Hewitt Jones, Thomas: Love is the Answer. SATB & Organ or Piano
From: £3.50
SATB & organ or piano (with solos and divisions)
Hot off the press, this heart-warming carol will bring some much-needed cheer this Christmas.
Soaring melodies and heartfelt lyrics seamlessly combine in this enchanting new carol from the pen of Thomas Hewitt Jones. Intended as an antidote to the gloom and confusion of the pandemic, Love is the Answer will inspire and uplift singers and audiences alike. A must-have addition to any choir’s Christmas celebrations this year.
This title is available either as a printed title by post, or as a digital download with a 30-copy print licence. Please select:
COMPOSER NOTE
Like my carol Follow Yonder Star and Can You Hear Me?, an anthem for kindness, Love is the Answer was composed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is very much intended as an antidote to the gloom, confusion and negativity of that period. On the other hand, one beneficial outcome of lockdown and its privations was to remind us of the importance of friendship and family as the bedrock of our lives, and of choral singing as the essence of our musical community. The experience of Christmas in particular encapsulates the positive spirit of all three, and my own most vivid childhood memories are of the annual school nativity service, and of my invariably being enchanted by those carols that effortlessly married music and words. Subsequently, over the years and in each new choral piece, that harmonious relationship has remained my ideal. In Love is the Answer I especially endeavoured to recreate such a perfect union, setting my own specially written words seamlessly to a soaring melody with descant. In four verses with refrain, the poem retells the nativity story, with its shepherds and wise men, and with a concluding contemporary twist that will, I hope, inspire and uplift singers and audiences alike.
Up on a hillside the shepherds were calling,
Watching and waiting, perpending life’s worth.
Then from the sky came an angel’s sweet cry,
Bringing glorious news of a birth.
CHORUS
Love is the answer: for this was his sign,
Rousing great hymns that shall ring throughout time.
Laud him with heavenly descants sublime,
Fountain of life divine.
Wandering south along flatlands of Jordan,
Lit by a beaming beacon of love.
None could express so much fear, so much feeling,
Upheld by light from above.
CHORUS
Lying so sweetly the infant so sacred,
Swaddled so humbly right there in a stall,
Sages of old offering gifts of great worth,
Extolling their new Lord of all.
CHORUS
Pardon from sinning, now truth is the paradigm,
Some are perplexed by the miracle claim.
Proof for the hopeful and hope for the fearful,
Healing to quell earthly shame.
CHORUS
Thomas Hewitt Jones
© Copyright 2021 Stainer & Bell
Written at the end of the pandemic and intended to bring some solace, this new piece, with the text also by the composer, will surely be suitable for any Christmas programme in a sacred or concert hall setting. In his text, Thomas Hewitt Jones has taken words and images from the traditional Christmas story alongside some contemporary additions, such as ‘Some are perplexed by the miracle claim. Proof for the hopeful and hope for the fearful.’ With its soaring melodies and warm harmonic frame, this piece is truly warm and loving. In the composer’s inimitable style, there is always something fresh and new to discover; I particularly love his final expression mark, ‘Dying away, yet hopeful.’
Joy Hill, Choir & Organ Choral Directions, September 2022
30-COPY LICENCE
Sold under the terms of a personal use licence, the purchase of this file includes a licence to print up to 30 copies for use by your choir. If you need more than 30 copies, simply purchase multiple copies of the file for each additional 30 copies required. For example, 30 copies cost £20.00, 60 copies cost £40.00 etc.
Note: The file (stamped with your name and email address) will be available for immediate download and the licence will be sent via email.