So for the Sacred Music Chorale‘s upcoming Spring 2016 concerts this weekend, I have once again had the opportunity to liven up some of the pieces we’re singing with strings and flute. Emboldened by the results at Christmas, I volunteered to take on 7 of our pieces:
- Consider the Lilies by Marie E. Roll
- How Can I Keep from Singing? arranged by Bradley Ellingboe
- The Lord Is My Shepherd by Thomas Matthews
- O Be Joyful in the Lord by John Rutter
- Our Father, arranged by Benjamin Harlan
- Praise to the Lord, the Almighty arranged by Robert Sterling
- Shout for Joy! by Dan Davison
As with my previous arrangements, nothing too earth-shatteringly difficult or “out there.” And some, like the Our Father, are fairly minimal (just a bass line in that case).
But still there were a few interesting challenges. I was even so bold as to add a countermelody near the end of Consider the Lilies to make things a little more interesting.
I got to hear them live for the first time at dress rehearsal on Wednesday and they are sounding pretty good! Just a couple of minor typos found, and we decided to drop the string accompaniment at the very beginning of How Can I Keep from Singing? since it ended up being a bit much in practice.
Now that I’m past being concerned with how the arrangements turned out, I can focus on enjoying singing in the upcoming concerts!