Humour and Classical Music
13. Silent Monks & The Hallelujah Chorus
by David Barker

This is without doubt the shortest article that will appear in this series. Essentially it is serving simply as a means of directing you to this wonderfully clever (and well-done) piece of whimsy from a high school group. South Kitsap High School is in the small town of Port Orchard, in Washington state, USA. In 2008, a group of students calling themselves The Silent Monks performed Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus … silently. The video of that performance is not especially well done (YouTube), and a repeat performance from the same school in 2012 is better (YouTube). A number of other groups have taken the idea and you can find them on YouTube as well, but I will leave you with the original (or at least I believe South Kitsap to be the first).

I’m not going to say any more about it, as I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Just enjoy.