Sally DeFord Music
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This beautiful melody has tugged at me for quite awhile, and though there are plenty of arrangements of it out there I gave in and did one anyway, simply for the pleasure of arranging it. It's presented both as "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," for LDS and non-LDS congregations, and as "O My Father" for LDS congregations. The scores are separate, as I used three verses of "Come, Thou Fount," and four of "O My Father."

This is a very simple arrangement, without even a single key change. I kept it all in the key of C in the hope that it would lend itself to harp as well as piano. The obbligato included is written for two C instruments. The recordings use flute and oboe, but other instruments could work equally well. In recordings it's easy to balance a solo voice and two instruments--in live performance it will be tricky to use two instruments without overpowering a solo voice. The obbligatos will probably only be useful for choral renditions, unless your soloist is well amplified.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Text by Robert Robinson; Melody from John Wyeth's "Repository of Sacred Music," Part Second; Arranged by Sally DeFord

MP3 Recording featuring vocals by Heather Prusse :   Hi-speed    Dialup    Download    CD:  I Have Not Seen, Yet I Believe
MP3 Accompaniment Track :   Hi-speed    Dialup    Download    CD:  I Have Not Seen, Yet I Believe--Accompaniment Tracks

MP3 Recording featuring vocals by Brady Lorenc :   Hi-speed    Dialup    Download


View/print sheet music:     SATB     Medium-voice solo     Obbligato for two C instruments

    Lyrics:

    Come, thou fount of every blessing,
    Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
    Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
    Call for songs of loudest praise.
    Teach me some melodious sonnet,
    Sung by flaming tongues above.
    Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
    Mount of thy redeeming love.

    Here I raise my Ebenezer; ( def. )
    Here by thy great help I’ve come;
    And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
    Safely to arrive at home.
    Jesus sought me when a stranger,
    Wandering from the fold of God;
    He, to rescue me from danger,
    Interposed His precious blood.

    O to grace how great a debtor
    Daily I’m constrained to be!
    Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
    Bind my wandering heart to thee.
    Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
    Prone to leave the God I love;
    Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
    Seal it for thy courts above.


O My Father

Text by Eliza R. Snow; Melody from John Wyeth's "Repository of Sacred Music," Part Second; Arranged by Sally DeFord

MP3 Recording featuring vocals by Becki Madsen :   Hi-speed    Dialup    Download
MP3 Accompaniment Track :   Hi-speed    Dialup    Download


View/print sheet music:     SATB     Medium-voice solo     Obbligato for two C instruments

    Lyrics:

    Lyrics to this familiar hymn may be found in the 1985 LDS hymnal, #292.