Our church has always sang the roof off when they sing this “freshly-packaged” familiar hymn. Chris Tomlin hit a gem when he wrote a refrain to our beloved “Amazing Grace” almost 20 years ago! This crafted arrangement hosts full orchestra (if desired) by beginning with a piano-only stanza, and then develops by skipping the refrain and entering instruments on the transition into stanza 2. The arrangement continues on with all stanzas, with a repeat of the material for stanza 2-3, and then recrafted the style with subdued material for stanza 4. The refrain comes back and builds, then repeats as it builds again. A short tag is offered at the very end, “Unending love, amazing grace.” This arrangement is a true must-have for church pianists and instrumentalists. Includes a full score with piano, strings, brass, winds, and percussion.
Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone
Real Responses from Congregations
Molly plays for the church my mother-in-law attends. The congregation becomes like a big choir with her arrangements. I’ve enjoyed the music when we’ve visited!
The beautiful accompaniment and the unison congregation could be used both congregationally and chorally (as we did)… For small to medium-sized choirs on low attendance Sundays these could be effective choral pieces or as a way to develop choir and orchestra when (as is our case) some choir members are also instrumentalists. We used three pieces as part of our Easter celebration. All were very well received. We were able to include our developing orchestra with all of it. So, thank you!
We love using these arrangements at Valley Community Baptist Church in our worship setting, regardless if we are using just piano and organ on a particular Sunday, or our full orchestra with choir and congregation. As the organist, the conductors score offers a great organ score option as an asset for churches using organ with these settings without revamping the piano score, making it quite easy… Thank you, Molly!
Molly’s congregational accompaniments add a freshness to treasured hymns of the past that enables a cross-generational congregation to join together in passionate worship of a great God.
