Blessed Assurance

When a congregation sings “Blessed Assurance,” it often will sing it with a sense of peaceful confidence as in this clip from Oscar winner Places in the Heart (1984).  In my arrangement, I’m going more for unbridled exuberance.  I don't think the poet, Frances Jane van Alstene (better known as Fanny Crosby, 1820-1915)  would mind.  

She was an amazing person.  She was blinded by an incompetent doctor at the age of six weeks and yet seemed to harbor no bitterness for her condition.  On the contrary, she has been quoted as saying, “If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­trac­ted by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.”  

And sing–and write–hymns she did: more than 8,000 hymns are credited to Crosby.  In her day she was one of the best known women in the country.  Her name was a household word in the United States.  On her 85th birthday, President Grover Cleveland wrote:  “As one proud to call you an old friend, I de­sire to be ear­ly in con­gra­tu­lat­ing you on your long life of use­ful­ness, and wish­ing you in the years yet to be add­ed to you, the peace and com­fort born of the love of God.”  The music for “Blessed Assurance,” which inspired Crosby’s lyrics, was written by Phoebe Knapp (1839-1908), who herself composed over 500 hymn tunes.  

“Blessed Assurance” is one of the more virtuosic of my collection, Grand Creations.  It is based on a major third descending by steps (the first three notes of the melody) and repeated chords (the first three notes of the chorus).