Sacred
Music is one of the most effective ways to worship God. And there is an enormous log of sacred music that attests to this fact. Most of the songs found here are simple hymns that represent a simple plan that God presented to mankind to help us restore our fellowship with Him. Christmas carols can be found on the Christmas page.
Please feel free to use these arrangements for your personal worship or in church. For studio use, please make sure my name, along with credit to any original composer) is attached to any printed of video presentation.
This piece originally written by Anne Herring successfully captures the joy every believer has about Easter. It moves along in a flowing style and when I play it, I like to use great dynamic changes. It has been used for offertories, postludes and congregational singing. Enjoy.
In 1949 Olive Dungan, a musician and piano/voice teacher, set St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer to music. For Level 3 there is a one page, simple, chordal arrangement and a 2 page layout includes lyrics.
This simple tune starts off as a beginner piece but adds more difficulty with the few variations.
Sometimes it’s hard to get the student to accept polyphonic music. Like Algebra, they think they will never use it – so I came up with this organ arrangement for a student of mine and have used this several times in church for one of my offertories.
This is a beautiful Negro-Spiritual* that draws the listener in when the question asks, “Where You There?” Marilyn Ham is a very talented musician whose beautiful arrangements speak to worshipers in a most uplifting and thoughtful way. Most of her work is too advanced for the intermediate student, so her treatment of this spiritual has been simplified in this arrangement before I paired it with “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” a song requested by a student to be in the song as well. You will hear it on the last page.
*Though many have changed the term for this classification, I have chosen to retain this term because I believe these spirituals reflect the dignity, faith and hope of a repressed people forced into slavery, yet they rose above their surroundings to prove they were people who loved beauty, love, freedom – all aspirations found in all mankind.
A teacher is constantly surprised by the student. Usually when I ask for a favorite song, in this case from the hymnal, students will say “Amazing Grace” “How Great Thou Art” and other popular titles. This student came out with “Wonderful Words of Life.” Then again, she leads a full, musical life for a teenager and her choice is very perceptive.
Play this as a joyful song, keeping a light touch to indicate ease of dexterity.
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