Messiah Hallelujah Chorus - final disastrous moments for the organist!

Any performer's worst nightmare!!

[@AeraKiasaki]

Props to the choir for staying on pitch.

[@futhamucka]

Rose McDowell I couldnt work out if they did or they didn't. I feel like they lost it in the middle too.

[@Grayham4]

Srsly tho

[@haplessasshole9615]

@@futhamucka Some of them were tempted away by the satanic transposition switch, but the strongest singers didn't, and those with less faith in their own pitch had faith in the folks who had sung *Messiah* for many years. They did the right thing, too.

[@uaselfe]

The organist didn't Handel that very well

[@Emg2463]

x-D

[@evylpanda]

Best comment yet!

[@musicmann1967]

This wins. All other contenders can go home. :D

[@thomasstanford8456]

He got it Bach in the right key at the end though.

[@stampacatmeowsartworld1926]

@Shane Rutherford Yesss composer puns

[@redrotney]

Live by the transposition switch, die by the transposition switch.

[@kylebenoit787]

redrotney OOF, my teacher when she saw that on the organ was like, “What is that, don’t use that”

[@haplessasshole9615]

First time I shared this, my husband (better versed in organs than I) explained what caused this 200-car pileup. He said essentially the same thing -- "If ya can't transpose, don't transpose. Especially don't transpose with a switch. They'll nail ya every time."

[@michaelhoerig5920]

This is why I NEVER use the transposer! Not sure why they even put them on organs.

[@mwalvey]

Your comment caused my laughter to swell so much, I felt compelled to pipe up. It ranks at the top of my list for best comment . . stops me in my tracks every time . . really struck a chord. The key to your logic was good organization. THANKS!

[@Angelo-z2i]

I like how he timidly plays a note before the big cluster fuck

[@Zee664]

Love the hesitation of the applause

[@wilsonkm]

That leading tone at 0:32 was just pure genius.

[@AriannaCunningham]

Was it a Baroque Organ tuned to 415hz, or a keyboard with an organ sound that was accidentally pitched down a semi-tone?

[@zundix]

Absolutely, he should have kept that chord and end dissonant.

[@R_Fisk]

​@@AriannaCunningham Neither. It is A=440 tuning on either a real or digital pipe organ. The organist was supposed to press a button (piston) for the final chords but accidentally hit the transpose button.

[@AriannaCunningham]

​@@R_Fisk But at least they managed to get the transposition right on the final chord. I think they were meant to bring out all of the stops because of the final climactic chords coming from the rest of the orchestra.

[@christinaharkness6570]

My sister showed this to our family members at a christmas party, who are all musician's. We laughed so hard we were crying:)

[@ernestharuna]

I've been laughing soo hard

[@ashtondavies]

Hello

[@kc0jtl]

I absolutely love the resolve at the end.

[@paulanderson6834]

Messiah? More like Messiaen. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night.

[@curtiskemmerle8870]

Organist fails, parish winces, choir survives, Jesus laughs and God face-palms!

[@MeredithAnne88]

Anyone who's been in choir and/or orchestra knows this! 😁

[@jameerlawrencebondoc8162]

The bishops got kicked out of their job and denoted to pawn (chess reference)

[@jaylowry4082]

God is also laughing through that face palm.

[@jonascastejon5888]

👹😹​@@jaylowry4082

[@GeorgiosZaimis]

The incredible thing here is that the chorus stayed perfectly in tune even with this organ dissonance... Most choirs I know would have stopped singing in this kind of situations or at least... perform avant-garde clusters!

[@nathanbarnes8535]

This piece is no longer the Messiah, it's the Antichrist.

[@someoneelse101]

Nathan Barnes XDDDDDD

[@vincentd.centenophd263]

Clever response.

[@bluebird6759]

Oh that's very good

[@omamajohnpaul4215]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@satesup4353]

I summon upon thee, the Seitan of the blasphemyyy~~~

[@derek24hudson]

Playing an electronic keyboard for a musical show some years ago, I was too lazy to rewrite a song score for one of the songs, and simply used the transpose button to drop the pitch by a 5th. Unfortunately, on one night only, I forgot to reset the transpose button to zero for the next singer, who happened to be my fiancee at the time, and I couldn't understand why she was singing like Lee Marvin in 'Wandering Star' (for older readers!) Suddenly realising what I had done, I panicked and reset the button, slowly, to zero, while my ex-fiancee attempted to keep up with the constantly rising key changes. The result was, to the audience, hilarious, and got the biggest cheer of the night, for the wrong reasons. I married someone else!

