Spine-tingling arrangement of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’
A lush arrangement for SAATTB voice perfect for choir and vocal groups
I arranged the song for my amateur Eclipse Choir and we recorded in it Abbey Road Studios. I’m proud of how rich it sounds and I think a lot of vocal groups and choirs will embrace it too. The sheet music for SAATTB vocal groups and choirs is now published on Sheet Music Plus.
To me this is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written.
Majesty and vulnerability, wrapped in the utmost tenderness.
I wrote an arrangement for voice following an evening coaching my choir. During the warm up I got them to harmonise in tones apart, and the balance and tuning was so accurate in one moment that an artificial harmonic sprung out, two octaves higher. Just as a rainbow appears when light splits, it felt as if sound had created its own rainbow. It was magic so I wanted to write something that drew them back to that moment. The four tones appear in the second stanza of that arrangement – “there… at my command”.
Unfortunately, it is like chasing rainbows and we haven’t yet been able to recreate that in the situ of a performance, but we know it’s there!
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Beautiful arrangement, Jim. x
Vauxhall Cross next 😉
Lol!
Gorgeous arrangement 🙂 x
A lovely arrangement Jim….very moving. As always, it was a joy to listen to Eclipse Choir.