Continuing with entries from the LDS Music Compeitition, is my entry from 2011 entitled He Knows. The lyrics I wrote for this song have touched my heart many times. I love that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, knows each of us individually because of His atonement and we can find peace through Him.
I wrote this song as an entry for the 2012 LDS Music Competition. One of the suggested themes for entry was Stand in Holy Places. The second I read that theme, the melody and lyrics of the first phrase from the chorus popped right into my head. I knew I had to do that theme. As a youth I had such a zeal for the gospel and I hope I conveyed that same zeal in this song. Even though I didn’t place in the competition, I still love this song so much!
I love the bold hymns and really wanted to write a choir piece to one of them. I picked this one because I love the concept of standing up for Christ. Today, a battle against Satan is raging and we must fight it.
A choir director asked if I would spice up this song, so I wrote out my whole arrangement.
The tune to this song is so pretty and the lyrics are inspiring. I love this song and was so grateful a choir director asked me to write an arrangement to it because I would have wanted to do it anyways!
I will let my Nov 1, 2008 entry from my family blog tell why I arranged this song:
“Here’s an arrangement I did of the song Beautiful Savior. My mom told me last year that my Pop-pop (mom’s dad) got teary eyed when he heard it at one of my sibling’s baptism. I guess he knew that song from when he was younger. Sorry if any of those facts are wrong but that’s what I remember my mom telling me. So, I arranged it for my Pop-pop.”
This is my favorite arrangement. Whenever I perform this people later tell me how they felt the spirit while I performed it. That is the best compliment I could ever get because it tells me I was inspired. Feel free to play measures 48-50 over and over again. They are the best part. Enjoy!
I honestly can’t remember if I arranged this song at the end of high school or early college. Probably college. I do love this song and had to pay a little fee to get permission to post it but that was worth it!
With this arrangement I really tried to make the piano sound like the lyrics. After performing this once in church, a guy came up to me and said something like, “I opened the hymn book to read the lyrics when you started playing and the music matched the words.” I was touched to see that he noticed my effort in that area because the lyrics are very powerful. Probably what made this arrangement powerful too. Enjoy:
Picture above: M51 – the Whirlpool galaxy by Samuel George