SKU: A0.1285859

A beautiful, sacred hymn with music by Kevin G. Pace and text by Mary Ann W. Snowball.

Text:
What manner of men ought ye to be?
What manner of women are ye?
If feeling darkness instead of Christ’s light,
Learn of his ways with full sight.

Chorus:
What manner of child ought ye to be?
He said, “Even as I am . . . be ye.�

Recall the vast works He has displayed;
Remember the words He has prayed.
Kneel and do likewise with faith joyfully;
Blessings will come as ye plead.

To be like God’s Son, follow thou Him;
He demonstrates peace . . . shunning sin.
He’s the example of Father’s pure will.
Know Jesus Christ; be ye still.

To be lifted up at the last day,
Be like Him in every way.
When Christ appears ye shall see as He is;
All light and glory be His!

SKU: A0.747199

About the song: In John 14, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We are severely mistaken if we think that any other road leads to peace with God. No amount of good deeds could pay for the debt we owe. But we are also mistaken if we think that we are too far gone from Christ's reach. This song is a message for both the self-righteous and the hopeless. There is a Way that leads to life forevermore with our Heavenly Father, and His Name is Jesus Christ. All who enter through the gate of Christ by faith will be saved. He came that you might have life, and have it to the full. Rejoice! If you can believe, believe!

Can be performed with piano accompaniment only, OR with additional band members, OR with full orchestra*.

Please Note:
You can purchase individual copies of the choral score separately on Sheet Music Plus. Performance of this piece requires the purchase of one choral score per singer.

*Full orchestration and parts also available on Sheet Music Plus.

Included in your Purchase:
Piano Accompaniment

Lyrics:

Verse 1
There’s a way that seems right to the human eye,
A path that we think is best.
We pretend to go on believing,
That a good life can pass the test.
But the best that we have to offer,
Is no more than a filthy rag.
When we stand before God, the Father,
There is only one Name that will save.

Chorus 1
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Truth,
Jesus is The Life for me and you.
Jesus is The Door,
And all who enter through,
Will be saved and be made new.
Jesus is The Way.

Verse 2
We were shackled in chains of sin and shame,
Walking blinded by selfish gain.
Every turn led to disappointment,
Wanting more with each passing day.

Prechorus 2
But the blood of a precious Saviour,
Can remove every guilty stain.
He will carry your ev’ry burden,
There is hope in Him today!

Chorus 2
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Truth,
Jesus is The Life for me and you.
Jesus is The Door,
And all who enter through,
Will be saved and be made new.
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Way.

Bridge
Straight and narrow is the road that leads to life forevermore,
There’s only One Who paid the price,
The perfect, spotless sacrifice,
Only Jesus Christ!

Chorus 3
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Truth,
Jesus is The Life for me and you.
Jesus is The Door,
And all who enter through,
Will be saved and be made new.
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Way,
Jesus is The Way!

SKU: A0.940065

This piece of music is a statement of faith. The chorus states, Yes, I know, the Lord, He loves me so! It is a fun, bright song that is perfect for many different occasions.

Lyrics:
Verse 1
Every day through life we're faced with sin and strife,
We see that the heart of men is black;
They say that they all know the way,
They think they're satisfied with what they have.
When at first we see that Jesus set us free,
Our selfish self says we know what's right.
But since we are filthy we must turn to the light.

Chorus
Yes, I know, The Lord, he loves me so;
He saved me from bondage deep within.
I know where I'm going; I'm assured of that home,
The new earth that is free from death and sin!
Oh yes, I know, the Lord, he loves me so,
For he took my sin and changed it for his love.
Since I made him me guide I now feel certain inside
That I am going to heaven above!

Verse 2
None can know that day that he will show
Himself to this world he made so well;
He'll stand and say who chose the way of sin
Or who on right things chose to dwell.
If he came today, would you stand in dismay
And say that you're not ready to depart?
Be willing, accept him
As Lord into your heart.

Chorus.

SKU: MQ.7.0712-E

English.

This anthem was composed to commemorate the retirement of Frank Hall, Pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Westport, Connecticut, to whom the piece is dedicated. Pastor Hall used this text, attributed to William Penn, to conclude every Sunday service over which he presided. Unaccompanied, with divisi in the alto, tenor, and bass parts.

SKU: A0.1244669

First performed in 2022 by Pentatonix and Meghan Trainor, Kid on Christmas is an up-tempo song in an early rock and roll style with a great message. This arrangement is suitable for high school and community choirs.

Lyrics:
May your holidays be jolly
Your hallways filled with holly
Your fireside stays burning brighter
Than it did before
May your string lights keep that twinkle
May your silver bells all jingle
And carolers sing carols at your door

Chorus:
And may your heart be evergreen
Every December
And a part of you believe
And always remember
That sugarplums dance and reindeer fly
And Santa always reads your letters
And may you stay a kid on Christmas forever

May you're turning eighty-seven
Be going on elеven
You never grow too old for stockings
Full of candy canеs
May you stay up late and listen
To hear, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen
Prancing on the rooftop (Santa's down the chimney)
Oh, dropping off your presents (for some milk and cookies)

Chorus

You know I hope you wake up eyes wide open
A little love and joy in every moment
Hope you never lose your wonder
And every year you're growing younger
And when the snowflakes fall
Deck the halls
And still feel the magic of it all

Chorus.

