Organist accidentally hits ‘transpose’ during Handel’s Messiah, and produces this spectacular fail

23 December 2020, 12:16 | Updated: 23 December 2020, 12:23

It’s safe to say the organist didn’t Handel this very well…

Performing under pressure is hard, and there’s no doubt that accompanying a full choir is stressful even for the most unflappable of musicians.

But this is just… something else.

During a performance of Handel’s Messiah, at that crucial moment at the end of the ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus when the choir and organ come together in four glorious final chords, this organist completely loses it.

It seems they accidentally pressed the ‘transpose’ function on their instrument, only-just-and-only-sort-of recovering it by adding an unexpected seventh at the end, before finally landing on the tonic chord.

We can all agree the choir deserves a huge pat on the back for holding it together.

The Messiah's Organist's Last Job

And if you'd like to dive into the music theory of this most unexpected final cadence, someone has transcribed the moment note for note.