Lutheran Worship #444 Text: Joachim Neander tr. Winkworth Tune: “LOBE DEN HERREN” Ernewertes GesangbuchScore (key of G)
Comments: I greatly admire the piano style of traditional African-American gospel and I'm always aspiring to learn more of what's actually going on in that kind of playing. (The recent "This Far By Faith" hymnal from Augsburg/Fortress is a gold mine of information that sets down in notation many of those mind-bending chord progressions and riffs.)
In any case, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" as found in Lutheran Worship has wonderful lyrics and a triplet feel that is both joyful and majestic at the same time. But that doesn't mean you can't also find a different, gospel-flavored drive to take it to the next energy level. We debuted this arrangement around Easter time 2004 and I find it tremendously exciting to play.
I wrote this in the key of G which was great for piano, but it gets a bit high for singing for some folks, so I added a score transposed down to F, which is what we use for church services.