeah—let’s have “For unto us a child is born” from Messiah.
The text (as is most of Part I of the oratorio) is from Isaiah. (Isaiah
9:6, to be precise.) I love Isaiah—the language and imagery are stunningly
beautiful. Pick up any chapter and start reading; that’s balm to the troubled
soul. I particularly am taken by the notion that a son is given…unto us. All of
us, every nation, every condition, every status. This to me is the real promise
of the Christmas story, and I’m sorry that it gets lost in the Christo-fascist
evangtaliban’s ramming their vision of Jesus as a White nationalist, misogynist
purveyor of the gospel of prosperity with a poker up his butt and hatred in his
heart down everyone’s throats.
So listen to the Academy of Ancient Music, VOCES8 and Apollo5 impart the words of the prophet.
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