Product Description
"We Gather Together" is one of the best known Thanksgiving hymns. It originated in the Netherlands in 1597 as "Wilt Heden Nu Treden," written by Adrianus Valerius to commemorate a victory in the Dutch war of liberation from Spanish oppression. It was first published in Valerius 1626 collection of Dutch folks songs, Nederlandtsche Gedenck-Clanck. In 1877, the Austrian composer and conductor, Eduard Kremser, published arrangements for six songs from Valerius collection, one of which was "Wilt Heden Nu Treden." Seven years later, American musicologist Theodore Baker wrote a modern English version of the hymn. It is Bakers words and Kremsers melody that are today sung as "We Gather Together."
This arrangement consists of six versions of the Kremser tune. The first is a fairly straightforward melody-and-harmony rendition, except that Trumpet 1 begins solo, and the other instruments join the playing group one at a time. Succeeding versions consist of variations, until the final, which, for the four upper instruments, reverts to a simple statement of melody-plus-harmony. Tuba, on the other hand, has a wonderful running bass part. The piece ends with a brief diminuendo and ritardando repetition of the last four measures. The key signature changes twice: C to D and back to C. There are no tricky rhythmic figures. As for high notes: Trumpet 1 plays one quarter-note A above its staff; Trombone has two high-F eighth-notes.
This arrangement was completed in 2019, and performance time runs about 2 minutes, 55 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.
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