How Shall I Sing That Majesty? Top Pick
2-part mixed choir and organ - A grand setting of the hymn tune Coe Fen by Kenneth Naylor with a thrilling descant and organ part. The text by Restoration-era poet John Mason is transcendent. This will become a regular part of your choir's repertory. The recording is of the version for SATB which is available here. Learning tracks are available for this piece by accessing the link at the end of the downloaded .pdf. The tune Coe Fen is used by special arrangement with Oxford University Press.
How shall I sing that Majesty
Which angels do admire?
Let dust in dust and silence lie;
Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.
Thousands of thousands stand around
Thy throne, O God most high;
Ten thousand times ten thousand sound
Thy praise; but who am I?
Thy brightness unto them appears,
Whilst I Thy footsteps trace;
A sound of God comes to my ears,
But they behold Thy face.
They sing because Thou art their Sun;
Lord, send a beam on me;
For where heaven is but once begun
There alleluias be.
Enlighten with faith’s light my heart,
Inflame it with love’s fire;
Then shall I sing and bear a part
With that celestial choir.
I shall, I fear, be dark and cold,
With all my fire and light;
Yet when Thou dost accept their gold,
Lord, treasure up my mite.
How great a being, Lord, is Thine,
Which doth all beings keep!
Thy knowledge is the only line
to sound so vast a deep.
Thou art a sea without a shore,
A sun without a sphere;
Thy time is now and evermore,
Thy place is everywhere.