Fairest Lord Jesus
Single Release Notes, October 2019
Evidence of God’s creation is everywhere. You can easily see the evidence from flowers and trees on the ground, to the birds and clouds in the sky, to the stars and planets in outer space. Fairest Lord Jesus is a timeless, mellow, contemplative praise song from several centuries ago. It acknowledges and praises Jesus and God as the creator of all of the universe.
The lyrics are from an unknown author and first appeared in text in Münster, Germany in 1662. The tune is Crusaders’ Hymn, also known as St. Elizabeth, and originates as a folk melody from the Glaz area of Silesia. It was published in A. H. Hoffman von Fallersleben’s and E. F. Richter’s Schlesische Volkslieder in 1842.
Lyrics
Fairest Lord Jesus,
ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
Fair are the meadows,
fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
Fair is the sunshine,
fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
Beautiful Savior!
Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.
Why I chose this song
I chose this song for my 2nd single release because it has a simple, flowing, soothing sound that I think is representative of the piano sound that meets my goal of music that is calming and comforting in times of personal need. The tune is written in E flat which is difficult to play due to all of the flats. I decided to retain the original key and not transpose it to D or E because E flat has a nice mellow sound that fits perfectly with the lyrics. This is probably the most dificult song to play in my entire upcoming album. I’m really surprised how well it sounds and hope you enjoy it too!
Technical info
Key of E flat, time signature 4/4, tempo 100.
Stereo recorded in overhead ORTF configuration plus one additional microphone near the left back side.
For this recording, no reverb (reverberation) was applied. The reverb you hear is natural from the piano’s metal harp and solid wood structure. Normalization and dynamic compression were used to increase the volume of the lower and midrange frequency notes to help balance with the melody. There was also manual editing of individual waveforms of notes that were clipped or over-accented.
Credits
Thanks to my Mom and Dad for purchasing the piano so many years ago. Special thanks to my Mom for asking me to record some piano music for her. Those songs became a draft CD of my first album which will be released soon. Photo by me at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, 2018 tulip festival in Woodburn, Oregon. And thanks to CD Baby artist Lance Frodsham (dulcimer) who lent equipment and answered questions during this recording project. Also thanks to CD Baby artist Dan Friesen (guitar) for answering questions and sharing advice about releasing music through CD Baby.