Abana – SATB & Piano

Like “Kwake Yesu,” the Arabic Lord’s Prayer is something I’m really proud of. It just seems to capture people’s spiritual imagination. This is especially satisfying, given the fact that a hymn expert (who shall remain unnamed) declared that congregations would never sing it. A half dozen hymnals and recordings later, I think we can safely say that hymn experts don’t always predict what congregations will and won’t do!

But enough gloating. The version that appears in hymnals is an arrangement by me that makes heavy use of a drone in a hymn texture. That’s lovely, but not like the recordings I’ve heard of the song from Egypt. This SATB and Piano arrangement is more along those lines: almost Klezmer-like use of the harmonic scale, a rhythmic accompaniment with lots of rubato, and vocal harmonies that tend to move in thirds.

It’s stale Finale playback, but it’s the best I’ve got for now: MP3

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