Product Description
Tune: HYMN TO JOY
Use: Prelude
Hymn to Joy is the main theme of the last movement of Ludwig van Beethovens most famous work, his Ninth Symphony, which premiered in 1824, only three years before his death. The tune has been paired with several different hymn texts, but the most popular one in most churches is Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.
Just six years later, around 1830, a young Polish composer living in Paris, Frédéric Chopin, composed his most famous work, the Nocturne in E-flat major. Its a piece thats beloved by pianists for its lovely melody set over a widely spaced accompaniment. The tune gets considerably more complex as it goes on.
My setting goes through the melody three times. The first and third sections are fast, and are built on a kind of arpeggio-pattern-with-a-melody-on-top that Chopin was fond of using. The slow section in the middle starts with a total ripoff of the opening of Chopins Nocturne; its even in the same key! Instead of Chopins melody, though, I use Beethovens, and develop the tune as Chopin did, beginning plainly, then becoming increasingly ornate.
This piece was a blast to write, and I hope you enjoy it, too.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.