It is a good question to ask because there is something about the arrival at last of performances of the Messiah in a place that heralds (and we use that word advisedly) the coming of civilisation. It has something about it of the bringing of Christianity to the heathens, and of the bringing of electric light and of piped water to a community. A spot that can stage a Messiah is showing signs of maturity.

We're not sure when the first all-Canberra, all-Canberran Messiah was staged in the infant federal capital city but the first Queanbeyan-Canberra Messiah was upliftingly warbled 85 years ago this month, in 1928.

On December 15 The Canberra Times rejoiced that ''The production of Handel's impressive oratorio the Messiah by the choral section of the Queanbeyan Musical and Dramatic Society at the Triumph Theatre next Tuesday night, will be the first time this popular musical vocal composition has been given in the district. This has been made possible by the co-operation of all the vocal talent in Queanbeyan.''

There were to be 60 choristers while ''the orchestral music will be provided by a local orchestra augmented by members of the Canberra orchestra. The soloists are: Miss Aubin (soprano), a well-known Sydney vocalist; Miss Pearce (contralto); Mr Colin Raff (tenor) and Mr. C. Neville Strong (bass), who are all well qualified to bring out the beauty and impressiveness of the oratorio.''

The Times' review, a few days later, of this ground-breaking, citizen-civilising performance, was full of praise and noticed how ''the audience showed its appreciation by prolonged applause after almost every number''.

Calling every passage of the Messiah a ''number'' (dance bands play ''numbers'' but oratorios are built of arias and choruses) suggests total ignorance on the part of the journalist. But then, you see, that is exactly the kind of heathen ignorance the Messiah is sent, probably from Heaven, to dispel. We bet that he was the first and the last Canberra Times journalist to call the Hallelujah Chorus a ''number''.

■ The Canberra Choral Society's Messiah is at the Llewellyn Hall this Saturday night at 7.30. Tickets from Ticketek.

Controversial, four-letter-word deploying ACT Arts Minister Joy Burch will be speaking at the opening of this Sunday's Community Christmas Concert at the High Court. Some anxious parents will cover their children's ears until her speech is over. Some of us, after the concert has started, will also need to cover our ears during the performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's awful Pie Jesu. But other than the six-minute ordeal of Pie Jesu we'll all want our ears open all the while.

For the High Court building, we've discovered in recent years, is wasted on all those judges and lawyers. It is time to take it away from them and to give it to the musicians, for its spacious and lofty foyer, with its cathedral-like acoustics, turns out to be the perfect venue for fine music. Trumpets sound especially celestial there (giving us a preview of what music will sound like in Heaven) and the trumpeters of the Trumpet Club will be among the stars of Sunday's concert which is the joyous climax to The Musical Offering's gift to Canberra for the Centenary year. The Trumpet Club, blowing its own trumpet, promises to bring its audiences sounds ranging from ''huge and powerful to soft and golden''. Hundreds of unpaid musicians have staged and presented hundreds of free concerts throughout the year. Sunday's concert of some well-loved and lesser-known seasonal music (there will be carol-singing too, giving you an even more flattering acoustic than you have when you sing in your shower) will be, mind-bogglingly, the 629th Musical Offering performance of our frabjous year.

■ The free concert, on Sunday, December 15, at the High Court of Australia, lasts from 2pm to 3.30pm.

There were 90 minutes of tuneful highlights in Wednesday morning's 90-minute Ready Steady Wiggle! concert by the Wiggles at the AIS Arena.

In one highlight of special Canberra interest, 2500 of us saw the gymnastic Lachy Wiggle cross the stage, on his hands, while singing an ad-libbed song about Canberra. More of us, Canberrans, should be doing this, in our centenary year. It is very hard to do (each of the Wiggles turns out to have a range of unusual skills) but why not try it at home, especially on a soft lawn that will break your fall?

Lachy sang:

''Canberra, a lovely place to be in.

''Oh, you've got a lake named

Burley Griffin.

''You've got a rugby league team

called the Raiders.

''You've got a rugby union team

called [here his memory failed

him] … The Traitors.''

He got his memory back once he was upright. ''Sorry, yes, the Brumbies!''