Page 171 - Voice for Life Songbook 1

32. Give me strength
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Track 32
Information
The words of this song were written by Black Elk (1863–1950), a Sioux Indian who was a famous holy man (or medicine man).Although he later became a Catholic, he continued to serve as a spiritual leader in his community, seeing no contradiction between what he found valid in both his tribal traditions and Christianity.
Teaching the song
You can either teach the melody by rote in two bar phrases, or ask your singers to sightread the melody. Once you have covered the melody from the beginning to bar 26 teach the harmony part which appears in bars 22–23 (Voice 1). This same harmony appears in bars 47–48.
You might like to jump to work on the last six bars of the piece with your singers next – don’t feel you must always begin a song at the beginning and cover the ending last. It can keep your rehearsals interesting and your singers focused if you approach your teaching of songs in a different way.
Finally teach your singers the harmony inVoice 1 from bars 36 to 42.
Musical skills and understanding
This piece is written in C sharp minor.What is the relative major of this key? How do you work out the relative major for a particular key?
What does pp (bar 36) mean?
What does rit. (bar 56) mean?
What is ‘an accidental’? Ask your singers if they can find one in the piece.
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