Just As I am
By K. Lee Scott
Once again I offer an excerpt from the publisher’s page.
K. Lee Scott has written a beautiful melody that will help put this well known hymn in a new light. The tune is lyrical and sensitive and appears in mostly unison or two-part mixed voicing that alternates between men and women.
This piece was new for many of us, but not especially difficult to learn for the most part. There was one verse that gave the altos pause — that “what’s going on here?” pause. I downloaded the audio from the one choir I could find on YouTube that had performed and posted the anthem and went to work on that portion, beginning at slow practice tempo and stepping it up until beyond performance tempo. After (quite) a few times through it was no longer difficult, and I was able to help some of the others pick it up.
The recorded sound seemed a little better this week. Our director has been making comments about the recorded sound quality as well, and improvements might be coming.
Some of the captions in the video are cut off because they contain too many lines. They come through from screens (ProPresenter) as “lower thirds”, and there is space for just three lines of lyrics. I will be running screens this Sunday and I have a copy of the slides to review tomorrow to make sure the hymn lyrics are correct. I’ll be sure to check lower thirds as well.
Speaking of cutting off, when I excerpt the anthem from the livestream recording, I often cut it off very close after the end, during applause. That’s because the next speaker comes into view of the camera right there. The service runs on a tight schedule.
Recorded at Christ Community Church, Carmichael, California, February 3, 2024
Excerpted from this livestream.
I like this arrangement better than the one I am familiar with from my youth. Very nice.