Elijah could have ended the drought

Where was Elijah when we needed him? I would say dead, but Elijah never died. He was taken up to heaven in a “fiery chariot” — ancient aliens. Why did we need Elijah? We needed Elijah because he knew how to end a drought and bring the rain. (See 1 Kings.)

We no longer need the prophet because we have El Niño. Of course, El Niño is Jesus. You didn’t know that? Yes. The current was named by Mexican fisherman for the baby Jesus because the warm Pacific waters arrived around Christmas.

New Testament in the house — the house of the Lord that is. Why all the religious riffing?

I sang in the choir for a concert of Mendelssohn’s Elijah over the weekend at First United Methodist Mission Valley. These thoughts of prophets and messiahs kept me company during rehearsals. I had other thoughts as well.

I had thoughts such as, “I’d rather sing the Prize Lied eight times in a row than this chorus tenor part. I’m not suggesting the music was less than enjoyable. It was quite a satisfactory musical experience but a struggle it was nonetheless.

What was challenging was the vocal endurance required to get through Mendelssohn’s voice leading. This is a thing singers have to figure out — pacing. One must develop efficient technique for pacing a piece of music. When it comes to solos the pacing is often obvious to an experienced singer. When it comes to long-distance choral singing, as in Elijah it becomes more challenging.

The upside is that you can hide in a choir if your voice poops out. Soloists have no place to hide. The downside is that composers give less consideration to the voice itself when creating choral texture. The middle parts, alto and tenor, often get the short end of the choral stick. The altos tend to get a less interesting line while the tenors play intervallic acrobatics.

The sopranos get the melody, the basses hold down the chordal progression, and the altos and tenors fill in the blanks. This can lead to some difficulties in what the voice is able to do.

I had never really heard Elijah except for some of the solos. I was more familiar with Mendelssohn’s more obscure oratorio Paulus. I’d often heard that Elijah is considered to be a masterpiece. Now that I’ve performed it, I concur.