Who Is Sylvia?

 ​Who is Silvia? What is she, 

    That all our swains commend her? 

Holy, fair, and wise is she; 

    The heaven such grace did lend her, 

That she might admirèd be.

Will Shakespeare never had the chance meet my friend Sylvia Patterson-Scott who helped me to write The Gospel According to George, but I'd like to introduce her to you. Sylvia and I met in 1983, when my family was preparing to move to Mozambique (see my bio page). She and her husband, Beverly, a violist with the Indianapolis Symphony, had joined my home church in Indianapolis. They invited us—the missionaries—for dinner and, to our great delight after our years in Brazil, served Costa Rican black beans and rice.

Sylvia had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, supporting the country as they established a national symphony orchestra. Bev also played with the symphony. With our mutual interests in the Lord, music, and cross-cultural living, we immediately hit it off. When we returned to Indy to live in 1999, I had an instant friend only a few blocks away.

​For many years Sylvia was First-Call Principal Keyboard with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, although she insists her husband is the better pianist. She has performed with the ISO on piano, harpsichord, celesta, and organ, recording with former ISO conductor Raymond Leppard and playing in many broadcasts with him, former ISO Music Director Mario Venzago, and current conductor Krzysztof Urbanski. She has performed as solo pianist, harpsichordist, and Baroque organist, with the ISO, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, and elsewhere as well as duo-pianist with her husband Beverly and with the Scott Chamber Players, consisting of Bev, (viola); Sylvia (piano); his brother, Perry (cello); and sister-in-law, Lisa (violin). Both their sons also play string instruments. Did I mention it's a musical family?
 
Until her recent retirement, Sylvia taught piano and coached professional singers and talented young chamber musicians, privately and at top music schools in Indiana. She avidly supports the performance of early music, and is recent past president of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the nation's longest continually running early music festival.
 
Sylvia’s passion for music and for her faith made her an ideal partner for writing The Gospel According to George. Although I love choral music and have searched out quality music groups to sing with when possible, I do not have Sylvia’s training or her ear. It was a delight to hear her enthuse over each movement of Messiah as she pointed out the musical tools Handel used to portray the gospel story he wanted to tell. We have shared many ups and downs over the years; with this shared literary child, we have even more to bring us together.
 
In the late fall of 2020 Sylvia was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer, metastasized to numerous other parts of her body. The cancer was spotted so late because it was masked by scar-tissue from a previous bout with cancer, long cured. Her attitude of trust in God and excitement to soon see face to face the Messiah we had been writing about has been an inspiration to me and to many. I cannot thank her enough for the hard work and many hours between doctor's appointments that she put into completing this project.

Lenten Readings from The Gospel According to George

We begin this Lenten season mourning the conflicts in the world and disunity in our own land. We need the comfort that Messiah offers.

If you are not using the Apple version with embedded music files and don't own a recording, try this one on YouTube that uses boy sopranos just like the original performance in Dublin in 1742.

Lenten Readings

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George Fredric Handel’s oratorio Messiah tells the whole story of Messiah’s life, passion, death and glorious revelation, including the longing for him before his birth and the spread of the good news after his return to heaven. Such a broad sweep of history makes great listening—and reading—during Lent. Let The Gospel According to George by LeAnne Smith Hardy with Sylvia Patterson-Scott carry you through this season of preparation for Easter as you listen to Handel’s marvelous music and meditate on the text. By omitting the familiar Christmas scene with the shepherds and a few movements from Part 3 as well as combining recitatives with the arias they are meant to introduce, this plan reduces the fifty-three movements of Messiah to fit the forty days of Lent. You will find questions and suggestions for meditation for individuals and families in the Beyond the Music sections of the book with each movement.