SKU: A0.1488102

Music and Performance Notes
The Advent sets a poem by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) to music. The poet asks us to recognize that God comes to us and is present in everything around us, in the things we see, experience and feel. God ever comes and touches us with joy. We recognize God in our songs, in our moods, in sorrow, in joy, in our daily lives.

This music is scored for SATB choir and viola. If a violist is not available, a violin can substitute. A piano reduction of the choral parts can be used just for rehearsal, or also in the performance if necessary. If no string player is available, the pipe organ can be used for the string part.

Note on the text
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the age of Bengal Renaissance. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful poetry of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Song Offering/Gitanjali 45
Have you not heard his silent steps?
He comes, comes, ever comes.
Every moment and every age, every day and every
night he comes, comes, ever comes.
Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mind,
but all their notes have always proclaimed,
He comes, comes, ever comes.
In the fragrant days of sunny April through the forest
path he comes, comes, ever comes.
In the rainy gloom of July nights on the thundering
chariot of clouds he comes, comes, ever comes.
In sorrow after sorrow, it is his steps that press upon my heart,
and it is the golden touch of his feet that makes my joy to shine.
Rabindranath Tagore.

SKU: A0.1143904

Duration: 16 minutes, 33 pp. Description: Exodus is a great story that belongs to everyone. Not only is it central to Judaism, not only is it integral to the Christian Bible, it is an immortal story that has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to oppressed peoples everywhere on this planet. It is relevant not just as ancient scripture but as living text, to be rediscovered by each new generation of an ever-widening Family of Man. The theme of struggle against oppression and slavery was just as relevant to the early Christians persecuted in Ancient Rome as it was relevant to the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, just as relevant to the Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate as it is to the South African Blacks resisting Apartheid. From the Dark Ages and the Spanish Inquisition, to Ghandi's emancipation of India, to the Holocaust, to, full-circle, the ongoing struggles in Palestine today, the story of Exodus is a guiding light in a dim and often grim world. According to the composer: The Story of a Leader is a collection of ‘re-chorales’ I created one summer when I was totally immersed in a post-educational obsession with the 371 Chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach. We used to study these to learn the rules of harmony and voice-leading (no parallel fifths, avoid crossed voices, etc.) at the Cleveland Institute of Music where I began my compositional career. That summer, now a professor of music in my own right, I discovered many broken and bent rules by the master himself and, along with the glory of being able to work through these Chorales myself at the piano, I felt an incredible feeling of liberation and possibilities unmediated by instructors of music theory. I began by stripping away all that Bach wrote, leaving only the hymn tunes which were not his to begin with. These tunes existed long before Bach used them for his tonal experiments, some attributed to Martin Luther, or someone else, others simply listed as ‘anonymous’. The same is true for the texts, which were then translated into English mostly in the 19th century (the provenance of each can be found herein on the first page of each of my reharmonizations). In some cases I modified the text to fit the context. I selected 12 of these ‘re-chorales,’ linking them together based on their texts in a kind of logic that worked for me, and created a narrative that told The Story of a Leader (Moses). This story is highlighted in the music with such techniques as cross-modal harmonies, points of imitation, a beer drinking song in one instance, and in another, to symbolize the parting of the seas for Moses’ people, an inversion of the soprano line in the bass..

SKU: A0.719731

As years come and go, one increasingly recalls memories of earlier times. One of the most vivid and cherished memories I have while growing up is of Sunday mornings, going to church, sitting in the same pew each week with my grandmother, hearing and singing the beautiful hymns of our faith, and then returning home to the aroma of beef slowly roasting in the oven. My father directed the church choir, my mother and older brothers sang in the choir, so the wonderful music of our faith was instilled in me from an early age. This medley, and others in the series, are arrangements of many of my favorite hymns from those early years, many of which have been lost in more recent editions. For this series, I have elected to use the older texts as that is the way they were first written and the way I first learned them. There is a reverence and beauty in the language enriching the vocal/choral tone which, I believe, is lost in contemporary, conversational, or politically correct syntax. I shudder to think of the day when a penitential phrase such as Hear thou my prayer, O Lord is rendered as Hey, God-dude, listen up - I'm talkin' atcha! I have also opted not to include the many wonderful hymns and carols which are associated with the major festivals of Christmas and Easter as those are commonly found in other collections. A caveat: I have no delusions, and I offer no pretenses, that these settings are great art. They are simply expressions of faith which I hope may bring a small measure of joy to other church musicians. The general concept of each medley is to present the hymn, often in its original chorale form, and then vary its harmony or texture. The hymns in this set include I Need Thee Every Hour, O Jesus, I Have Promised, and The Church's One Foundation.