Here is my arrangement of John Newton’s great hymn- an arrangement which I initially did for th Chamber Singers back in the late 1990’s. It was inspired in part by a beautiful picture book which presented black and white photo of a variety of abandoned churches, with the full text of Newton’s hymn- all six verses. But I can trace the way I finish the arrangement, with the first verse reprised with a big finish, all the way back to my years in Chicago. (1985-86.) I can remember spending a couple of very late nights in the sanctuary of my church at the time, Resurrection Lutheran, playing the gand piano and messing around with original songs and hymn arrangements until the wee hours o the morning. I have long since forgotten all of the songs I wrote back then (thankfully so, I’m thinking) but I never forgot those ideas for Amazing Grace. This arrangement has not been published, but I’ve made it available to several groups, including the Tremper High School Choir, the Weston Noble Alumni Choir
This particular performance is by the Carthage Choir as we sang it for the ensemble’s 75th anniversary tour. My very favorite memory of this piece is from our concert down in Carthage, Illinois- the original home of Carthage College. On that special anniversary tour we sang a concert at Trinity Lutheran, the large church adjacent to the old campus where most of the faculty worshipped. It’s still a beautiful church and vibrant congregation, more than forty years after the college left town. Just after the choir arrived for what was the choir’s first performance in Carthage, Illinois in a quarter century, the pastor informed us that a beloved pillar of the congregation- a wonderful woman in her 80s or 90s- had just passed away a couple of days earlier. She had gone into the hospital a couple of weeks earlier but kept saying that she was anxious more than anything to be discharged from the hospital in order to hear the Carthage Choir’s upcoming concert. It looked for a while like she would make it, but then things took a turn for the worse and she died two days before our performance. We sang Amazing Grace on our Saturday night concert in her memory, and there were many tears shed by members of the congregation- and by some of us as well, even though we did not even know this woman who had died. But we had been told what she meant to this church and this community, and their grief became ours- and we all reached out for an extra helping of God’s Amazing Grace that night. It’s a moment I will never ever forget.