Leslie Gilreath

What Joy Shall Fill My Heart, dedicated to the composer’s mother, is based on a traditional Swedish melody set to an original text by Carl Boberg in 1885. Boberg, a Swedish editor and future politician, was walking home along the coast as a violent storm approached. Inspired by the rolling thunderstorm and calm thereafter, juxtaposed with the sound of distant church bells pealing, he wrote the poem “O Store Gud” (in English, “O Great God”). Once combined with the Swedish folk tune, his stanzas of awe and wonder gained popularity around the world, particularly following Stuart Hine’s 1953 translation to English, known as “How Great Thou Art.”

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