​​Day 1, Handel’s Messiah #1, Sinfonia (orchestra)
 
Day 2, Handel’s Messiah #2 Recitative (Tenor) Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 
 
Day 3, Handel’s Messiah #3, Air (tenor) Ev'ry valley shall be exalted
 
Day 4, Handel’s Messiah #4, Chorus. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, 
 
Day 5, Handel’s Messiah #5, recitative (bass) Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: 
and #6 air (alto or soprano) But who may abide the day of His coming, 
 
Day 6, Handel’s Messiah #7, Chorus. And He shall purify the sons of Levi, 
 
Day 7, Handel’s Messiah #8, Recitative (alto) Behold, a virgin shall conceive 
 
Day 8, Handel’s Messiah #9, Air (alto) and Chorus. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion…
 
Day 9, Handel’s Messiah #10, Recitative (bass) For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
 
Day 10, Handel’s Messiah #11, Air (bass) The people that walked in darkness 
 
Day 11, Handel’s Messiah #17, Chorus. "Glory to God in the highest,”
 
Day 12, Handel’s Messiah #18, Air (soprano) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; 
 
Day 13, Handel’s Messiah #19, Recitative (alto) Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, 
 
Day 14, Handel’s Messiah #20, Air (soprano and/or alto) He shall feed His flock/Come unto Him
 
Day 15, Handel’s Messiah #21, Chorus. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. 
 
Day 16, Handel’s Messiah #22, Chorus. Behold the Lamb of God, 
 
Day 17, Handel’s Messiah #23, Air (alto) He was despised 
 
Day 18, Handel’s Messiah #24, Chorus. Surely He hath borne our griefs, 
 
Day 19, Handel’s Messiah #25, Chorus. And with His stripes we are healed. 
 
Day 20, Handel’s Messiah #26, Chorus. All we like sheep have gone astray; 
 
Day 21, Handel’s Messiah #27, Recitative (tenor), All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn;
and #28, Chorus. "He trusted in God”
 
Day 22, Handel’s Messiah #29, Recitative (tenor) Thy rebuke hath broken His heart: 
 
Day 23, Handel’s Messiah #30, Arioso (tenor) Behold, and see 
 
Day 24, Handel’s Messiah #31, Recitative (Soprano or tenor) He was cut off
and #32 Air (Soprano or tenor) But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell;
 
Day 25, Handel’s Messiah #33, Chorus. Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
 
Day 26, Handel’s Messiah #34, Recitative (tenor) Unto which of the angels said He
and #35, Chorus. Let all the angels of God worship Him.
 
Day 27, Handel’s Messiah #36, Air (alto or soprano) Thou art gone up on high; 
 
Day 28, Handel’s Messiah #37, Chorus. The Lord gave the word; 
 
Day 29, Handel’s Messiah #38, Air (soprano or alto) and Chorus. How beautiful are the feet 
 
Day 30, Handel’s Messiah #39, Chorus (or air for tenor) Their sound is gone out 
 
Day 31, Handel’s Messiah #40, Air (bass) Why do the nations so furiously rage together, 
 
Day 32, Handel’s Messiah #41, Chorus. Let us break their bonds asunder, 
 
Day 33, Handel’s Messiah #42, Recitative. He that dwelleth in Heav'n shall laugh
and #43, Air (tenor) Thou shalt break them
 
Day 34, Handel’s Messiah #44, Chorus. Hallelujah:
 
Day 35, Handel’s Messiah #45, Air (soprano) I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
 
Day 36, Handel’s Messiah #46, Chorus. Since by man came death, 
 
Day 37, Handel’s Messiah #50, Duet (alto and tenor) O death, where is thy sting? 
 
Day 38, Handel’s Messiah #51, Chorus. But thanks be to God, 
 
Day 39, Handel’s Messiah #52, Air (soprano, alto) If God be for us, who can be against us? 
 
Day 40, Handel’s Messiah #53, Chorus. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, 

On Writing The Gospel According to George

 ​​The idea for The Gospel According to George came to me at a Messiah sing-along at Yale University several years ago. The beautiful hall was crowded with enthusiastic music lovers who brought their own scores or bought one at the door. The soloists were exquisite, the music powerful. 

 

The Gospel According to George, sample chapter

 

2a. Recitative
Tenor
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
 
Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for (Isaiah 40:1-2a).

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If “gospel” means “good news,” then what news could be better than comfort in difficult times? Handel begins in the key of E-major. The sound is pastoral, serene, and secure. The repeated notes feel almost like a gentle hand patting the back of the listener. “It’s all right,” the music tells us. “Don’t cry.” 

