Man of Sorrows

Aug 1

The bass resonances in this piece are particularly beautiful. Liberal use of quartal harmonies during a sojourn into the dark, painful, and forlorn phrygian mode transforms into the unexpected, triumphant final statement of the melody. The hymn melody ends on an imperfect plagal cadence, suggesting the story is somewhat unfinished, music-wise. The opening of the piece in my arrangement mimics the beginning of Debussy’s “The Engulfed Cathedral.”

Find the lyrics to the hymn here. The phrase, “Man of sorrows” comes from the prophet Isaiah, written hundreds of years before Christ (Isaiah 53:3).

Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com

Man of Sorrows

Jesus Paid It All

Three Miniatures

Edward Wolfe