Arranging 'Behold Our God' for Strings

Reflections & Lessons on this Unusual Musical Project

For those of you who only know me from my Substack writing, I am a choir director. I’m a Kodály-minded music educator in a classical Christian school. And, yes, I am a church musician. But I am not really an arranger of music—much less instrumental music. Three years ago last week, I had the opportunity to arrange some music for the memorial service of my wife’s grandfather. I thought I would share some reflections and lessons on that process and project. Hopefully, this will be of interest to you.

Jo Anne & Dick Ayres, my wife’s maternal grandparents.

Unusual Musical Project

My wife’s maternal grandmother (Jo Anne Ayres) is a pianist and lover of music. She was even trained at a conservatory of music. So, after her husband had lived a long and faithful life, she wanted to adorn the memorial service with meaningful music for her family and friends. There were particular songs that she wanted in the service. She also requested that there be string players to accompany the piano in that service. To the best of my memory, I had never attended or been involved in a funeral/memorial service that had used string players. Given my music vocation and connections, I offered to help find some players and successfully found two violinists and a cellist to accompany a pianist in her church.

This is where the fun began. Mrs. Jo Anne Ayres requested a particular song to be played instrumentally as a formal prelude for the service. My mother-in-law told me the song’s name was “Behold Our God,” which was occasionally sung at Mrs. Ayres’s church in central Louisiana. I hadn’t heard of it before. I soon discovered it was a 2011 composition well-known in contemporary worship circles. But it was new to me. So I began to look for an arrangement that could be adapted for strings and piano as a prelude. I didn’t see anything that would work or that I could get to me in time for the service, so I decided I would have to come up with something myself.

Putting it Together

Here I was just a few days before the service. I had one violinist confirmed and a cellist. So I began to listen to the song and imagine how to highlight the lyrics to the listeners in that service instrumentally. I began to write and polish it through the weekend before the Monday memorial service. I hurriedly sent it to the musicians the night before so they could have something to look at in case something was off. By this time, we had even gotten a second violinist to agree to play. So the recording below features piano, violin, and cello. The second violinist improvised a little harmony elegantly. She did a masterful job of blending. If you know “Behold Our God,” you’ll notice that the recording below does not feature the closing tag and its accompanying lyrics. I thought it best to leave it out, given where it would be used in the service.

Click “Play” below to hear the audio recording of the instrumental prelude arrangement of “Behold Our God”:

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Reflections & Observations

The project was a bit of a refiner’s fire for me. It was music arranging on a deadline. It was also working outside of my comfort zone. Although I grew up in a church where I played the keyboard in the praise & worship band, I now am in a congregation that considers contemporary music songs written after the year 1800. So you can appreciate that I felt a bit inadequate to do this. I also knew that the typical musical accompaniment for “Behold our God” would not be a modified piano string quartet. My goal was to allow the folks in the pew waiting for that memorial service to begin to be able to meditate on the words of this song that meant a good deal to my wife’s grandmother. They even printed the lyrics in the memorial service program.

In addition, my children and some of my nieces and nephews worked up John Rutter’s “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” to sing as a benediction for the whole service. Once again, I couldn’t get any string parts ordered and shipped to me in time, so I figured out a way to get the strings to mostly double the piano and choir and accompany their singing voices. One of my parents took a video of these kiddos singing for their great-grandfather’s service. They did very well. Here’s the YouTube link to that video:

Singing as Service

One of the things I tell my students at school is that singing is a service to others. Musicians were servants historically. Modern thinking says musicians are celebrities to swoon over, not humble servants in service of the King. During that weekend, I was overwhelmed with the arranging but was so pleased with getting to do something productive and creative to help commemorate a life well-lived. Now, with a few years of distance, I think, “I’m so glad that I got to do this unusual act of service.” I’m glad I got to arrange something out of my comfort zone. It was an enriching process. It made me thankful for church musicians like Johann Sebastian Bach, who had to set new music in the form of cantatas and church preludes—each week!

Additionally, it made me uncomfortable doing something I don’t usually do. I couldn’t help but think this must be something of what people feel when trying to sing in one of my choir rehearsals or singing workshops. It was good for me to be on the other end of that feeling.

Conclusion

The process was memorable, worthwhile, and rewarding for the reasons mentioned above. I’ve done a little more arranging since then, mostly arranging for my children’s choirs and honor choirs that I have conducted. Looking back, I’m thankful for this unlikely arranging endeavor and even more grateful for the people behind its occurrence.