I Surrender All - He Hideth My Soul

“Mummy, Mummy, Mummy…” the charming little Scottish three-year-old kept repeating, even though Mummy was busy taking care of her guests (that would be Louise and me) for after-supper tea at their lovely bed and breakfast somewhere in the highlands.  Finally, after numerous repetitions of “Mummy!” the young mom relented and asked, “What is it?”  In the most delightful, childish brogue I’d ever heard, the little boy said, “Mummy, Mummy” and then, taking a breath, head to one side, “Tuck me in!”  

Children learn early on that repeating a word is an effective way to get an adult’s attention! 

I think repeated pitches in music–-the same note played several times in a row–-can serve a similar function.  There’s something insistent about repeated pitches.  We hear them this way in Beethoven’s music, don’t we?  Think of those ominous repeated pitches way down in the bass near the opening of his Appassionata sonata, or the high repeated pitches whispered threateningly near the end of the slow introduction to the Pathetique, and even what are probably the four most famous notes in music, the opening of the Fifth Symphony: Sol-Sol-Sol-Me.  Is Fate knocking insistently and mightily at the door? 

You’ll hear plenty of gentle, repeated pitches in my arrangement of “I Surrender All - He Hideth My Soul.”  In my conception, I was trying to capture something Jesus said back in the first century: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20)  My arrangement is a dialog between us and Jesus. 

Please tell me what you think.