[@totophi]

Who knows, maybe your ex-fiancée traded one lazy slob for another! ;-)

[@petitetorte]

"Wandering star" is one thing; Wandering Key is quite another!

[@Marauder623]

Please tell me there is video of this!

[@waltertheus3467]

I have perfect pitch. I simply cannot use the transpose button. Fortunately I can transpose if you give me a little time. So long as the piece is relatively tonal.

[@andrewrichesson8627]

Transposing in the middle of the piece is not something you should do unless you get to a good breaking point

[@ssjMacklyn]

this is actually my favorite version of Handel's Messiah now; sort of like the mini-apocalypse right before the second coming !!!

[@Poyu93]

it's started as an Halleluja, it's ended as the Dies irae

[@QiaochuHou]

Every organists worst nightmare...Lets be honest, this has happened at least once to all of us...

[@user-gy4xp2tu6f]

true that, mistakes happen.

[@johnr6168]

It was an electronic organ and they pressed the transposer minus button instead of a combination button. There's also a plus button. On most organs the minus and plus buttons operate whatever a menu system is selected to but the one I play defaults to the transpose function. I think the one on the recording does also.

[@albinrose1193]

The minute I heard that, I figured it was a transpose button problem. Dear Lord...

[@AlexWalkerSmith]

ROFLCOPTER!! That poor organist! He will never forget that day. (I once messed up the ending cadence to Chopin's Military Polonaise, and it's engrained in my brain permanently. Every time I hear that Polonaise, I think of MY final disaster...)

[@deniswalsh3807]

an 11 year old comment with ROFLCOPTER in it, I just hit my scavenger hunt!

[@AlexWalkerSmith]

@@deniswalsh3807 I think that expression was already old at the time, hahaha 🤣

[@JonRappi]

Charles Ives is smiling in heaven...

[@LouisePriciliaPily]

Coming here after twoset violin😂🤣

[@leorolando1924]

That's some Old Testament-sounding shit right there.

[@mmmyum111]

THIS VIDEO IS SO UNDERRATED

[@siangogerly]

Its the pause then the dodgy key change I'm crying 😂 🤣 you can just picture the musical directors face lol thumbs up to the choir for staying in key x

[@zzzut]

I love contemporary music.

[@voicedify]

I LOVE THIS! This isn't a disaster! This is a happy little accident!

[@coloraturaMusic]

Cuz it made so many people laugh haha Bob Ross truly speaks deeply

[@Dave_thenerd]

Am I they only one who loves this it's like Hallelujah for Halloween! It does scare classically trained musicians.

[@Dimivim]

Even before the final chords at the last 3 hallelouias I believe I hear C# instead of D on the organ if I am correct. So that was a bad thing and after that the organist tried to find the chords to be right. At the last hallelouia which is G major and then D Major I think i hear F# on the organ istead of G. That is really messed up!

[@omamajohnpaul4215]

Splendid! Just lovely.💥

[@phaneserichthoneus8895]

That's just a little dissonance. It's supposed to bring extra pleasure at the final chord. :D

[@jere3558]

I. Need. That. Cord.

[@jerryrockguy84]

More like Handel's ''Messiaen''...

[@fannstmer]

Niiice!

[@jonathanpartin9833]

Straight up atonal shit right there!

[@jackkenefick2696]

dammit beat me to it. by two years

[@hamburglar8794]

I need to look up what that means.

[@TheDaveBloom]

Holy shit, that's a good one!

[@Dreigonix]

At least he resolved on a major chord.

[@artpeterson2582]

I have accompanied the Messiah many times. What is every ones problem? Thats the score I have used every time!

[@andrewcaswell3595]

Beautiful performance!

[@davidcalveto]

i love the clapping at the end ... what else could you do

[@janeolson402]

One year we sang The Messiah in the evening. We were about 16 measures in when there was a power failure. The choir managed to sing about 4 more measures in total darkness.

[@Mozart3150]

If Arnold Schoenberg wrote Messiah.

[@phantomfn8]

*Stravinsky

[@jonathanpartin9833]

Totally atonal right there!

[@adienromarirez2309]

Dang!!!! This is why I prefer to learn the piece in its original key; if one becomes attached to the transposition switch it can be disastrous at some point.

