144a – For All The Saints

Please turn to number 144 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in, “For All The Saints Who From Their Labors Rest”.

Number: 144 (First Tune)
First Line: For All The Saints Who From Their Labors Rest
Name: SINE NOMINE.
Meter: 10 10 10. With Alleluias.
Music: R. Vaughn Williams, 1872-1958
Text: William Walsham How, 1823-97
From The English Hymnal

Clarinet Arrangement: 144a-ForAllTheSaints

This one is written with the congregation singing in unison for the first section, while the organ plays parts, and the second part with the congregation singing parts. So I couldn’t resist doing something similar. I changed the arrangement up a bit to be unison parts with organ, a capella parts, and then a return to unison with organ accompaniment.

I wrote out the organ parts and exported a midi file for them. Imported it into garageband, and then recorded the clarinet parts.

Here’s a short biography of R. Vaughn Williams from the Ralph Vaughn Williams Society Webpage.

Ralph Vaughan Williams is today fully established as a composer of the utmost importance for English music. In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its power, nobility and expressiveness, representing the essence of ‘Englishness’.

Vaughan Williams was born on the 12th October, 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney. He was educated at Charterhouse School, then Trinity College, Cambridge. Later he was a pupil of Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music, after which he studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.

At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the countryside to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he composed several hymns that are now world-wide favourites (For all the Saints, Come down O love Divine). Later he also helped to edit The Oxford Book of Carols, with similar success. Before the war he had met and then sustained a long and deep friendship with the composer Gustav Holst. Vaughan Williams volunteered to serve in the Field Ambulance Service in Flanders for the 1914-1918 war, during which he was deeply affected by the carnage and the loss of close friends such as the composer George Butterworth.

For many years Vaughan Williams conducted and led the Leith Hill Music Festival, conducting Bach’s St Matthew Passion on a regular basis. He also became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London. In his lifetime, Vaughan Williams eschewed all honours with the exception of the Order of Merit which was conferred upon him in 1938.

He died on the 26th August 1958; his ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, near Purcell. In a long and productive life, music flowed from his creative pen in profusion. Hardly a musical genre was untouched or failed to be enriched by his work, which included nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music and works for chorus and orchestra.

Red Service Book and Hymnal
Red Service Book and Hymnal

017.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Please open your hymnals to number 17 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in singing “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”.

Name: DIVINUM MYSTERIUM. (Corde Natus Ex Parentis)
Meter: 8 7, 8 7, 8 7 7.
Unison, in moderate time
Music: XIII cent. Plainsong, Mode V,
Arranged by Winfred Douglas, 1867-1944
Text: Aurelius Prudentius, 348-413
Tr. St. 1-4, John Mason Neale, 1818-66
Tr. St. 5, Henry Williams Baker, 1821-77

Oof, the oldest ones are always the biggest pains to arrange, but they are often my favorites.

Here’s the pdf of the arrangement: 017.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Red Service Book and Hymnal
Red Service Book and Hymnal

016.ServiceBookAndHymnal

With hymn Number 16 from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, aka “Silent Night”, we open the hymnal to the section of songs for the Christmas season.

Name: Stille Nacht.
Meter: Irregular.
Tenderly
Music: Franz Xavier Gruber, 1787-1863
Text: Joseph Mohr, 1792-1849
Tr. Unknown

Here’s the pdf of the arrangement for Soprano Clarinet Quartet: 016.ServiceBookAndHymnal

I didn’t add the Bass Clarinet this time, stuck with the Soprano Clarinet on all parts.

I have sung this song, I don’t know how many times, and I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to really learn the actual rhythms accurately. Always sloppy caroling. Interesting to look at it with fresh eyes.

Red Service Book and Hymnal
Red Service Book and Hymnal

008a.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Hymn No 8 (First Version) from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, aka “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates!”, arranged for Soprano and Bass Clarinets.

TRURO. L.M.
With Spirit
Thomas Williams
Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789
Georg Weissel, 1590-1635
Tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1829-78

My clarinet teacher frequently tells me that I need to concentrate my sound and use dynamics in my playing. So, for this one, I tried to concentrate on my playing and sound as much as possible and keep it under control. I also played further from the microphone.

Here’s the pdf of the arrangement: 008a.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Red Service Book and Hymnal
Red Service Book and Hymnal

006.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Hymn No 6 from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, aka “Hark, The Glad Sound”, arranged for Soprano and Bass Clarinets.

DIE HELLE SONNE. C.M.
In moderate time
Sigmund Gottlieb Staden, 1605-55
Philip Doddridge, 1702-51

 

Here’s the pdf of the arrangement: 006.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Overdubbed 4 clarinets for each part, again playing soprano clarinet on the soprano and alto parts and bass clarinet on the tenor and bass parts, for a total of 16. I then applied the Audacity “Large Room” Reverb effect. There’s a “Church” and “Cathedral” effect, but they end up kind of quiet and very echo-ey. I finally remembered to mute the metronome track.

“Let every heart prepare a throne, And every voice a song.” is a fine sentiment, whether you are religious or not.

Red Service Book and Hymnal
Red Service Book and Hymnal