Collected Spirituals for Baritone and Bass by Hymn Piano, Vocal - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1638307

The Negro spiritual is a perfect example of beauty coming from ashes. Born of incomprehensible suffering, these songs nevertheless span the range of human emotion. Many wonderful arrangements already exist, but composers return to them again and again because they are endlessly inspiring. I’m no exception to this rule.

That said, most of my spiritual arrangements were done by request. I created versions of “Steal Away” and “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” for my then-boyfriend’s Master’s vocal recital, while he and I were students at Juilliard (the version included here is slightly revised). Randye Jones, a soprano and Spirituals scholar, commissioned “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” after hearing “Steal Away” while she and my ex were students at Florida State University. “No Hiding Place” (also slightly revised) was arranged at the request of bass-baritone Benjamin Polite, who was a student at Florida A & M University while I was a professor there. I wrote “Lord, I Want to be a Christian” for my friend Darryl Taylor, countertenor, after improvising a version of the song as a third encore for a recital we did together. “Motherless Child/Swing Low” and “Plenty Good Room” were adaptations of commissions from the Tallahassee Boys Choir. Finally, “Unto the Hills” was arranged for my mother and a friend of hers to sing for a funeral.

All of the arrangements mentioned, along with three improvisations (“His Eye is On the Sparrow,” “Lord, I’ll Go,” and “Hold On,” the latter originally for solo piano) are included on the Navona release, Soul Sanctuary (Maria Clark, soprano; Maria Thompson Corley, piano; Ismail Akbar, cello). “Give Me Jesus” also began as a solo piano improvisation for my Halidon/Cicerone release, Soulful Sunday.

Crossing Jordan, my arrangements of “His Name So Sweet,” “Deep River” and “Wade in the Water” for voice, piano, and cello, is available separately on Sheet Music Plus. “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” arranged for high voice, cello and piano is also available.