[@totophi]

Right! So either just learn to play in both keys by heart, or use notation software to print out in all expected permutations... :-)

[@goofypaul]

the pause before the applause was just awesome! hey, that rhymed.

[@coloraturaMusic]

The audience wasn't sure about that applause hahahaha I'm dying

[@benfoster578]

At least they ended on the right note...

[@JukeboxOddities]

0:23 when the dark souls Boss music starts playing

[@musicaenbodas]

Ohhh I really got falling in love with this organist !!! I want to meet him... Impresionante version !!! Soy del club de fans del organista !!!...

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

To all the commentators who think the organist was playing the wrong keys, this sounds like an electronic organ with a 'transposer' facility, which the organist somehow brought on at the end. He may have been pressing the right notes on the keyboard.

[@korhonenmikko]

PROTIP: Make sure the synth and the vocals are in the SAME KEY!

[@jaredtinkham3974]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@OrganCat]

He accidentally pulled the wrong Handel.

[@aldebaran.carrasco.martinez]

Hahajajahajajahahaha

[@swarze]

@johnirvingbenson OH MY! Thank you for reminding me of Jonathan and Darlene! I know it is a perverse pleasure, but I DO love hearing this Handel thing every Christmas season!

[@DanielCZaldana]

Hallelujah Chorus: Charles Ives Edition.

[@vyvianspipes]

On a lot of organs these days, there often times is a transpose function knob, or sometimes even controlled digitally. Good organists seldom make use of it, because of their technique’s advanced nature. Take for instance pitches you would expect to hear, and shift them up or down a few semitones. Doesn’t work too well, does it?!

[@flmbyz]

The shocked and confused audience could only muster a polite applause at the end there.

[@bradywilliams5604]

I guess you could say he didn't "Handel" this piece very well.

[@GisherJohn24]

+Brady Williams lol

[@adderleym2139]

lol

[@sb6678]

Brady Williams someone else already made that comment before you

[@benmckay4004]

That's a good choir. I'm not a singer, but if the organ did that to me there's no way I could stay on pitch

[@71259mark]

I thought much the same thing. In his/her enthusiasm, they inadvertantly bumped the transpo switch.

[@robster9667]

Pity this isn't a video! Would love to see the look on people's faces :D

[@vwdiver512]

OMFG... I can't believe it!! I'm literally wheezing while coughing and laughing hysterically... I can't believe this happened!!! Then again, I can remember the organist from my local church while I was growing up. her name was Teri, and she made frequent mistakes like this. Maybe this was her!! LOL

[@ninadamaris8516]

In eine Generalpause gespielt und danach Töne und Tonart verfehlt. Saubere Arbeit!

[@adriandegroot2264]

The worst thing that ever happened to me, accompanying a choir, was accidentally shitting the wrong low pedal note just before the final chord; most people didn't notice, but the look on the choir director's face told a different story... :-)

[@saylemolberg2998]

Never gets old 😂😂😂

[@interhistoria5632]

This made me laugh harder than I was expecting.

[@Zanzibarbarian]

THAT WAS INCREDIBLY AWESOME

[@jere3558]

Ngl that dissonance sounds awesome! Anyone got that chord for me?

[@MCDreng]

I think the organ is just down half a step while the Chorus is in the correct key, so whatever that results in.

[@annakimborahpa]

Very creative and a good recovery. It sounds like the transposer was set down from the key of D Major by a half step at 0:25. Then the organist over compensated by turning it up a whole step above D Major at 0:33 and then sliding it back down the whole step to D Major at 0:34. Since the upper partials of the organ mixtures sound above the human voices and the other instruments, my guess for analyzing the harmonies would be as follows: 0:25 = Db Major/D Major or D Major 7 (#11, #9) 0:27 = Gb Major/G Major or G Major 7 (#11, #9) 0:33 = E Major/ D Major or D Major 9/13 (#11) 0:34 = D Major

[@menegakis]

Damn, heard it so many times i like it now!! So much tension!!

[@John-Culbreth]

I want to know who this organist is so I can thank them for the enormous amount of joy this brings me 😂

[@steamrocks]

I had something like that happen to me at Christmas. The organist before me used the tranposer. I never touch the damn thing, If I need to be in a different key, I just PLAY it!..So....I never look to see if it's on or off. I played a piece with Orchestra, chorus, and organ in the wrong key! The orchestra conductor caught it right away anc cut the orchestra out, chorus continued in a key 2 semitones higher than normal. They really sounded spirited, I really felt dumb.

