One sunny Tuesday at the 1990 Mount Hermon Music Conference, Dana Vivit asked “Why haven’t you written anything for the Brass Angels yet?” We’d been friends for some years by then, and so I responded, “Well, name it.” “Holy, Holy, Holy.” “You got it!” Not knowing how to leave the thought alone, my mind started …
Category: Church Music
In the Garden – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US Church Calendar: Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Easter In the Garden is an early twentieth-century Gospel song by C. Austin Miles. It’s about those solitary times when we find the Savior waiting for us in a peaceful place, and spend time rejoicing in His presence. This …
At Calvary – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Price: $ US Church Calendar: Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter Sometimes the pressure’s off, and sometimes it’s on… we were planning a Gospel Music Night at Valley Church, and two weeks before the date I was asked to assemble a men’s quartet. Then came the minor difficulty of choosing repertoire. We ended up singing …
Amazing Grace – TTBB ensemble
Amazing Grace is one of the best-known hymns of all time. John Newton wrote it in the eighteenth century, and from then till today it still brings forth the message of soul saved and life changed. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am …
Daddy’s Little Girl – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US The Internet is a wonderful way to meet people, chat rooms or not. This is how I met Vickie. She was searching for men’s quartet music (she accompanies “The Crosswards” from the First United Methodist Church in Rawlins, Wyoming), and happened upon the Choraegus site. …
Trusting in Jesus – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US Sometimes I have the feeling that I was born fifty years too late. For some reason, God’s given me a strange (for my generation) aptitude for writing Big Band music. Trusting In Jesus is remarkable in this respect; it seems to sound just as if …
Power in the Blood – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Church Calendar: Holy Week, Easter Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US In March 1988, Les Nederveld, our baritone, and I were talking about the upcoming Easter service at De Anza College’s Flint Center. Les thought it would be great to for the quartet to sing there, and decided to ask our …
Far Beyond – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US I said temporary goodbyes to a lot of friends in 1991. Paul Steele, our pastor, died of a particularly virulent and manifestly inoperable cancer, and high school friend had a painful passing from the same. My grandmother passed away due to congestive heart failure. Although …
Access – TTBB ensemble
Preview: Men’s Quartet score: $ US Accompaniment track: $ US Short and simple: Doumer Liu, our bass, once commented that there wasn’t much men’s quartet music with solos for the lowest part. So I wrote him one. “Access” tells of the Old Testament times when the children of Israel were denied direct access (and Internet …
Jesus Paid It All – SSA ensemble
The message of Jesus Paid It All goes far beyond the title. True enough, He gave Himself to pay the penalty of our sins, but the hymn text also intimates that we have an infinite debt to Him that goes along with receiving the free gift that He offers. Of course… it’s impossible to repay …