This Sunday night we’ll be singing a new arrangement of the well-known hymn “Blessed Assurance” by the blind hymn-writer Fanny Crosby. It uses the traditional melody, set in a relaxed jazz style.
When considering the musical style of an arrangement, it’s important to use a language that matches the mood of the text. Although a jazz idiom wouldn’t be appropriate in our culture to communicate the transcendence of God, it works well for this song. The text is testimony of God’s faithfulness that is intensely personal, written in a way that communicates rest and quiet confidence. In this case, I felt a jazz style was both reverent and appropriate.
You can download the sheet music here.