Product Description
At our church, the service begins with a piano/organ duet as the prelude. Once, I was listening to this beautiful offering and thought it might be really great for the choir to make a surprise guest appearance.
Thus emerged this prelude, based on the hymn tune Lobe den Herrin, more commonly known as Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. It is designed to be the opening prelude of a church service, but could also serve as a concert piece. It is scored as a piano/organ duet with optional obbligato choir and/or congregation joining in for a climactic verse.
If you choose to include the optional choir or congregational singing, the lyrics are taken from the hymn by the great German hymnist, Joachim Neander (1650-1680) as translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), verse Five in the United Methodist Hymnal, with slight variation to give it a slightly nationalist flavor. It can just as easily be sung straight from most hymnals with any verse lyric the performers choose. Please note that in most hymnals, it is in the key of F, while this piece is in G; otherwise the harmonies are compatible.
For those wishing to include the choir, a single sheet choir part is provided, and permission is granted to make one (1) copy of this page for each choir member. If you choose to have congregational singing with the altered lyrics, these may be printed in the program or bulletin.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.