Poster David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo in Selma
David Oyelowo, center, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King in 'Selma.'
Atsushi Nishijima/Paramount Pictures
Choral Stream

Sing to Inspire: Precious Lord

Sing to Inspire: Jan. 18, 2016

I have heard and performed Thomas Dorsey's Take My Hand, Precious Lord many times, but the words never meant as much until I read Ann Powers's beautifully moving essay.

In the essay, I feel that the song is stripped down to it's spiritual core, illuminating Dorsey's emotional transparency while composing the song. Powers says, "The writing of Take My Hand, Precious Lord showed how a believer like Dorsey could find, in music, a passageway reconciling the separate realms of flesh and spirit. The holy music acknowledges that flesh and spirit are, after all, intertwined. This song, so seemingly simple, created a space where the beauty and poeticism of longing was revealed, and where the physicality of spiritual longing could be manifest."

To hear the complete story about Thomas Dorsey's Take My Hand, Precious Lord in this week's episode of Sing To Inspire, click the audio player above.

#SingToInspire Performance of the Week
Precious Lord - arr. Patrick Quigley
Seraphic Fire, performer
Patrick Quigley, conductor
Reginald Mobley, soloist
LIVE in concert - November 2, 2007
First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables

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