A recent composition

Thought I'd post something since our conversation here at Music Ministry has slowed down!

The song linked below is titled St. Louis. It is a song composed in the style of The Sacred Harp, here recorded at the Missouri State Sacred Harp Convention held March 12-13, 2016 It was named in honor of the St. Louis shape note singers. It includes two stanzas of text from "A prospect of Heaven makes Death easy," by Isaac Watts 1707, and an arranged chorus. The solfege (note syllabes) is sung first, then the hymn. This is the first time it was sung at a singing convention, and the first time ever for many of the singers (who are excellent sight readers). The leader is my friend Paul Figura of Webster Groves, Missouri.



1. There is a land of pure delight,
where saints immortal reign;
infinite day excludes the night,
and pleasures banish pain.
2. O could we make our doubts remove,
those gloomy doubts that rise,
and see the Canaan that we love
with unbeclouded eyes.

Chorus:
I am bound for that land, yes I am,
I am bound for that land, I am (I am);
To that land, to that land, to that land I am bound
I am going to that land.

You will hear "shades" of "The Promised Land" in the idea of it. The entire hymn by Watts can be found HERE.

 

This one, written circa 2010, was published in The Sacred Harp, Revised 2012 Cooper Edition.

The text is from a rather long hymm "by the late Rev. George Askins," found in The Spiritual Songster containing a Variety of Camp-meeting, and other Hymns, Frederick-Town, Md: George Kolb, 1819. I used two stanzas and a third stanza as a chorus:

1. Dear brethren, I have found,
A land which doth abound,
With fruits as sweet as manna,
The more I eat I find,
The more I am inclined,
To sing and shout “hosanna!”
Refrain: My soul doth long to go,
Where it may fully know,
The glory of the Savior;
And as I pass along,
I’ll sing the Christian’s song,
I hope to live forever.

2. What must this fountain be,
From which grace flows so free,
It yields both peace and pleasure;
There’s no terrestrial bliss,
Can ever equal this,
A foretaste of my Savior.
Refrain: My soul doth long to go,
Where it may fully know,
The glory of the Savior;
And as I pass along,
I’ll sing the Christian’s song,
I hope to live forever.



Led by Elder Jeb Owens, East Texas Sacred Harp Convention, 2014