Justine Koontz, Composer, Conductor

Choral Music

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Were You There?
  • Two-part choir (any combination) and piano African-American Spiritual
    Language: English Level: Easy intermediate Ranges: Part I: Bb3-Eb5 Part II: G3-Eb5 Duration: 4'15" Price: $6.00 for initial setup + $1.50 per copy (PDF)
    • Program Notes:

    The African-American Spiritual "Were You There?" has become one of the great Lenten anthems with its depiction of Jesus of Nazareth's crucifixion and resurrection. A very strong parallel existed between Jesus' suffering and the slaves' suffering. Slaves were often whipped, hung or otherwise abused according to the whims of the master. Those who avoided such treatment were often witnesses of such cruelty, hence the lyrics that continually ask, "Were you there?" The final verse, however, ("Were you there when He rose up from the dead?") demonstrates that in the midst of such injustice, there was cause for hope.

    Performance Notes:

    This arrangement was written with the small church choir in mind. While is written for two-part choir and piano, it can be performed in a handful of different ways:
    -Treble choirs can perform this very successfully, as can lower voice choirs.
    -If the organ in your sanctuary is better than the piano, by all means use it!
    -Combine sopranos and tenors on the top voice and altos and basses on the lower voice.
    -If you have a mixed SATB choir, you can also experiment with different pairings of voices in different verses, i.e., sopranos and altos on verse 1, tenors and basses on verse 2, full choir on verses 3 & 4, or whatever works best with your choir.
    -Still having trouble singing in two-part harmony? Then eliminate the harmony part and stay with the melody throughout. It will still sound great!

    Lyrics:

    Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
    Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
    Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,
    Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

    Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
    Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
    Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,
    Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

    Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
    Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
    Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,
    Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

    Were you there when He rose up from the dead?
    Were you there when He rose up from the dead?
    Oh, sometimes I feel like singing glory, glory, glory!
    Were you there when He rose up from the dead?