This arrangement was written during my college days at the University of Akron. Then, earning my Master's Degree, I had been dating a talented and beautiful pianist named Joy Budiani. Joy had a problem: she needed to arrange a hymn as a final project for her Choral Arranging class and had run out of time. I became the shining knight who rescued her from turning in a bad piece! I stayed up all night writing it out (this is in the ancient days of manuscript paper, rulers and a pencil). All Joy needed to do was to copy it in her own hand. The funniest part for us was that the only negative comment from her professor was a complaint about the sloppy manuscript!

Many years later, after Joy and I married and moved to Florida, we became church music directors at the Oviedo Presbyterian Church. In 2001, we decided to find the manuscript, set it in Finale and perform it with our small choir. The work underwent revisions, including the addition of the strident recurrent piano fanfares.

This arrangement of "Wondrous Love" is suitable for good church choirs and advanced high school or college choirs. If your school or church is interested, let me know! I will not charge your institution for its performance! I'd like this arrangement heard.

• Wondrous Love arrangement