Help! In need of SATB setting of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Does anybody know a nice, relatively simple, SATB setting of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" ?
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence arr. Donald Busrow - Augsburg Choral Library 11-1844
    Two part mixed voices with organ, very simple and effective.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    thanks: is this public domain? How can I acquire score?

    I need to put it here:

    http://www.ccwatershed.org/vatican/harmonizations/3/
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,148
    Hymn or motet-style setting?
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Normally I would not endorse this person's work, but he didn't write the words to this: John Bell ("I-ona Rhyming Dictionary, therefore I am a poet") wrote a pretty cool arrangement with organ and SATB. GIA Item Nr. G-5489. My choir sang it some years ago when we still had the resources to do it.
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Sorry, I don't mean to imply anything about Mr. Bell personally - just that his (word-) writing is pretty dodgy. His musical output is variable, and some of it is pretty good. I would include this setting and one of his a capella pieces that begins "I bow my knee in prayer" from a musical standpoint.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    It needs to be an SATB hymn style, like these:

    http://www.ccwatershed.org/vatican/harmonizations/3/

    Anyone can help? Please post to forum or E-mail me:

    jeff@ccwatershed.org
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    There are a couple of settings available on the Hymnary Web site:

    Picardy

    They don't have the words with them, unfortunately. The page scans from pre-1979 hymnals are unison with accompaniment. If you give me till midnight I can probably do one for you this evening. That's midnight EST, I mean.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    JDE,

    YOU HAVE SOLVED MY PROBLEM !!!

    By the way, Charles, JDE, and ANYONE ELSE, please feel free to look over this site:

    http://www.ccwatershed.org/vatican/harmonizations/3/

    . . . and let me know if you see any UNFORGIVABLE errors.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Did you try the English Hymnal?
    http://www.archive.org/details/theenglishhymnal00milfuoft
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 944
    I have no idea as to Bell's text-dodginess, but I will second JDE's endorsement of Bell's setting of this piece. It's a relatively simple, but well done piece.

    Aside: one of the best hymns ever.

    That is all.
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Agreed; I like the Bell arrangement as well. Some cool harmonies in the organ part.
  • Heath
    Posts: 933
    Just had a request for "Let All Mortal" for a wedding . . . anyone have a favorite SATB a cappella setting out there? JMO's setting in the VII Hymnal if fine, but I'd love to see what else is out there.

    Thanks!
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    We sing an SATB version arranged by Randall DeBruyn, I think.
    I need to get my music folder to check copyright info, etc., but it's a lovely arrangement.
  • Cantus67Cantus67
    Posts: 207
    You're most welcome to use this one if you still need it.

    https://goo.gl/NZfsCM
    2037 Letall mortal flesh - SEC.pdf
    63K
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    Holst did a setting of Picardy as well. It's not a cappella, but it's pretty easy for the chorus.
    LetAllMortalFleshHOLST.pdf
    520K
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    i have one... will post in a few...

    This one has the text of 'Sing My Tongue' but could easily be switched out.

    Here is the page where you can preview the score and hear an audio preview.

    http://myopus.com/singMyTongue.html
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    There is a lovely simple-but-effective and festive setting for choir and organ by Gustav Holst. The first stanza is unison with a pedal point on the organ, the second for men, the third SATB (very easy), and the last with a developed organ part and a descant of 'alleluyas' for the women. It is gorgeous.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    Healey Willan's arrangement is rather modest and also worth checking out.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Sir Edward Bairstow wrote a beautiful setting, but it doesn't use Picardy. It also breaks into more than 4 parts in spots. Nevertheless, if you've got a choir which can sing it, I highly recommend the piece.

    http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/images/8/86/Bairstow_Let_all_mortal_flesh.pdf

    Thanked by 2Casavant Organist barreltone
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    (The setting Jackson recommends is the one I had posted earlier.)
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    No one seems to have mentioned David Willcocks' PICARDY, found as "Hush my Dear, lie still and slumber" in CCC (One Hundred Carols for Choirs, OUP). 4 verses for SATB, SSAA, TTBB, S.SATB a cappella.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    Incidentally, for anyone who might want an alternate setting of 'Let All Mortal Flesh', it can be sung beautifully to the melody of Good Friday's Crux fidelis. I discovered this in Sir Sidney Nicholson's Plainchant Hymn Book some years ago and have used it numerous times. It is a beautiful wedding of text and chant.

