Since you’re here, I’ll tell you a little about myself. I am married, a father of 3 very active little boys, and I am an IT support engineer by profession. Arranging music is a hobby, and a creative outlet that my kids can’t mess up. I love to sing (I’m a baritone), and I have participated in many choirs over the years. I arranged my first hymn (O My Father) by hand way back in my college days, and when I found some inexpensive music composition software, I totally reworked it. I have been arranging hymns ever since. There have been several occasions when I have been asked to sing in church, and I could not find an arrangement of a particular song that I liked, so I did my own arrangement. This made the hymns a more personal, and heartfelt expression of my faith. I can truly say that my arrangements come through inspiration, with plenty of perspiration. I am currently serving as ward choir director, and this has given me more opportunities to arrange and hear my music performed. I’m no Mack Wilberg (directing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would be awesome!), but I do love the hymns. Please enjoy my music and feel free to use any arrangement you like for church and personal use. For any other use, including commercial, please contact me.
Mr. Fackrell,
Thank you for your wonderful choir arrangements. We love them and are grateful to you for the time and effort you gift the LDS choir community.
I have a special request: We are rehearsing “Behold the Great Redeemer Die/He is Risen!” for our upcoming Easter Sacrament meeting. I’m wondering if you could possibly put it in a different key for us? Just a half step lower would be great. Why? It is because we are using your song for a missionary effort. I have a cello student who is Catholic but I can tell she is craving more. On a whim (it really was a prompting) I asked her if she would come play a cello descant for our easter program. She was very excited and her whole family has said they are coming to listen. My first thought is “Oh no! Now I have to find a song and write a descant!” Luckily I was guided to your wonderful song and feel it is perfect for a cello descant. I thought maybe even using the baritone solo for a cello solo.. what do you think? (my only reservation is that I love the lyrics at that part and would hate to lose them..) She is still late beginner and flats are killer for strings (as I’m sure you know), so that is why I’m asking this huge favor. I could transpose it myself, but I’m not an arranger and only have basic music writing software so I would have to enter it in manually.
I’m sure you’re a very busy person, so if it is something that would take too much of your time, let me know ASAP so I can start on it.
Thank you so much.
Mary Wolford
It’s just wonderful to know my work is being performed by choirs other than my ward choir. A cello descant would sound great. I’ll take a look at transposing it this evening.
Dave Fackrell