Brenda Joyce Moore

Brenda Joyce Moore (b 23 Nov. 1959 | d 8 April 2020) was a songwriter and organist best remembered for composing “Perfect Praise,” also known as “How Excellent is Thy Name,” popularized by Dr. Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago on their 1990 album This Is the Day. Among other notable songs Moore composed are “Lover of My Soul” (1990), “Tell Jesus” (1990), and “Let God Do It” (1996), all performed by the Chicago Mass Choir. Moore was feted at the 2003 Chicago Gospel Music Festival in a segment honoring the city’s finest gospel producers, artists, and composers. Before her untimely death, Moore was choir director and organist at First Pentecostal Church of Chicago for nine years and a musician for the Gospel Music According to Chicago Mass Choir.

—Robert Marovich, Hymns & Devotions for Daily Worship: African American Edition, ed. Chris Fenner (2025)