Lekberg - "O Sing unto the Lord" (Aaron Bunnell, tenor)

SOLO "O Sing unto the Lord" (music by Sven Lekberg, 2016)
Aaron Bunnell, tenor; Dale Morehouse, piano

St. John's Methodist - Kansas City, MO
November 21, 2021

We turn to Sven Lekberg’s (1899-1984) setting of the opening of Psalm 95 for our solo of praise and thanksgiving. He was involved with music early in his life, taking piano lessons at the age of nine and becoming an assistant organist by the age of fourteen. He graduated from Northwestern University and continued his studies in Paris with the composers Vincent d'Indy and Paul Dukas. Upon returning to the United States in 1931, he assumed the position of Dean of the School of Music at Augustana College and later became the chairman of Division of Fine Arts at Simpson College, Iowa. Lekberg's compositional style is influenced by Vaughn Williams and is characterized by modal scales, parallelism, and mild dissonance.

O come, let us sing unto the LORD:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
(words from Psalm 95: 1-7, KJV)