Joy in the Morning

By Natalie Sleeth

I've used this anthem for closing the season at my last three church positions over the past 20 years. It's a definite crowd pleaser. I've done it with brass, but the new orchestration is fabulous if you have orchestral players.

I first sang this when I was 14 and that was 34 years ago. This was also the first piece I scheduled when I was a church choir director. It's been all over the place in my life. School, church, college, Westmoreland Choral Society and more. Most importantly, when...

I attended Norwin Senior High School, our director, Jeannie Close used this as part of her alumni chorus at the end of each of her concerts. Mrs. Close has retired and hopefully, I can get this together for her to hear at one of her reunion picnics.

I sang this years ago and loved it. I ordered it for my choir because I knew they could handle it. They are working it now and picking it up easily. We are a small choir with only 4 men, 4 altos, and 4 sopranos. It has some great lyrics...

as well.

All the choir members love to sing this song. Which is a good thing, because we had to practice it a bit. One thing--be sure to get an accompianist can handle this piece. If they do it right, especially those moving bass notes, it can really have some power...

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I already had a good idea of what this number could offer. It is a little old so I could not find a recording of the number. After rehearsing this number, I find that the choir members love it, and I think the effort will be well worth it. I...

bought it for my church choir. The women parts split and the key change is a little hard, so the grade of difficulty should be more than intermediate.