African Alleluia

By Benjamin Harlan

Our small church choir used this for the opening of the Christmas Eve service, and it was a hit! We took the tempo much faster, and used the percussion parts suggested - and then some. It builds, then comes down to a soft, more legato section, then builds again to the...

end. We like that it's easy enough to learn quickly in a very busy season.

We've had this piece for about 7 years, I think...While I can see where the other reviewer said, "It doesn't go anywhere"... that's part of the fun of it! You don't have to work hard on getting the words or the beat. You do have...

to have fun with dynamics, percussion, and feeling. We have shortened it on occasion... and we wrote new words (... and yes, He lives!) and have used it for Easter. It matches the feel of an upbeat (not huge church choir) Easter for our small congregation and choir. It's just fun!

This piece goes nowhere! What you hear on the demo is all there is. It just repeats and repeats and repeats. Everyone does sing a little higher in places and at the end, but the line doesn't actually climax at any point. We used it as a walking song...

- my junior high choir walked off the stage singing while my high school choir walked on. Otherwise, I probably would have just stuck it in the files and never used it. It's very, very easy, but oh so boring!!!