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December 3, 2010'Hallelujah' Comes to the Food Court
Why one performance of Handel's Messiah has attracted an audience of over 7 million.
Bored mall shoppers eat in a food court that could be anywhere in North America. Innocuous holiday music plays in the background. Suddenly, a woman poking at her fast-food tray, cell phone held to her ear, stands up and begins to sing: Hallelujah! A man in a gray hoodie and a few days' stubble joins her, as does a couple who appear to be in line for food. Suddenly, the entire food court is alive with singing, utterly ordinary people rising to their feet and belting out, The Kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
Some of the non-singing shoppers look embarrassed; some look enchanted. Some have risen to their feet, keeping alive the tradition of King George II, who, at the London debut of Handel’s Messiah in 1743, stood for the Hallelujah chorus, which praises Christ as the King of Kings. Tradition dictates that one does not sit in royalty’s presence.
"I'm curious to know what it is that intrigues people so much," says Robert Cooper, artistic director for the Ontario-based Chorus Niagara, referring to the millions of times their flash-mob performance has been viewed on YouTube. AlphabetPhotography.com hired the choral group for the stunt as a way to convey a creative Christmas message to their customers. But the video has gone viral, and both Cooper and Alphabet Photography have been receiving "heart warming thank you letters from all over the world explaining how the video has touched people in a positive way." What is it that makes the video so appealing? I suspect it's not just the novel form of the performance, nor its fantastic content, but a creative and surprising juxtaposition of the two.
The shoppers were just sitting there, eating their fast-food lunches, expecting nothing like what they got. In that mundane setting, a place marked by consumption, not creativity, and from people who appeared totally unexceptional, indistinguishable from those around them, came a piece of music so beautiful it is said to have brought its composer to tears, feeling he had seen the face of God in it. Some of the people look misty-eyed, some cannot stop smiling. A teenage boy appears to mouth, "That was good!" Children stare with eyes beautifully widened in a way only children’s eyes can look.
What intrigues them so much? Perhaps the performance, in all its unexpected glory, did what Jesus did when he came to earth: bring light and wonder to people in places that were far less than lovely. He touched the unclean, fed the hungry, and said shocking, disturbing things to the prideful and self-righteous. He was masterful at comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Some will say the food-court performance is an embarrassment to Handel's creation, performed in a crass environment with not a bow tie in sight. Yet this is what’s most beautiful about it: In the midst of an utterly earthly part of the world, a bit of the glory of Christ's kingdom, an unexpected bit of grace, broke in. And that's what keeps the viewers coming again and again. Some will hear only the genius of a great composer. Yet some, surely, will hear in it the greatness of our glorious Creator and King of Kings, who made himself flesh and walked this earth among ordinary people like you and me.
Rachel Stone has written for Her.meneutics on fathers, eating disorders, and miscarriage, and for Christianity Today on living in Germany, and has also contributed to Flourish, catapult/*cino, and Creation Care magazine. She lives in Greenport, New York, with her husband, two sons, extended family, and assorted cats.
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Comments
I saw this video last week, and it brought tears to my eyes. It's so beautiful to see God worshiped in a place as mundane as a food court. It's a taste of what the world should be like--God glorified everywhere.
Posted By: Christy | December 3, 2010 2:03 PM
Before a friend sent me the video website for the "Food Court" Messiah, I received this one, dubbed "A random act of Culture" that took place at Macy's flagship department store in Philadelphia. There were 600 choir-trained singers who were heard throughout the several floors of the store. I have watched it nearly a dozen times and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye and a catch in my chest. Watch this one too. http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/11/awesome-pop-up-hallelujah-chorus-at.html
Posted By: Joe Musser | December 3, 2010 2:11 PM
Hi. One good tune deserves another. Check out this "flash mob performance" on Oct. 30 by the Opera Company of Philadelphia at Macy's department store in Philadelphia. This is from the blogsite "Philly & the World" by Anthony Demarco. (It has already registered mroe than 1.6 million hits on YouTube.)Here's the link to the blog: http://networkedblogs.com/avi09
Posted By: William Shuster | December 3, 2010 3:54 PM
I saw it too, a friend sent it to me. And it is both thrilling and touching to hear the chorus sung that way in an everyday setting. What struck me is that there has been a recent trend of these "spontaneous" outbreaks in various places around the world of assorted popular music (Verizon did a Sound of Music song at the train station in Liverpool, for example; another group did one in Amsterdam, etc., all available on Youtube). In a time when people are beaten down economically and wearied by the various crises of the world, these are moments of lightness that bring us out of ourselves and our isolation from each other. Personally, I think it is a gift of God even when they are not religious. We quickly return to the mundane, but with a little lighter heart and something to smile about in a time when smiles are badly needed. And I love it.
Posted By: Liz | December 3, 2010 4:39 PM
so, how many folks singing in this particular performance were professionals??
