Description
Sound the Clarion: Four Songs of Celebration, arr. Hersey
Quartets
- Brass Quartet includes parts for two trumpets/horn/trombone, with substitutes included for parts three and four, allowing it to become two trumpets/two trombones, with a tuba part option included for part four.
- Low Brass/Trombone Quartet includes four bass clef parts as well as treble clef first and second options for euphonium.
- Tuba Euphonium Quartet includes bass and treble clef parts for euphoniums.
Quintets:
- Tuba Euphonium Ensemble version is 5 Part (EETTT), includes bass and treble clef parts for euphoniums.
- Brass quintet.
If other versions are needed for increased flexibility please email.
Sound the Clarion: Four Songs of Celebration, arr. Hersey
- Sound the Clarion by Emily Divine Wilson (1865-1942)
- Heaven’s Christmas Tree by Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933)
- Rejoice, rejoice! by Lelia Naylor Morris (1862-1929)
- I’ll Overcome Some Day by Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933)
The hymns in this collection represent the energy and spirit with which Americans created music for worship around the turn of the twentieth century. Composed over a twenty year period and representing only a small geographical region, the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, these songs capture the hopeful enthusiasm of the time. Familiar and nostalgic on the ear, these harmonies are timeless tributes to the joy of song in worship. The collection is available arranged for tuba euphonium quartet, low brass quartet, tuba euphonium ensemble, brass quartet, and brass quintet. I hope you enjoy playing them as much as I do.
Performance time: 11 minutes total (each movement 2.5-3 min.).
Digital Copy ($10)
Includes: Solo Part (PDF)
Once payment is processed, you will be emailed a download link allowing 4 maximum downloads within 30 days.
Bound Paper Copy ($20) – Free Shipping
Includes: Printed sheet music
About the Composers
A native of Philadelphia, composer Emily Divine Wilson composed and contributed lyrics to many hymns, as well as serving as a church musician. Born in 1865 to immigrant parents, she later married John George Wilson, a prominent Philadelphia minister. In common with their contemporary Lelia Naylor Morris, the Wilsons were fond of attending camp meeting gatherings for worship. They frequented the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting on the New Jersey shore, which drew thousands of participants each summer after its founding in 1869. Ocean Grove boasted an auditorium which could seat an audience of ten thousand, under a barrel vaulted wooden ceiling. She wrote both the words and music for the hymn “Sound the Clarion,” which first appeared in the hymn collection The Service of Praise, published in 1899 in Philadelphia by the Hall-Mack Company.
Methodist minister, author, and composer Dr. Charles Albert Tindley presided over a large and successful congregation in downtown Philadelphia during the early twentieth century. His sermons and hymns were immensely popular and he led more than ten thousand members of his congregation at the time of his death in 1933. Charles was born in Maryland to a father who was a slave, and a mother who was free, however she died when Charles was young. The message of salvation and positivity Charles shared in his music and writings was heartfelt, and his music gained a wide audience, collections of songs were published beginning in 1905 and continued after his death. The 1915 hymn “Heaven’s Christmas Tree” reminds the congregation of the joy of salvation which is waiting for them in Heaven, which can be seen in common symbols of the season. “I’ll Overcome Some Day,” composed in 1900, is often cited as one of the sources for “We Shall Overcome,” made popular during the Civil Rights movement.
A composer of more than a thousand hymns and gospel songs, Lelia Naylor Morris served as organist at Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in McConnelsville, Ohio. Inspired by attending camp meetings across her home state, Lelia contributed music to a variety of hymnals published during her lifetime, beginning around 1890. Lelia continued to compose even after beginning to lose her eyesight in her early fifties, when her son built her a large blackboard with an oversized music staff upon which to compose. She composed both the words and music to this hymn which first appeared in 1903, published by the Lorenz Publishing Company, a Dayton, Ohio family business which specialized in church and choral music.
