Our Cheerul Songs This hymn y Isaac Watts (167 178) is a versiication o Revelation 5:11-1: And I eheld, and I heard the voice o many angels round aout the throne and the easts and the elders: and the numer o them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands o thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lam that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and lessing. And every creature which is in the heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, e unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lam or ever and ever. Watts, the acclaimed ather o English hymnody, was a pivotal igure in the transition rom psalmsinging to hymn singing in the English church. By irth and choice, Watts did his work as a Dissenter rather than as an Anglican. His elie that the Psalms ailed to provide adequate expression or Christian worship led him to write oth Christian psalms verses David might have written had he lived in the Christian era and hymns. was irst pulished in Watts Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1707. Watts conceived this ook or use in worship, and to encourage its adoption, he used only our meters, suited to well-known tunes. The songs maniest Watts command o literature and language. Our Cheerul Songs is generally considered Watts irst hymn, written in 1696 in response to a challenge to produce something etter than the psalms sung in the Southampton Chapel he attended. Known est y its irst line, this hymn originally carried the title Behold the Glories o the Lam and consisted o eight our-line stanzas. Watts also used the title esus Christ, the Lam o God worshipped y all the Creation. The hymn has een widely pulished in Britain and America. It irst appeared in Watts 1707 Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In Britain, Our Cheerul Songs is generally sung to NATIVITY, a tune y Henry Lahee, organist at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton. In the United States, it is oten set to Nun Danket All, a German tune y ohann Cruger irst pulished in a mid-seventeenth-century hymnal, Praxis Pietatis Melica. Also known as GRAFENBERG, the name o an Austrian town, this tune was set to a hymn y Paul Gerhardt, Nun danket all and ringet Ehr, hence its name. Alice Parker As the ounder and artistic director o Melodious Accord, Inc., Alice Parker superivises a usy schedule o educational activities, recording and concerts. She is well-known or her musical arrangements or the Roert Shaw Chorale, and has composed a wide variety o musical compositions, including our operas, twenty-ive cantatas, and numerous short chamer works. Her music is requently heard, and well-received, at conerences and conventions. Parker is a graduate o the uilliard School, in New York City, and Smith College. She now resides in western Massachusetts. This hymn arrangement is sponsored y the Institute or the Study o American Evangelicals (ISAE) at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187, through a grant rom The Lilly Endowment. The ISAE exists to encourage and support research on evangelical Christianity in North America.
SATB and organ, opt. cong. A Song to the Lam, para. Isaac Watts, 1696 NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR, y ohann Crüger, 167 Bright, ouncy * (q=ca. 80) setting y Alice Parker 6 11 F non legato P P. *Think Renaissance style or registration and articulation Unison + cong.. Come, let us Ó oin our F F 000 Selah Pulishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 101. www.selahpu.com Printed in the U.S.A. on recycled paper. It is illegal to photocopy this music. 5-856 Come, Let Us oin
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6 1 A.B. + Cong. e - sus is 5 50 _ vine; and pow r S.T. F e - sus wor - thy e, Lord, or - ev - er _ di - vine; Lord, _ is wor -. _ to re- ceive hon - and less- ing more and let our than thine. or - ev - er thine. _ thy o hon- or or and pow r di -.... less - ings. we can give. e, sim. 6 5-856
P 5. 7 60. 66 Choir F warmly, poco legato S.A. Let all that F T.B. F 70 seas dwell a -. ove the sky and. con - spire to air and earth and. raise thy.. glo - ries high,. and 5-856 Come, Let Us oin 7
8 75 78 8 speak thine end - less S. A. V.. + cong. T. B. The whole cre - The whole cre - praise.. a - tion a - tion The whole cre - The whole cre - oins in one. oins in one to. a - tion, one a - tion oins in one. 8 5-856 >. >
86 V to less the sa - - - - less the sa - cred 90 V him that to less the to sits up - - o him that o him that. Name cred sa - - - _ less the sa - Name cred cred sits up - on the throne,. on the throne, and _ Name _ Name sits up - on the throne, sits up - on the throne, o o him that and to a - dore the to a - dore the and to a - dore the and 9 5-856 Come, Let Us oin 9
10 9 V poco rit. al ine Lam, and to a - Lam. Lam, a- to a- dore the poco rit. al ine dore the Lam, dore the Lam, Lam. a - dore the A - - - - a - dore the A - - - -. U Lam. U men. U Lam. U. men. U. u 10 5-856