Prayer (Arrangements)

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“Abana” is sung by Christians throughout the Arabic-speaking world. This haunting, yet vigorous melody beautifully captures the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

My arrangemnt that appears in hymnals makes heavy use of a drone in a hymn texture. That’s lovely, but not like the recordings I’ve heard of the song from Egypt. This SATB and piano arrangement is more along those lines: almost Klezmer-like use of the harmonic scale, a rhythmic accompaniment with lots of rubato, and vocal harmonies that tend to move in thirds.

This anthem is scored for SATB and piano and can be purchased from GIA Music.