Steve Danyew

In 2010, while living in the small town of Westminster, MA, I bought a copy of a old book from the town’s annual Historical Society sale titled, Songs for the Sanctuary. The book, published in 1869, was coming apart in places but really captured my interest. Though the word “songs” appears in the title, the book doesn’t contain a single note of music. Rather, it's comprised of old hymn texts – over a thousand of them. Many are beautiful, poetic reflections that congregations would have sung to familiar tunes. Since buying the book, I've used several of the old texts as the basis for new choral compositions. The first was my original version of “An Hour of Hallowed Peace,” scored for mixed choir and piano.

In this version for concert band, I use the same musical material but expand on the original ideas. When Robert Traugh of Kiski Area High School asked me to write a piece in memory of a student in their band who passed away, I immediately thought about this text and the meaning and imagery it conveys:

There is an hour of hallowed peace,
For those with cares oppressed,
When sighs and sorrowing shall cease,
And all be hushed to rest: -
‘T is then the soul is freed from fears
And doubts, which here annoy ;
Then they, who oft have sown in tears,
Shall reap again in joy.

There is a home of sweet repose,
Where storms assail no more ;
The stream of endless pleasure flows,
On that celestial shore :
There, purity with love appears,
And bliss without alloy ;
There, they, who oft have sown in tears,
Shall reap again in joy.

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