Product Description
For most of us, Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" has traditionally been sung to the tune BEECHER. But if you are looking for a way to freshen up this classic hymn, may I offer this arrangement for your consideration. First, I wedded the text to the inspired Welsh tune: HYFRYDOL. Then I arranged the vocals in a flexible three-part format. Then I added a contemporary piano part with a bass line that can be played by the electric bass, and then I included the chord symbols for your guitarist(s). Finally, I orchestrated the piece for pretty much every instrument except trumpets and trombones (though they can adapt the clarinet and bassoon parts if you desire to add them in).
If you don't need the orchestration, I'd suggest purchasing what you are currently looking at: the Vocals /Piano / Chords package, which include the following three charts:
Vocal / Piano / Chords
Piano / Chords
Vocals only
For the price listed, as far as I'm concerned you can duplicate as many parts as needed for your praise team and/or choir and band. If you do want the orchestration also, then don't buy this package; instead go to the Full Orchestration edition, posted separately, and buy that packagewhich includes the three charts listed above. Again, for that purchase price feel free to duplicate as many parts as needed for your musicians.
I would also mention that this works well for (unison) congregational singing; the text has not been altered here, so you can display the traditional text that appears from wherever you import your lyrics. At this suggested tempo, it is 3:00 in duration.
Here are some program notes regarding the text:
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 the Wesley brothers 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.
Besides being preachers and social reformers, the brothers John and Charles Wesley made enormous contributions to English hymnnody. John wrote a few hymns himself, but mainly translated Moravian texts and edited hymnbooks. Charles, on the other hand, wrote almost 9,000 poems, of which some 6,500 were hymn texts. With Isaac Watts, he stands at the pinnacle of importance in the shaping of English hymnody. Besides "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," other Wesley hymns still in use today include "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," "Rejoice, the Lord Is King," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "A Charge to Keep I Have," "Arise, My Soul, Arise," "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus," "Soldiers of Christ, Arise," "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," and "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
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It
has been my lifelong passion to provide fresh, yet accessible music
for
the churches and schools with whom I have been associated. Because of
the slowdown caused by Covid-19, I
finally have the time to start posting 45 years' worth of custom
arrangements on Sheet Music Plus. If you are curious about what else is available, please navigate to my publisher page here on SMP
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