Rejoice My Friends

About the Christmas anthem Rejoice My Friends

Rejoice My Friends is celebratory, a rousing ending to a Christmas service or concert. A few measures of piano interlude separate the verses. Overall, this sounds like a fairly straightforward transcription of the original tune, but the choir section singing the melody changes from verse to verse. The third verse adds some staggered entrances for rhythm interest. Each line of the 6/8 melody begins on beat 2, for a slightly off-kilter feel throughout, keeping the choir, and the audience, on the edge of their seats.

These are the verses I selected from the Southern Harmony source book.

1. Rejoice, my friends, the Lord is King,
Let all prepare to take him in,
Let Jacob rise, and Zion sing,
And all the earth with praises ring,
And give to Jesus glory.

2. O! may the desert land rejoice,
And mourners hear the Savior’s voice;
While praise their many tongues employ,
And all obtain immortal joys,
And give to Him the glory.

4. I long to see the Christians join
In union sweet, and peace divine;
When every church with grace shall shine,
And grow in Christ the living vine,
And give to Him the glory.

5. Come, parents, children, bond, and free,
Come, who will go along with me?
I’m bound fair Canaan’s land to see,
And shout with saints eternally,
And give to Jesus glory.

1. (reprise)

Rejoice My Friends is the tune “Knoxville” from Southern Harmony (1835), No. 140, by R. Monday.

Rejoice My Friends is part of a larger cantata, Shepherds and Angels, with violin, harp, and tambourine. Instrumentally, that set aligns well with Britten’s Ceremony of Carols or Susa’s Carols and Lullabies. Teach your chorus Rejoice My Friends this year, and expand to Shepherds and Angels next season.

View and listen

Preview score  Click the big button to download a free perusal score. The watermarked PDF is disabled for printing.

Download “Rejoice My Friends, SATB & piano, preview” pjm-rejoicemyfriends-satb-preview.pdf – Downloaded 1020 times – 358.61 KB

Listen  The Master Singers of Lexington, MA sang Rejoice My Friends in 2010 in the Shepherds and Angels version with violin and harp.

Purchase options

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1. Buy a single copy. At the top of the page, choose Single Copy as the music format, and click the Add to Cart button.

2. Buy printing rights for your whole chorus for one low price. At the top of the page, choose Duplicate for Ensemble as the music format, and click Add to Cart.

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