Praise Ye the Lord / Today Is the Day for Rejoicing [hopson2of2]: Choral Conductor Score & Parts

Hal H. Hopson's expansion of Franck's Psalm 150 transforms an already powerful anthem into a festival-ready triumph without compromising the original's lyrical beauty. The addition of brass, timpani, and handbells gives your choir the sonic weight to fill a large venue while the alternate Easter text eliminates the need for separate arrangements during different seasons. This is the arrangement choirs return to because it delivers both artistic satisfaction and practical versatility.

A sweeping declaration of joy that builds from lyrical devotion into radiant celebration. The interplay of voices, brass, and shimmering bells creates a luminous quality that feels both intimate in its harmonic language and grand in its cumulative effect, evoking the kind of ecstatic praise the text proclaims.

Directors leading choirs with access to or willing to engage brass players, timpanist, and handbells for festival performance or special celebrations. Both liturgical and concert settings benefit from this arrangement, and the dual-text option makes it valuable for programs spanning winter through Easter seasons.

• Balance the handbells against the vocal texture by keeping them transparent rather than prominent; they should shimmer around the choir's lines, not compete with them.
• Bring the brass in gradually through each entrance, allowing the choir to establish harmonic territory before the instrumentation strengthens. This prevents the piece from sounding overloaded at the opening.
• Shape the timpani rolls to swell and recede with the harmonic progression rather than maintaining uniform dynamics; let them underscore moments of arrival and release.
• Mark all conductor-to-parts cues clearly in your rehearsal scores so brass and timpani entries lock precisely with choral phrases, especially during the climactic sections.

This arrangement functions equally well as an Easter season centerpiece or as the climactic final work on a spring concert. Pair it with smaller-scale sacred pieces to let it serve as the emotional and sonic summit of your program, or use it to anchor a mixed repertoire concert where festive energy is needed.

• Singing against independent instrumental lines while maintaining vocal blend
• Sustaining long phrases across harmonic shifts supported by brass and timpani
• Responding to conductor cues synchronized with instrumental entrances
• Balancing ensemble volume when accompanied by full brass and percussion