Learning New Messiah Choruses

I must admit, one thing I like the most about singing Christmas music with the Chorale is that everything is so familiar and easy. Part I of Messiah falls into that category. It's fun to sing, I've heard it all my life, I finally have the soprano part almost memorized (For the first 25 years of my life I sang alto), and it's comfortable for me. Last year, we branched out for the first time since I've been singing here and sang a lot of Parts II and III. That was a little more challenging, but still fun.

For some reason, having to learn two new choruses last night ("But Thanks be to God" and "Lift Up Your Heads") just killed me. I've heard them both, of course, but never sung them. "But, Thanks" particularly felt as if I was slogging through a bunch of muck trying to find pitches, and even count rhythms. After wrestling with learning the dissonant harmonies of the Dona Nobis Pacem for the past few months, I was hoping to be able to relax a bit with Messiah. Guess that's not going to be the case. I know it will make me a better musician...so I suppose I'll just suck it up and spend a little quality time with my computer and Cyberbass this weekend....again. :)