George Mathewson penned a lyric about the strength available in a life fully yielded to God. It was matched to a simple hymn tune by George Martin, and in the version that was the source material for this arrangement, the harmonization was by Arthur Sullivan. Yes, the Sullivan who worked with a man named Gilbert. The hymn tune is strong and simple and the harmonization is as moving as the lyric. That this hymn never became more popular is a mystery. +++ Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall be free; Force me to render up my sword, And I shall conqueror be. I sink in life's alarms When by myself I stand; Imprison me within thine arms, And strong shall be my hand. My heart is weak and poor Until it master find; It has no spring of action sure, It varies with the wind. It cannot freely move Till Thou hast wrought its chain; Enslave it with Thy matchless love, And deathless it shall reign. My pow'r is weak and low Till I have learned to serve; It wants the needed fire to glow, It wants the breeze to nerve; It cannot drive the world Until itself be driv'n; Its flag can only be un-furled When Thou shalt breathe from heav'n. My will is not my own Till Thou hast made it Thine; If it would reach a monarch's throne It must its crown resign: It only stands unbent Amid the clashing strife, When on Thy bosom it has leant And found in Thee its life. Make me a captive, Lord! +++ This arrangement can be hadled by large choirs or by as few as just three singers. All three vocal parts are very moderate in range. The piano accompaniment is also relatively easy to play, so this is a great youth anthem or for use by almost any mixed group of singers. MAKE ME A CAPTIVE, LORD, a hymn by George Martin with lyric by George Mathewson, arranged by Tom Kirkland for SAB choir with piano, comes in a pdf file of 326K, with an eight-page score and a license page, nine pages in all. Performance time should be about 3:40. MIDI sound sample: Entire Piece TRK10111AUS$3.95 BLANKET RECORDING POLICY FOR SHEET MUSIC Many of our sheet music licenses state that the purchaser does not have the right to record the work. We have modified our policy on this, and unless the license page states that you must obtain permission from a party other than www.tributek.com to record the work, we will allow a small number (less than 50) of copies of an audio or video recording of a live performance to be made and distributed and/or posted to a free web site for viewing/listening, so long as www.tributek.com, the composer, arranger, and lyricist are credited. IN THE DOWNLOADABLES BUSINESS OVER TEN YEARS! Visit our hard goods division at A customer commented: "This was a first for me: downloading a book instead of buying it in paper form. The cost of the book in this format was less than many firms charge for shipping an item. I had not a single glitch and I would buy another book in this format with no reservations. Tributek did a good job." Another customer commented: "I would like to compliment you on the ease of purchasing music on-line. I require the music for a wedding in a couple of weeks, and didn't want to wait for music to be sent in the mail. It was great to be able to hear the music and to know the length of the PDF file and performance time." Another customer writes: "I bought some choral music off your site. It's great. I hope we can do all of it in our church. I don't know how you can sell it so cheap. It's a great service you offer." NOTE: All www.tributek.com customers are given the opportunity to rate our service, value, and quality, and 98% of www.tributek.com customers who have ever returned satisfaction surveys rate their overall experience doing business with us as "excellent" (71%) or "good" (27%). You can't please all of the people all of the time, but we do try very hard. www.tributek.com - PO Box 8025 - Elburn IL 60119 USA Visit our hard goods division at www.tributek.biz Copyright (c)1999-2012 www.tributek.com All rights to all text, sounds, and graphics are reserved. Last update: 21 May 2012