Posted By: christina | December 3, 2010 6:47 PM
I am working at this college and believe me, I heard Hallelujah sang many times but was never interested I gues I never gave it a chance to really listen to the lyrics until our choir learned it for our performance this Christmas, 2010. As I stared to listen to every piece of word and note, I began to realized the enormity of how beautiful this song can do to the emotion. I was hooked and bless the Lord for I am a part of such great music around this Christmastime. I am so glad to have the opportunity to sing this song and really feel the beauty of its entirety......2010 Christmastime will be forever in my mind....
Posted By: Faye Panama | December 3, 2010 7:46 PM
From the lovely poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:
Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
Posted By: Rachel Stone | December 3, 2010 8:31 PM
Maybe there is hope yet!
Posted By: Mike Reynolds | December 3, 2010 10:39 PM
I'm so happy to see this covered here because this happened very very close to where I live and grew up! I have been to this mall countless times in my life. Wish I was there when it happened! Can't believe the video has had over 8 MILLION hits!!
I have tickets to see this very group (Chorus Niagara) perform Messiah next week and I can't wait.
Posted By: Nadine S | December 3, 2010 11:17 PM
This illustrates what I have always felt. God is not just in church, but ubiquitous. Many feel that one cannot speak to God unless one is in church , a marriage is not a marriage ,unless it is in church. Ther is nothing truly holy about a church , except as a reminding device. To invite people to think of God during their mundane activities is a wonderful thing.
Posted By: G.Ritter | December 4, 2010 2:46 PM
BRAVO! FANTASTIC! It is so good to see that this was done at a food court. I hope that will remember what christmas is all about. And that hopefully one that christmas will be celebrated for what it is and not the so called "Jones trying to keep up with the Jones" on this holiday season. Everything is so commercialized that people forget "the reason for the season"
Posted By: sylvia de la rosa | December 4, 2010 7:20 PM
This is amazing. To think that it happened in a food courty. Why don't more shopping malls do this and maybe, just maybe, people would be reminded what CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT!! Commercialized,sure is. We start in OPctober before Halloween. It is sad. Over the years (72) I have lost my family. Dad,Mom,Uncles, and Aunts, and this year lost my oldest boy. It is very lonely and sad yes, but I still remember CHRISTMAS being the day of the Lord. Peace to everyone and enjoy the idea of giving and don't expect back. Remember the service men and women to are not having Christmas with their love ones.
Posted By: Jean Schwabe | December 4, 2010 10:29 PM
this was awesome. I would have loved to be in that food court.
Posted By: Sarah | December 5, 2010 7:06 AM
What tremendous performances! I got goose bumps listening to the music and lyrics. "Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it will [must] not suffer loss!"
Posted By: Larry | December 5, 2010 8:48 AM
Halelujah,how cool is this,i love to see Jesus glorified in the market place,they will never forget this experience!God is alive and well,even in the food court.
Posted By: Bernadette | December 6, 2010 6:23 AM
Hallelujah, what a nonconventional way to let the light of Christ shine in a dark world.
Posted By: Donna | December 9, 2010 1:38 PM
It looked like lip-synching.
Posted By: Robyn | December 12, 2010 10:52 PM
In Seattle, the local Seattle Symphony Director directed singers fron 70 local choirs on three levels of a local well-known department store. I wasn't there to see it, but people loved it and called it "random acts of culture", and said it was "an affirmation of joy and good in the world." (from The Seattle Times). I guess there will always be the scrooges of the world who take pot-shots at things like this, but it was wonderful to see it happening when they showed videos of it on tv. There were over 600 participants who waited their cue.
Posted By: Barbara | December 12, 2010 11:41 PM
I have heard this piece of music for many decades and I have never been more moved than when I watched this. I have watched it over and over and each time I cry. I enjoy watching the faces of all the people and the performers. The fact that the performers were in "street" clothes made it even more special. One could see that the people were not just performing they were actually feeling what they were singing. I have shown it to all my studens at school and they all agree - it really sets the tone for the season. Merry Christmas.
Posted By: James Whisenhunt | December 13, 2010 4:53 PM
No, Robyn, this was not a fake. Performance was by Chorus Niagara in Canada. Watch the interviews available if you have any doubts.
Cheers!
Posted By: Bob | December 29, 2010 10:43 PM
Thanks for passing on the performance of Handel. (The one in Philadelphia mentioned in an earlier blog--see... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU&feature=player_embedded
is perhaps more spectacular because of the huge numbers, but both are wonderful.
I almost always laugh and cry at the same time when I listen, as I have a number of times. It seems to me a little touch of heaven. Perhaps we'll be fellowshiping or doing other things, and someone will strike up a song, and we'll all join in. What a blessing!
Done in a department store, or food court, it's a little bit "in-your-face." But, hey! Secularism is in our faces all the time. Maybe folks should consider the alternative.
Posted By: Robert | January 2, 2011 7:44 AM