I would assume most people, with even the most passing aquaintance with the Christian religion would be familiar with “Joy to the World!”, the most famous of the Advent hymns.
It is pretty short, so I played it 3 times, boldly the first time, quietly the second, and joyously the third.
This concludes the “Advent” section of the Hymnal. On to “Christmas” hymns next!
The band I’m in practices in the East Bay. After a couple horrible driving experiences, I’ve decided to take BART. One of my East Bay living fellow band mates usually picks me up at Ashby BART station on their way to practice.
Sometimes I get there early, or my bandmate is late, leaving me with some time to kill.
Exploring the station, I’ve discovered that there is a spiffy reverb filled underpass on the East side of the station.
Working up my courage, I’ve started playing my clarinet in the underpass.
I had a pleasant interaction with a blind woman towards the end of this video.
Next I need to figure out some way to record my hymns in the underpass. The natural reverb of the underpass is far superior to the electronic processing.
This is an AABA form, with the exact same notes in 3 of the 4 lines.
The Alto, Tenor, and Bass parts were not very exciting, so I thought I would either play it really slow or really fast.
I took the Hymn at 120, which is quite a bit faster than the usual 80 or 90, I use for hymns. Definitely has a bit of a folk music feel.
After playing through the melody a couple times, I played it even faster and some rhythmic improvisation on the bass line let me to an upbeat Sonny Rollins kind of and some rhythms that are a little beyond my ability to write out exactly. And maybe accurately execute accurately. Still kind of fun to take some liberties with the hymns.
Please turn your Lutheran Service Books and Hymnals to Hymn 13, “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending”.
STöRL.
8 7, 8 7, 4 7.
Majestically
Johann G. C Störl, 1675-1719
Charles Wesley, 1707-88 a.
Well, this one is a little scary.
Lo! he comes with clounds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of his train:
Aleluia!
God Appears, on earth to reign
Every eye shall now behod him
Robed in glorious majesty;
Those who set at nought and sold him,
Pierced and nailed him to the Tree,
Deeply wailing,
Shall their true Messiah see.
Those dear tokens of his passion
Still his dazzling body bears;
Cause of wondering exultation
To his ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture
Praise we him for all his scars.
Yeah, amen, let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for thine own:
Aleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone!
Another oldie, but goodie. I did all the parts on soprano clarinet, then doubled the tenor and bass parts on bass clarinet. Applied the usual Audacity Reverb Effect, “Large Room”.
When I get frustrated with my ability to play the “right” notes, I take some time off to play the “left” notes, instead.
When I was putting my bass clarinet together, I noticed that the sound of the keys closing was pretty cool and kind of similar to the sound of the African instrument called the Mbira.
So I recorded the keys closing as the percussion track for this tune. Now I just need to figure out how to use Audacity to make a loop out of it.
Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal Hymn number 10, aka “The King Shall Come” arranged for Soprano and Bass Clarinets.
Farrant.
C.M.
In moderate time
Richard Farrant, cir. 1530-80
John Brownlie, 1859-1925
Based on the Greek
From Hymns of the Russian Church by permission of the Oxford University Press
Regarding the information above, I believe the first line is the identifier of the hymn. The second line indicates the meter of the text, in the case CM or Common Meter. The third line is the tempo and feeling. The fourth line is the composer of the music. The fifth line is the author of the text.
This is certainly another stately hymn and based on the lifetime of the composer, 1530-80, probably the oldest tune to date.
Since it is such an old tune, I figured a few more voices would be appropriate, so I recorded each part 3 times. After recording, I panned the voices to sequential areas in the stereo mix and applied the Reverb Effect with the “Church Hall” settings.
