David Hepburn is a retired minister-of-music, choir director, band director, missionary, teacher, and school president, and a fine tenor and trumpeter. His many compositions are a testament to the works of Jesus he has seen in the lives of others and in his own life.

Some time around 1977, David said, "I've been writing a lot more songs lately with scripture for lyrics, and it's been working very well. You know, God said 'My word shall not return void,' not, 'your lyrics shall not return void.' If you want to write music that changes people's hearts, why would you try to improve on scripture?"

The first of the two short pieces here is a Mozart-like setting of Philippians 4:4, in which Paul urges Christians to "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice!" David wrote this for his musical production of the book of Philippians, and the joyful encouragement of the verse comes out in this playful song for unaccompanied SATB choir. Rejoice in the Lord packaged differently for use in the musical.

The second piece is joyful treatment of the word Hallelujah, which is Hebrew for "joyous praise to God." Scored for SATB choir and piano, the meaning of this phrase is well-explored in brief.

MP3 sound sample: Both pieces in entirety (synthesizer/midi).



REJOICE IN THE LORD and HALLELUJAH by David Hepburn for SATB choir comes in a pdf file of 221K, with two four-page scores and a license page, nine pages in all. Performance time should be about one minute each.