CLAP YOUR HANDS (Owens)

Composer: Jimmy Owens

Owens, James Lloyd (Jimmy). (Clarksdale, Mississippi, December 9, 1930-- ). Foursquare. Attended Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss.; Southwestern College, Memphis, Tennessee; Cathedral School of the Bible, Oakland, California; Cabot College, San Leandro, Calif. Minister of Music, The Neighborhood Church, Oakland, Calif., 1951-1966; Minister of Music, United Community Church, Glendale, Calif., 1966-1968; Minister of Music, Anaheim Christian Center (now Melodyland Christian Center), Anaheim, Calif., 1968-1969. With his wife Carol, Owens has composed four Christian musicals. He has recorded several albums. --Terry W. York, DNAH Archives Go to person page >

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Tune Information

Title:	CLAP YOUR HANDS (Owens)
Composer:	Jimmy Owens (1972)
Meter:	Irregular
Key:	C Major
Copyright:	Text and music © 1972, Lexicon Music, Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission.

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Texts

Clap Your Hands (Owens)

Clap your hands, all you people;
shout unto God with a voice of triumph!
Clap your hands, all you people;
shout unto God with a voice of praise!
Hosanna! Hosanna!
Shout unto God with a voice of triumph!
Praise him! Praise him!
Shout unto God with a voice of praise!

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All texts published with CLAP YOUR HANDS (Owens)^ top

Notes

James Lloyd Owens (b. Clarksdale, MS, 1930) was educated at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, and began his musical career as a jazz performer and arranger for Stan Kenton. He served for fourteen years as a minister of music at three different California churches. An arranger-producer of some eighty recordings, Owens has also produced a dozen Christian musicals, including If My People, The Witness, and Come Together. He and his wife, Carol, founded and are directors of a music institute, the School of Music Ministries International, which travels worldwide.

CLAP YOUR HANDS is a four-part canon; it may be sung in unison with the given accompaniment or in two- or four-part canon, sung without the keyboard accompaniment. The incipit invites its own accompaniment-hand clapping! Orff instruments may also be used. One example of a pattern: feel half notes on the pitches (CG/CG/CC/GC). Other stanzas can be added when singing this chorus by itself. Here is one suggestion:

Clap your hands, all you people;
Christ has ascended into heaven!
Clap your hands, all you people;
Christ has ascended with shouts of joy!
Hosanna, hosanna!
Christ has ascended into heaven!
Praise him, praise him!
Christ has ascended with shouts of joy!
-Based on Psalm 47:1, 5; 118:25; and the Ascension gospel; vers. Bert Polman, 1987

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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