Week 3 - Messiah

Listening through to Act 1 of Handel's "Messiah," I was particularly struck by the beauty of the chorus, "And  he shall purify," in scene 2. Initially, I was just moved by the sound of the Canto's part. I found the incredibly high vocal range of this part to be very moving and most beautiful (although I am not sure exactly how to explain this).
Then starting to listen to  the piece more carefully, it becomes apparent that there is more than one vocal part, and the vocal parts vary quite significantly. Reading through the listening guide it became apparent that this is what is called a "duet chorus," which is a type of choral music where the music appears in pairs of voices.  The initial pairing is soprano (canto) and bass, which makes for a fairly striking contrast in pitch. Furthermore, I think that the complexity of the long, drawn out "purify" which changes note fairly quickly (these are made up of long lines of sixteenth notes), really makes the texture of this piece very interesting.
Also, as the piece continues it moves away from this ensemble chorus and multiple voices join in at the same time, creating a far more complicated homophonic texture. I ultimately think that this is what makes this piece so interesting; as soon as you think you know what is going to happen next, Handel changes how he has put the different vocal parts together.