I got my start in arranging hymns—and in composing really—all the way back in 2011, specifically because of the hymn “Wonderful Grace of Jesus.” That hymn, along with “To God Be the Glory,” was one of my favorites, and I desperately wanted to play it in church as an offertory. Unfortunately, none of the published arrangers seemed to touch that one—it was well-known, but not in their circles, apparently. They stuck with the more famous ones—good ones, but ones that aren’t quite as interesting when you’ve heard them too much.
At the time, I didn’t know anybody who could have arranged it. And so, I decided that if I was going to get an arrangement, I’d have to do it myself.
Of course, I didn’t have music-writing software yet. I printed out a few sheets of notepaper and got to writing. The first verse of the piece wasn’t very interesting—the notes were there, but they didn’t sound too special. Then, I got to the second half of the piece, changed the key and meter, and tried that. It worked out pretty well, and sounded nice too—at least I thought. The last time through, I put in some exciting rhythms on the verse, then wrote the notes mostly straight out of the hymnal for the chorus—but that worked, because Haldor Lillenas did such a great job splitting up the male and female parts—simply playing the notes from the hymnal sounded interesting. After that was done, I went back, redid the first verse, and voila! My first hymn arrangement!
Eventually, I typed out the manuscript to the arrangement. Many more arrangements followed after that. I also really liked the hymn Jesus Is Calling, so I made an arrangement of that one too. Then, I liked Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul, so I arranged that one. There were several others, and there would be many more to come over the years. The ones you see in this collection are ten of the earliest—the first I arranged together as a collection. Some are well-known, some are obscure. I will encourage you to check out Lord of the Sabbath, Hear Us Pray—it’s a really beautiful hymn! All the ones in here are favorites of mine, though, and I hope you enjoy them!