That piece was too much fun. George Beverly Shea step aside. Two spots in the score had the sopranos and altos singing a trio, at "Oh, what needless pain we bear", and later at "who will all our sorrows share", and I loved that. The soprano-alto blend came out great on the recording. This is a short but complex arrangement! (The publisher's page linked above offers a demo video with SATB score.)
There is much truth to be found in these lyrics.
Our director was very picky about the dynamics, and it shows. He was smiling the whole time. And this director knew what the funny looking downward-slanting parallel line symbol meant, at the end, the ensemble next-to-last "take it to the Lord", on the end of "Lord". I don't know of a name for it, but it is a fall-off, an unterminated glissando. The last time we did this piece, a couple of years ago, I had to point it out to the choir, including the earlier director. The only reason I knew was that my previous choir sang a quite a bit of gospel, with scoops and fall-offs and I don't know what-all, regularly, and our director was from the South.
That previous choir, at a Baptist church, sang without music folders, and we were free to use our hands. I don't think this traditional-service congregation is quite ready for that.
I'm not criticizing this present choir. They can't help it if they weren't born in the South. (I was.) They're pretty amazing. There are some highly-trained voices, quite a few are sight-singers, and we frequently do our first read-through of new anthems at or near performance tempo. For better or worse.
The bridge is my favorite part ❤️ followed by the robust outro
That piece was too much fun. George Beverly Shea step aside. Two spots in the score had the sopranos and altos singing a trio, at "Oh, what needless pain we bear", and later at "who will all our sorrows share", and I loved that. The soprano-alto blend came out great on the recording. This is a short but complex arrangement! (The publisher's page linked above offers a demo video with SATB score.)
There is much truth to be found in these lyrics.
Our director was very picky about the dynamics, and it shows. He was smiling the whole time. And this director knew what the funny looking downward-slanting parallel line symbol meant, at the end, the ensemble next-to-last "take it to the Lord", on the end of "Lord". I don't know of a name for it, but it is a fall-off, an unterminated glissando. The last time we did this piece, a couple of years ago, I had to point it out to the choir, including the earlier director. The only reason I knew was that my previous choir sang a quite a bit of gospel, with scoops and fall-offs and I don't know what-all, regularly, and our director was from the South.
That previous choir, at a Baptist church, sang without music folders, and we were free to use our hands. I don't think this traditional-service congregation is quite ready for that.
I'm not criticizing this present choir. They can't help it if they weren't born in the South. (I was.) They're pretty amazing. There are some highly-trained voices, quite a few are sight-singers, and we frequently do our first read-through of new anthems at or near performance tempo. For better or worse.