Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)? — baritone solo, SAB voices, organ
Instant Download
Share
Details
Description
SKU: A0.745506
Composed by African-American Spiritual. Arranged by Todd Marchand. Easter,Folk,Lent,Sacred,Spiritual. 8 pages. Con Spirito Music #353425. Published by Con Spirito Music (A0.745506).Particularly fitting for Good Friday and Holy Saturday services, this arrangement of a beloved African-American spiritual is quick to rehearse and accessible by small and novice choirs, yet emotionally evocative and an effective recalling of Christ's sacrifice.
“Were You There” is a 19th-century spiritual that likely predates the American Civil War and may have roots in a folk hymn known in Tennessee as “Have You Heard How They Crucified My Lord?” First published in William Eleazar Barton’s 1899 Old Plantation Hymns, it was included in The Hymnal 1940 of the Episcopal Church with harmonization by C. Winfred Douglas, making it the first spiritual to be included in any major American hymnal.
This arrangement evokes the call-and-response tradition of the spiritual, featuring solo baritone voice echoed by SAB voices in verses 1-3, with light organ accompaniment. In verse 4, all voices take up the question, “Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?” The verse and refrain build in intensity until the soloist returns, he asks one final time, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
If desired, verses 1-3 may each be sung by a different soloist.
©Copyright 2022 Todd Marchand / www.conspiritomusic.com. All rights reserved. For more sacred, folk, holiday, and patriotic music for instruments and voices, visit www.conspiritomusic.com
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.
Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don’t have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!
PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).