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Give Me the Wings of Faith
Composer Gordon Lawson
Text Isaac Watts
Voicing SATB and organ
Topics All Saints, Funeral-Memorial services
Length 3' 25" Price $1.75 (U.S.) Released 7/99
Catalog no. 415-813 Difficulty Moderately difficult
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 Review
"Gordon Lawson's 'Give me the wings of faith' is completely worthy to stand alongside Ernest Bullock's classic setting of the same text. Where Bullock is restless and energetic, Lawson is serene and atmospheric, with climaxes that are superbly paced and harmonies that unselfconsciously reveal the text's subtler meanings. The choir's final cadence on the Neapolitan D-flat ('the promised rest') and Lawson's sreturn to C Major for the organ's final cadence are truly inspired." --AAM Journal, July/August 2001
Description
With a text by Isaac Watts, this anthem is suitable for All Saints' and for funerals and memorial services. Highly expressive, the piece is in English cathedral style, and reminiscent of the choral music of Herbert Howells.
Anthem text
Give me the wings of faith to rise within the veil,
and see the saints above, how great their joys,
how bright their glories be.
I ask them whence their victory came,
They, with united breath,
ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
their triumph to his death.
They marked the footsteps that he trod,
his zeal inspired their breast,
and following their incarnate God,
posess the promised rest.
-Isaac Watts |
