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Be Thou My Vision

  • Instrumentation: Unison voices or Mixed voices in up to four parts & Organ. 

  • Duration - 2:26

  • Text: Traditional Irish Hymn, tr. Mary Elizabeth Byrne (1880-1931), Singing Translation Eleanor Hull (1860 - 1935)

  • Performance ready in one to two rehearsal

 

Program Note

 

This piece is one in a series of familiar hymn tunes set with a contemporary harmonic palette, and presented so as to be performable by choirs of all levels with very little rehearsal time.  

My first composition teacher was Italian. He studied with Italians. I'm half Italian. One might think that the Italianate might have rubbed off on me a little bit. Not so.

 

He would laugh at my phrasing and my melodic and harmonic decisions and tell me that my Irish mother would be proud. That's how I feel about this hymn tune. I've been drawn to SLANE throughout my church music career for reasons that I don't understand. It's probably genetic.   

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