This is an arrangement for Upper Voices and piano of a song by Amy Beach.

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Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a child prodigy who was accustomed to giving public recitals on the piano from an early age. After initially receiving piano lessons from her mother she continued to study in her native America, benefitting from some composition lessons as a teenager. The education, and recitals, came to an abrupt end when she married, at 18, and was thus expected to behave like a society wife. Her professional musical activities were severely limited during her marriage. Her husband’s death, in 1910 (he was 24 years her senior), gave her the freedom to teach, perform, compose, and publish her work. 

 

With prayer and supplication, 

let your requests be known unto God.

And the peace of God 

which passeth all understanding 

shall keep your hearts and minds 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

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“Both [Ave Maria and St Paul’s Benediction] are useful, gentle, upper-voice anthems, well worth learning and singing”.

Stephen Patterson, Church Music Quarterly, June 2022.

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