Blest Are They
Paul Bouman

Composer Paul Bouman
Text Luke 11:28 and Tobias Clausnitzer
Voicing SAB a cappella
Topic Opening of Worship
Scripture reference
Luke 11:28
Length 2' 20" Price $1.95 (U.S.)
Released 6/96
Catalog no. 410-113
Difficulty Mod. easy

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Description
An unaccompanied chorale motet for SAB, based on the tune LIEBSTER JESU framed by an introduction and coda. The lean-textured harmonies are reminiscent of the choral music of Hugo Distler; the music is easy and gratifying to sing.

Text
Blest are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.

Dearest Jesus, at your word
we have come again to hear you;
let our thoughts and hearts be stirred
and in glowing faith be near you;
as the promises here given
draw us wholly up to heaven.
Blest are they that hear the word of God.

Text: Luke 11:28 and Tobia Blausniter; tr. Catherine Winkworth, adapt.



 


review copy

Review
"Bouman has gifted us with a finely crafted work owing in part, to the motet tradition, yet in musical language familiar to our 20th-century ears. I find that kind of respect for history and Bouman's ability to inform the present with it, especially heartening. This is terrific choral music for novice or experienced groups. It is composed in the style of Jan Bender's classic liturgical motets (which are sadly long out of print) and deserves a place in that company. The SAB writing is so natural one never really misses the tenor line (it is often implied in the imitative writing). A lyric, quasi-pentatonic tune on the text, "Blest are they that hear the Word of God and keep," frames the choral Dearest Jesus, At Your Word, the motet's middle section. I hear a slight tip of the hat to Paul Manz's lovely organ setting of Dearest Jesus in Bouman's harmonization. For another fine choral motet see Bouman's Take Up Your Cross (Selah 420-617). Highly recommended." -Cross Accent, January 1998



 

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