[@titusoxenstierna]

Me, who likes jazz: Nice

[@judithwhitehouse2149]

"He's not the Messiah - he's just a very naughty boy..."

[@east_bay_transit_nerd]

Handel has risen from his grave and is hunting down the organist

[@DHWOO]

You should add more tags, like 'organ' and 'fail' to get more hits! This needs to be seen (heard) much more than 21000 times! Brilliant :)

[@chrisneto]

Avante garde classical. I like it!

[@spaulding1965]

Charles Ives is loving this!

[@williamneal8971]

the orgainst had stroke while playing

[@snootzie78]

I'm playing in the Messiah Festival in Lindsborg, Kansas soon. I hope this doesn't happen during the performances.

[@Timrath]

@jcirmsa Wow, I have been wondering for years about why this happened. I think you nailed it right on the head. Thank you for solving this mystery for me! :-)

[@BoomchakalakaF]

Well, as a keyboardist you might not know that this guy probably hit some transposition switch, thats why he takes quite a while to figure out that he is not actually playing the wrong keys but that he hit the switch.

[@jasiuss]

Always makes me laugh out loud

[@SongBirdie92]

Please tell me that I wasn't the only person who was grateful that they used proper voice leading when the mistake on the last chord was resolved? :P 7th resolved up to the tonic.

[@jasorts]

OMG!!!! o no... lol! I felt that in my inner core...

[@Robenin]

Must've been the transpose button. Mind you, he/she corrects it by the last chord!

[@rdangelo8109]

Better than the boring, predictable written part.

[@swinger9374]

rdangelo loool

[@matthewprovince8755]

This metal version of hallelujah is sick

[@briankatona]

The bi-tonal version!

[@codascheuer8426]

By Charles Ives featuring Schoenberg

[@lindokuhlesibande257]

At least he/she got the final chord.

[@SimoneLuBensBenedetti]

So in the final MESSIA became MESSIAEN...

[@valericssonable]

My fave comments from below: 1. Handel just rolled in his grave. 2. The organist didn't Handel that very well. 3. Happened at least once to every organist. For me, I was playing Bridal Chorus (F major) and I forgot to play the B flat at one point. Even the bride looked at me. Gah!

[@mehekalam6103]

This is one of charlie puth's favourite songs, I'm surprised he hasn't commented on this...by the way I love u charlie😍😎💞💋💓😆

[@LeLouvre-jx8vj]

We were gonna perform this in high school when my teacher pulled this video up and said "don't ever play like this." 🤣

[@oriona8648]

Is there a full recording of this exact video?

[@gaur560]

This Organ has a Switch to put the whole instrument one half note higher or lower, wich is often located very close to the keyboards. So he accidently hit this button and played the correct chords but a note higher

[@stevenzielke8397]

Every time I hear this, I just laugh and laugh. Too funny.

[@ffttyy]

i would have fallen over lauphing so hard

[@bg-presents]

If this shows up twice, my most humble apologies. I have to say way to go to keep going. I had a similar experience when performing.My conductor brought us in a verse an a half early and he had to quickly show the band what happened. We did not end that piece well, but we kept going. I hope I never have this happen to me when I conduct, ever. What happened exactly? I can't play organ to save my life, just sing, play enough piano to pinch hit, and conduct. Happy Tuesday.

[@OldWhitebelly]

Frankly, it's the first interesting bit in the entire piece.

[@steffers27]

What was the cat’s name that jumped on the keys?

[@Hypermnestre]

I didn't think anything could be funnier than the clip itself but your comment proves me wrong!

[@lynntariece3001]

0:00-0:06 think of the choir saying “she’s a bitch”. Enjoy your day folks

[@WilfredIvanhoe]

Instead of hallelujah, it became hellalujah.

[@charalamposrisvas9744]

I'm Schoenberg and I've come to make your piece better :-P

[@nickthemusicman1101]

Came here from TwoSetViolin.

[@nadiaformica7722]

I heard there was a video of this happening and you can see the organist trying to get it unstuck but sadly the vid got taken down due to the embarrassment 😭

[@spkcolehr6424]

The organist os a genius!! Props to the organist!!