Joshua fit the batllte of Jericho

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a note about lyrics to do a choir piece. I've played this piece on piano (the Mark Hayes arrangement) and sung the Rutter version. My choir/congregation couldn't do the Rutter so I made another arrangement.

Here is the mp3...

http://www.hooblermusic.com/images/stories/audio/comp/jericho.mp3

and the PDF...

http://www.hooblermusic.com/images/stories/audio/comp/jericho.pdf

I still need to work on the organ part some. I spent about 12 hours straight working on this. I'm going to leave it alone for a day or two.

If anyone has comments....

Well, this is certainly an effective arrangement of a popular hymn. You've come up with an original way of harmonising the tune as well, and made good use of the choir and congregation as separate entities. I assume from your soprano/bass division that your choir sing simply as men and women rather than dividing into SATB voices. Just a few points:

- There are a couple of times where a key change occurs a very short time before the congregation enters, like bar 69-70. In my experience as an church musician, it would be wise to add perhaps an extra bar of organ in the 'new' key just to reassure them. I used to do what I thought were wonderful modulations into the last verse of a song, and then suddenly realise that nobody could pitch the start of the tune I had just reached. Of course, the choir come in here as well, which helps, but as the congregation won't have the music, it might be something to consider for security.

- If you have sufficient voices, a little more divisi in the choir parts would add greatly to the effect of this arrangement.

- Bar 48 is a little ambiguous - is that meant to mean two solo sopranos?

- Don't forget that in vocal music, dynamic and technical markings go above the stave to avoid clashing with the words

-The organ glissando is a wonderful way to end any piece of music!

Well I can't speak as somebody who knows about church music...as a listener I enjoyed it.

Maybe I can help with the organ part. In my opinion, some of the tritones stick out and break the nice flow you have going. I would replace some of the V7 chords with V and the ii

Thanks for the comments. I will look incorporate them. I usually have only 10-12 people in my choir and it needs to be pretty easy to learn.

Any measure numbers JMisciagno? I know what you are talking about. I'll keep going through it.

I'll try to get a live recording (won't be great but if passable...). It'll be in a few weeks.

Yeah no problem. I'd say measure 46 and 56.

Here is the mp3...

http://www.hooblermusic.com/images/stories/audio/comp/jericho.mp3

and the PDF...

http://www.hooblermusic.com/images/stories/audio/comp/jericho.pdf

If anyone has comments....

I've updated both. It is getting there... :)