    Of course, some would (understandably) object to using the beloved Good Friday melody for any other text. This is understandable. Those who will try it, though, are sure to find a new friend. This will not (should not!) replace the iconic Picardy, but may, for some, be a welcome and beautiful variant for their choirs or scholas.
    Thanked by 1Incardination
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,032
    Here's a SATB setting from our friend Jeff Reynolds.
    Let all mortal flesh keep silence - Full Score.pdf
    43K
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,217
    In that Holst arrangement, you have to love the choir-singer's "go!" on P.9 (PDF pagination) of the score.
  • RenaissanceTallis
    Posts: 6
    The Bairstow is definitely a good one to do.
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    .. deleted redundant post.
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    For my hymnbook, I've stitched together a version from a number of disparate sources encountered over the years.

    Unaccompanied until the last verse (so make sure to keep the pitch!), which is unison with descant (descant by Christopher Erskine, Canberra, Australia). We sing the first verse v. slowly, and build up from pp to ff at "Christ Our God", etc. (If enough men, just men; & get them to proceed from monkish/whispery at the beginning to full throated at ff.)

    Works well: the typical congregation is usually rattled into silence-fittingly-by the drama of v.1. but, being so denied, come in with gusto on the melody of v.2, undeterred by the canon going on.

    The part I especially enjoy is the bursting into full a capella harmony at v. 3, as "rank on rank" the four parts line up to do their thing.
    LetAllMortalFlesh.pdf
    592K
    Thanked by 1Andrew_Malton
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,148
    Well, at least ONE of these settings is SATB a cappella.
    Thanked by 2Incardination Cantus67
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    There is also an awesome (but not so simple) arrangement of this tune by none other than Craig Courtney, but you need an excellent pianist. And of course that's another problem - the accompaniment is piano rather than organ.

    http://www.beckenhorstpress.com/let-all-mortal-flesh-keep-silence-satb/

  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    The Let All Mortal Flesh that I mentioned our using is by Randall DeBruyn, and is copyrighted 1990, OCP Pub.
    It's very pretty, though.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Corinne,
    "though" suggests that something about what you said makes it unlikely to be beautiful. Is it that the music was written by DeBruyn, that is copyrighted 1990 or that it is published by OCP, or....I guess..... that you mentioned it?


  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    Ha, sorry. It is that it's copyrighted and so I cannot share it.
    I have, however, seen "part" videos on YouTube, which show the score (that has to be a copyright infringement, right?).
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    Oh, here's a preview link: https://dh8zy5a1i9xe5.cloudfront.net/shared/pdf/preview/30117990.pdf
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    To overcome copyright, just replace the vowel in "flesh"....
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Heath
    Posts: 933
    A delayed thank you to all that shared ideas and scores!

    I wound up using Hugh's score for the first 3 verses and then an old harmonization of mine (attached) for verse 4. Again, thanks to all!
    Let All Mortal Flesh-vs. 4-HM.pdf
    143K
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    Re: stanza 4, the "seraph" and "Cherubim" are not in apposition. Many hymnals published since 1974 use a comma between the two. The correct punctuation is a semicolon, as is found in all hymnals published before 1974 and still many published since then. See
    https://hymnary.org/text/let_all_mortal_flesh_keep_silence
    and scroll down to and check out the various Page Scans.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Heath
    Posts: 933
    Good catch, Fr. Krisman, thanks!
  • swerdswerd
    Posts: 26
    I have written hymn tunes for this hymn. I have composed and arranged numerous hymns spanning the church's liturgical year and for all age groups. Please see my website for more info at www.NewHeartMusic.net and listen to a partial listing of my hymns at www.hymntime.com or copy and paste the following link to access my page on that website:
    http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/e/r/werdebaugh_s.htm

    Also, I have choral works posted there as well as organ instrumental music.
  • swerdswerd
    Posts: 26
    Also, all my music is considered public domain and therefore is free to copy and use for worship or devotions with no alterations. All other rights remain reserved.
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