Shalanda Jackson

Old Bridge Concert Choir

Hallelujah! From Messiah by George Handel

High School 9-12 (SATB)

Learning Goals:
Behavioral: The singers of the Old Bridge High School concert choir will be able to accurately and
artistically perform Handels Messiah with an accuracy of 80%.
Cognitive: The singers will distinguish between the important phrases and the background phrases.
Singers will also sight read and teach each other sections of the song.
Experiential: The singers will experience listening to recordings and will experience performing the piece
at their winter concert. Singers will also experience learning from their peers and performing in
quartets.
Construct meaning: The singers will realize the connection between the form of the Hallelujah chorus to
the songs that they listen to every day.
Technical Skills:
Intonation of repeated notes, diction of text in their extreme ranges, breathing in time, breath support
for the phrases, consistent tone through range.
Musical concepts:
Knowing which phrases are the most important, jumping from singing the melody to becoming the
harmony, syncopation, using the text and music marking to perform the piece honestly.
Empowering Musicianship: By learning to sing this piece, members of the choir will connect what they
learned to other knowledge and to their lives.
Process
Partner:
Singers of the choir will listen to a recording of their own part while following along in the music. While
doing this, they will circle and find potential problems in the part. Then listen to a recording of a full
choir without the orchestra. We will find potential problems a s a choir. Research history of time period,
history of the composer and the piece. Write down how these facts contributes to the piece. We will
discuss all of their findings in class.
Present:
1.) Pass out music. Play recording of the song and have the choir follow along.
2.) Break piece into 3 or 4 sections. For each section, each vocal part will learn from each other and
figure it out together to learn each vocal part. Write in counts and solfege.

3.) We will come back together to go through that section and fix any mistake and work on balance
of the vocal parts.
4.) We will then insert musical concepts: dynamics, phrasing, expression: applying knowledge
learned in class.
5.) Apply this process to each section of the piece. Connect all of the sections and sing the piece in
its entirety.
6.) We will then have quartet testing and memorizing days.
7.) Have all of the piece memorized and reinforce expression.
Personalize:
Discuss what and why words and phrases are more important than others are. Have different groups
sing sections and discuss what each group did well and what they can improve on: which will apply to
the whole choir. Assign homework, which would include: if you composed this piece, how would it
sound. They can change the term/ending of words but the text/meaning has to stay the same. Example:
reighneth reigns. Each student will create a three phrased midi file and we will present them in class.
Perform:
The students of the Old Bridge High School concert choir will perform Hallelujah from Messiah by
George Handel. The singers incorporate all of the details and concepts that we discussed in class.
Assessment:
Formative: The singers will participate in sectionals with section leaders and then with the conductor.
Singers will participate in quartets and octets and will have to practice before the students perform in
class. Presentation of their midi files.
Summative: The dress rehearsal and the winter choir performance.
Integrative: The teacher will journal daily what went well and what did not go well. The teacher will
journal the growth of the class and plan for where we need to go in the next lesson.