Chorus from Judas Maccabeus
Historical Notes Composed by George Frideric Handel in 1746.
FORM Chorus is organized into A - B - A from, with three large sections which can each be further divided into two subsections.
AURAL SKILLS Chorus is a purposefully simple melody to allow students to quickly learn the first song of the new book, while focusing on beautiful technique and tone production.
BOW ARM With it's soaring melody, Chorus presents the perfect opportunity for students to practice their deepest tonalization with full bows from frog to tip.
LEFT HAND Chorus revisits the anchor finger, in which one finger remains stationary on the instrument while another finger moves. In the middle of the B section of Chorus, we train the left hand and bow arm through a very specific sequence of steps:
1: Play last note of old section (2 on D, on a downbow)
2: Begin a bow circle while keeping the second finger on the D
3: During the bow circle, land a high third finger on the A string while continuing to keep the second finger on D
4: Land the bow circle simultaneously with the fourth finger on A, while keeping the high third finger on A underneath. (By this point, it is fine if the second finger is no longer anchored)
In Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, students learn to build-up to the third finger with first and second finger supporting below in order to provide structure and stability in the shape of the left hand and wrist. The long-term goal is that students will be able to put down any finger in complete isolation from all other muscles in the hand - we refer to this idea as independent fingers. We begin this journey in Lightly Row by using independent second fingers, which will go down without the support of the first finger underneath.
As the first piece in Book Two, Chorus from Judas Maccabeus provides students with a relatively simple-yet-beautiful melody to launch confidently into the new book.