Fresh Music Upload! Holy, Holy, Holy for Guitar Ensemble

Greetings, everyone!

I decided to write this piece after we had adapted the same hymn to play as a guitar quartet in church via Zoom.  It sounded so cool that I thought I'd make my own version of the hymn.  And thus, around 7 working days later, Holy, Holy, Holy for Guitar Ensemble emerged.  Considering that the last piece took like 3 months to write, I was ecstatic to have a quick turnover time on this one. 

Sheet music is now available for this title. Equip your guitar ensemble today!

Some musical characteristics set my version apart from the original, the biggest of which being that I reharmonized it.  All the counterpoint is very different from the original tune (Nicaea by John B. Dykes).  The reharmonization that is immediately striking is the alteration of the IV chord to a minor iv chord in the main melody.  Absolutely 100% guaranteed to mess up your congregation if they sing along!  This change continues throughout the piece.  I modified this technique further when the main theme returns in a minor key.  This time, everyone expects the minor iv, but they get a major IV instead.  Ah, mode mixture!  Don't worry though, I play the melody normally in the end.  It gives the piece a nice sense of completion to finally hear the melody that you expect.

I utilized some other fun musical techniques in Holy, Holy, Holy as well.  For example, I livened up the chorale style quarter notes with a grooving dotted rhythm in the bass line.  Some judiciously placed measures of 3/4 break up the rhythm even further.

My favorite technique is the use of harmonics on the guitars.  The bell like quality of the tones produced by this technique are strikingly different from the regular sound of the instrument.  They're used in the intro and the ending, but my favorite place is around 3/4 of the way through the piece when 3 of the guitars play harmonics and the fourth plays the main theme in a minor key.  It almost makes me think of a clock ticking.

Thanks again to all of you for listening to my work!  I hope that you enjoy Holy, Holy, Holy for Guitar Ensemble!  It will be available for downloading / streaming very soon! 

I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a listen or added it to your music collection.

Until next time!

Nathan C. Curtis