Product Description
This is the orchestral accompaniment for a big four-minute festival choir arrangement (with the octavo posted separately on Sheet Music Plus). It begins with a choir and brass fanfare which introduces the exuberance of the Charles Wesley text.
This would be ideal for sacred music conferences or use by faith-based university choirs and orchestras, especially schools
connected to the Wesleyan/Holiness tradition. The ultimate would be to
have the Mormon Tabernacle choir and orchestra perform it (please, Mr.
Wilberg!) :-)
(This orchestration can also be used with just a string section and/or brass section if a fuller orchestra is not available.)
This orchestration is also compatible with a piano/organ duet
edition, which is posted separately on SMP.
Here are some program notes:
Charles
Wesley (1707-1788) and his brother John (1703-1791), sons of an
Anglican minister (Samuel), both trained for ministry at Oxford
University. While there, they were labeled (somewhat derisively)
"methodists" because of the strict regimen of spiritual exercises and
scholarship that they developed. After a short unsuccessful stint as
missionaries to the ColoniesGeorgia, specificallythey returned home to
England, frustrated in their spiritual lives. In an interesting
parallel to John Newtons life, it was during the sea voyage that seeds
were planted, as they watched a group of Moravians experiencing amazing
peace during rough seas. Shortly thereafter they experienced spiritual
rebirth, and the rest is historywith Johns preaching and Charles
hymn-writing becoming the catalyst for a great revival that swept across
England. John wrote a few hymns himself, but mainly translated Moravian
hymns from German and edited hymnbooks. Charles, on the other hand,
wrote almost 9,000 poems, of which some 6,500 were hymn texts. This
prodigious output earned him the posthumous title: "sweet bard of
Methodism." His many hymns still in use today include "A Charge to Keep I
Have," "Arise, My Soul, Arise," "Soldiers of Christ, Arise," "Christ
the Lord Is Risen Today," "Rejoice, the Lord Is King," "O For a Thousand
Tongues to Sing," "Celebrate Immanuels Name," "Jesus, Lover of My
Soul," "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus," and "Ye Servants of God."
Days
before his death at the age of 81, Charles preached in the City Road
Chapel, London. The hymn preceding his sermon was Isaac Watts "Ill
Praise My Maker While Ive Breath." Falling critically ill the next day,
he amazed those around him by singing that entire hymn with a strong
voice. Later that week he died, with that same hymn forming his last
words.
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If you are curious about other resources that I am making
available as I am "sheltering in place" here in May, 2020, please do
a search of my name here on SMP...or go to my Facebook site <https://www.facebook.com/leathermanmusicservices>; where you can see and hear more of my published works. Thanks for your interest!
Lyndell Leatherman, ASCAP
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.