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This is not a busy movement; it is calm and comforting, a recitative where the emphasis is on the text. Handel does not let the instruments distract from the words. He doesn’t want us to miss this message of comfort.​

The prophet Isaiah, who wrote the original text, lived more than seven hundred years before the coming of Messiah. At the time, the Assyrian Empire was arising in what is now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, threatening the lands of Israel and Judah. Eventually, the Assyrian Empire spread from Egypt to the Persian Gulf. According to the Bible (2 Kings 17:7-8), it was with God’s permission that they conquered the northern kingdom of Israel because of the Israelites’ rebellion against God and their abuse of the poor, the fatherless and immigrants (Amos 8:4-6).

Isaiah preached to the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. The country was thoroughly shaken by the events taking place around them. They too had been guilty of rebellion although not on the scale of the northern kingdom. God gave them a second chance: the Assyrian King Sennacherib came right to the gates of Jerusalem, but left without subduing the city (2 Kings 19:36).

In this twenty-first century we are surrounded by conflicts. Our young men and women fight wars in distant parts of the world, including the very lands of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Terrorists, both home-grown and international, threaten the ordinary places where we live our lives. Our society is no less corrupt than those of ancient Israel and Judah. We deserve God’s judgment, but Handel uses the words of the prophet Isaiah to speak comfort to our souls. “It’s all right,” he says. God has a plan to pardon our iniquity (an old word for sin, the things we do and think and say that separate us from a holy God). Notice how the musical dissonance of ‘iniquity’ is resolved on the word ‘pardoned.’

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All of this conflict will cease. And who is it that makes this promise? God himself, who is able to accomplish it. 

What good news!
 
♬♬
Beyond the Music
Let the music of Messiah speak comfortably to you. No matter what the turmoil and conflict of your personal life, the pain and sorrow of what you see around you, God has not abandoned you. Whatever your past, he is ready to welcome you into his embrace.
 
 
 
2b. Recitative
Tenor
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
 
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).

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After the prophet Isaiah spoke comfort to Judah, he promised one who would prepare the way for God’s Messiah. The picture here is of clearing the roads, filling in the potholes and repairing washouts, even building a causeway over a marsh—a high way—so an emperor or king can comfortably pass and be received by his people.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (the authors of the New Testament biographies of Jesus) all believed this referred to John the Baptist. In fact, John applied this passage to himself when asked if he was the Messiah. “I am not the Messiah…I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’” (John 1:19, 23).

According to chapter 1 of Luke’s biography, John was a relative of Jesus, about six months older. He was the son of an elderly priest whose wife, also well along in years, became pregnant by God’s promise. John lived in the desert near the Jordan River. Some scholars believe he may have been an Essene, a member of the community at Qumran that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. He lived simply and preached repentance, a turning away from sin toward right living. He invited people to demonstrate their repentance by the rite of baptism.
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Jewish baptism had been practiced for hundreds of years as purification from ritual impurities that prevented a person from participating in temple services. The rules were all laid out in the Torah, the five books of Moses. By the time of John the Baptist, baptism was also used to initiate godly Gentiles (non-Jews) into the Jewish community. But John put a new twist on the practice, symbolizing not just external ritual purification, but an internal purification of the soul from wrong-doing. The coming Messiah was looking for a people, not just cleaned up on the outside, but restored to a holy God’s original plan for relationship with him.
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This accompanied recitative begins in a major key. Notice how it changes to minor when we reach the proclamation, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” as if to remind us of the dire need to be prepared for the Lord’s coming. The orchestra picks up the tempo. Handel is no longer speaking comfort, but urging us: Be ready! 
 
♬♬
Beyond the Music
In what ways is your life like or unlike a desert? Are you surrounded by vibrant life, or does your world feel spiritually dead? What parts of your life need straightening? Ask God to build a highway into your world so that you can meet him more regularly.

The Gospel According to George is now available to pre-order
at Apple Books.
Also available at Amazon but without the audio links.

Gospel According to George

The story of redemption

told through the glorious music

​of Handel's oratorio, Messiah.

First performed at Easter 1742, Handel’s Messiah is NOT a Christmas piece. The glorious text and well-loved music tell the story of Messiah’s life, passion and death for our sins, the empowering of his Church, and his future reign over the nations as the victorious Lamb of God. The Gospel According to George traces this story of redemption, movement by movement, with insights for modern readers into the original context and notes on how Handel interprets the text musically. The questions in “Beyond the Music” with each movement direct readers or small groups to thoughtful meditation.