Were You There
From the arranger: “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” has been one of my favorite pieces since childhood. I wanted to bring out its haunting nature and chords. In 1940, it was included in the Episcopal Church hymnal, making it the first spiritual to be included in any major American hymnal. This piece uses a unique vibrato technique in the “tremble” section and a larghetto third verse for ‘when they laid him in the tomb’ (see instructions in the Performance Notes on page 5).