W. W. Phelps 1792-1872 One of the most hopeful, praising, thankful texts I have ever found is "Come All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth" by W.W. Phelps 1792-1872. In the 1985 L.D.S. hymnal, this upbeat, cheerful text is paired with a very plodding hymn tune in duple meter while anyone who reads the text separately from the music will instantly see that the meter needs to be in triple. Besides that, the melodic phrases don't match the imagery in the text. So, a few years ago, I decided to write a 3/4 melody for this text and make sure it supports the word painting.
Yesterday, my home ward choir sang this piece, in the SSATB version. We have an unusual choir because we have many fine singers in every section, plus several renown music professors, instrumentalists, composers, solo singers, and choir conductors. (Living close to BYU campus does have its perks.) The performance went well, and I was pleased. (What a nice Birthday present to me!)
The program listed not only the song title, but had my name credited as the composer. So after the meeting, many people came up to me and gave such ecstatic comments about our performance. Most of them said things like, "I recognized the text, remembering that it was in our hymnal, but I didn't recognize the melody." One man said, "I had to look in the hymn book just to make sure! Wow! Then I realized that you had put that text to a whole new melody. That hymn really needed a facelift and you did it! The words came alive! Well done."
Later in the evening the sweetest thing happened. About 25 of us were gathered for a noisy family birthday celebration dinner in my house, when unexpectedly, the doorbell rang. A bunch of kids ran to answer it, so I went too. A neighbor and two of his sons (ages 13 and 10) were standing there holding out a plate of cookies. One of the boys said, "We really liked your song today in Church, so we made you some cookies. Thank you. That really made our Sunday."
I don't think I have ever had a more tender and sincere compliment from young boys! I was really touched.
Enjoy "Come All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth" SSATB with Piano accompaniment.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday, my home ward choir sang this piece, in the SSATB version. We have an unusual choir because we have many fine singers in every section, plus several renown music professors, instrumentalists, composers, solo singers, and choir conductors. (Living close to BYU campus does have its perks.) The performance went well, and I was pleased. (What a nice Birthday present to me!)
The program listed not only the song title, but had my name credited as the composer. So after the meeting, many people came up to me and gave such ecstatic comments about our performance. Most of them said things like, "I recognized the text, remembering that it was in our hymnal, but I didn't recognize the melody." One man said, "I had to look in the hymn book just to make sure! Wow! Then I realized that you had put that text to a whole new melody. That hymn really needed a facelift and you did it! The words came alive! Well done."
Later in the evening the sweetest thing happened. About 25 of us were gathered for a noisy family birthday celebration dinner in my house, when unexpectedly, the doorbell rang. A bunch of kids ran to answer it, so I went too. A neighbor and two of his sons (ages 13 and 10) were standing there holding out a plate of cookies. One of the boys said, "We really liked your song today in Church, so we made you some cookies. Thank you. That really made our Sunday."
I don't think I have ever had a more tender and sincere compliment from young boys! I was really touched.
Enjoy "Come All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth" SSATB with Piano accompaniment.
Happy Thanksgiving!
RSS Feed