Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty

There is a reason this hymn appears in every hymnal of every denomination. And there is a reason every arranger has his or her take on it. Me? I’ve got three. But this is my favorite.

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (Marietta, GA) commissioned this arrangement, and it first appeared in print in 1999. It was big and splashy (like commissioned anthems are supposed to be). But – it had an eerily quiet ending. (Surprise!) Any time I take on a venerated hymn like this, I always want to do something special with it. (But mostly, I just don’t want to mess it up.)

From the whisper-quiet a cappella opening to the crashing conclusion of the fourth stanza, the arrangement builds continually, moving through keys and from major to minor, then back to major. Then, out of the blue, it ends with a Coda that quietly disappears on whispers: “Holy, holy, holy.”

Approaching my arrangement four decades later, I had learned a lot about my craft, and I had grown more practical about some things. (Age will do that, you know.) So, while the keys and form of the arrangement remained the same, certain lines were re-voiced for the choir to make it sing better. The final four bars were altered chorally to improve the feel of the choir’s “landing” the last phrase.

The orchestration has a lot of small changes – to voicings and interior parts. The woodwinds got some new notes in the closing bars, making the Coda sparkle a bit more. The piano accompaniment feels much like the original but is significantly improved.

This anthem is a significant presentation of one of the most important hymns in Christendom. I hope I’ve done it justice. And I hope serious traditional choirs will make this a part of their standard repertoire.