I did blog this one years ago and commented that I sang it at my Presbyterian church as a child, so it obviously has broad appeal. I’m not sure why the saints are “casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea”.
1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty, Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
2 Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, God everlasting through eternity.
3 Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee, Perfect in power in love and purity.
4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty. All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea: Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
I blogged this as “Holy God, We Praise Your Name” in As On Voice 2 many years ago. This version leaves the archaic language intact.
The text is a German paraphrase of the”Te Deum Laudamus” attributed to Ignace Franz and translated by Clarence Alphonsus Walworth. It is set to GROSSER GOTT, which is C18 German.
It is a scattergun song of praise that goes from Trinitarian, to supplication, to heavenly choirs – it has a bit of everything, praise wise. The text below is as found in this hymnal, but there are many variations out there.
NLPHB has John de Luca’s own arrangement. My BIAB organ backing is less out of control this time:
1 Holy God, we praise thy name; Lord of all, we bow before thee! All on earth thy sceptre claim, All in heav’n above adore thee; Infinite thy vast domain, Everlasting is thy reign.
2 Hark! the loud celestial hymn Angel choirs above are raising, Cherubim and Seraphim, In unceasing chorus praising; Fill the heav’ns with sweet accord: Holy, holy, holy, Lord.
3 Lo! th’ apostles all proclaim “Christ is Lord, his name be hallowed”; Prophets swell the loud refrain, And the white-robed martyrs follow; And from morn to set of sun, Through the Church the song goes on.
4 Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, three we name thee, While in essence only one, Undivided God we claim thee; And adoring bend the knee, While we own the mystery.
5 Spare thy people, Lord, we pray, By a thousand snares surrounded; Keep us without sin today; Never let us be confounded. Lo, I put my trust in thee β Never, Lord, abandon me.
I found a couple of other verses not in this hymnal:
Thou art King of glory, Christ! Son of God, yet born of Mary; For us sinners sacrificed, And to death a tributary; First to break the bars of death, Thou hast opened Heavβn to faith.
From thy high celestial home, Judge of all, again returning, We believe that thou shalt come On the dreadful doomsday morning, When thy voice shall shake the earth, And the startled dead come forth.
Sheet music with chords and the German text – so pastoral, except this version is in G – NLPHB hymnal is kinder and puts it in Eb.
This stirring hymn is by master tunesmith Richard Connolly, who wrote both the words and music on this occasion.
This might be one to end my eternal quest for hymns for Christ the King, although I fear it needs the church organ, which I can’t play.
This song has survived all the way from the Australian Hymn Book to CWB II, so I have already looked at it. I recall I got the chords from TIS, where it is in E – in this hymnal John de Luca kindly brought it down to Eb. Sadly it was back up to E in CWB II.
Every now and then I have a look for new things at the Willow website, or things that I haven’t noticed before.
While there I noticed Erica Marshall’s, “A Christmas Blessing”, which is one I have seen before and blogged here, but it such a nice song, I decided to make another backing. It is a song to welcome all those who we only see at Christmas and is meant as a blessing as we leave.
The sheet music is at Willow and I note they now have a short preview of a backing track there.
I’ve been dying to try out a glokenspiel plug in I found.
1 We wish you peace. We wish you happiness.
The God of love be with you now.
May all your days reveal the tenderness of Godβs caress
And you are blessed. We wish you peace.
2 Come walk in peace. Come know this Christmas joy
As Christ is born deep in our hearts.
May we go forth to tell a world of fear that Christ is here.
His light is clear. His way is peace.
(Rpt verse 1 with a key change then)
We wish you peace x2
When I have another break from the NLPHB, I’ll look at some more Willow songs.
The editor here states that the original melody was by Sr Germain and it was adapted by Sr Deirdre Brown, which may be the solution. He credits Sr Deirdre with the text. He also provides his own arrangement, with chords and extra chords to play it capo 3 – most pastoral.
The text is likely the original, as PTG got rid of all the “men” and replaced them all with “all”, which was more inclusive, but made some of the lines less flowing.
As was his want, de Luca put a lot more music into his arrangement as evidenced by many more chords:
This hymnal has John de Luca’s own arrangement and there are even chords given to help me out. I gather from his sheet music it is meant to swing, which most sheet music for this piece most certainly does not. The text has many variations – de Luca prefers singular hands and plural babies.
1 He’s got the whole world in his hand. He’s got the whole world in his hand. He’s got the whole wide world in his hand. He’s got the whole world in his hand.
2 He’s got you and me, brother, in his hand. . . . He’s got the whole world in his hand.
3 He’s got you and me, sister, in his hand. . . . He’s got the whole world in his hand.
4 He’s got the little tiny babies in his hand. . . . He’s got the whole world in his hand.
5 He’s got everybody here in his hand. . . . He’s got the whole world in his hand.
I already covered this song in a job lot of CWB II songs for Feasts of the Lord and Solemenities, this one being suggested for “Mary, Help of Christians”.
It is another classic text by the poet James McAuley set by the marvellous Richard Connolly.
Well here’s something you don’t see often, a hymn for the souls in purgatory.
It was written by John Henry Cardinal Newman, I suppose so everyone knew he wasn’t an Anglican anymore.
This song would have a special use for All Souls Day.
It is here set to DUNDEE from the Scottish Psalter from 1615. The tune certainly sounds like all the Presbyterian hymns I sang as a child. Liturgyshare has all the sheet music for this one.
The text below is that found in this hymnal.
1 Help, Lord, the souls that thou hast made, The souls to thee so dear, In prison for the debt unpaid Of sins committed here.
2 These holy souls, they suffer on, Resigned in heart and will, Until thy high behest is done, And justice has its fill.
3 For daily falls, for pardon’d crime They joy to undergo The shadow of Thy Cross sublime, The remnants of thy woe.
4 Good Jesu, help! sweet Jesu, aid The souls to thee most dear, In prison for the debt unpaid Of sins committed here.
I found some extra verses:
Oh, by their patience of delay, Their hope amid their pain, Their sacred zeal to burn away Disfigurement and stain.
Oh, by their fire of love, not less In keenness than in flame, Oh, by their very helplessness, Oh, by Thy own great Name.
I don’t think I have ever run across this Lenten hymn before.
It is a translation of a C6 text attributed to St Gregory the Great. Godsongs goes into its background to confirm the translation is PD, and here deLuca sites the translation as being from the “Primer” of 1706.
In this hymnal it is set to BABYLON’S STREAMS by Thomas Campion.
This is the text as in NLPHB. Archaic English seems to suit to translate ancient Latin but the sight rhymes jar a bit.
I appear to have made up chords for this backing using fake BIAB organ.
1 Hear, O thou bounteous Maker, hear Our humble vows with gracious ear: Turn not thy saving face away Whilst on this solemn fast we pray.
2 Great searcher of our hearts, to thee We here deplore our misery; Behold, we to thy mercies fly, Do thou thy healing grace apply.
3 Great are our sins, O Lord, but thou Canst pardon more than we can do; May our defects, like shadows, raise The beauty and the life of grace.
4 May fasts extinguish in our will The fuel and desire of ill, And thus our souls, from fetters free, May only thirst and follow thee.
5 Grant, O most sacred Trinity, One undivided Unity, That abstinence may here improve Our claim to reign with thee above.
To learn to sing a song it helps to hear it sung by by someone with a normal voice.
John de Luca’s interaction with the folk mass repetoire was one of the reasons I wanted to cover his New Living Parish Hymn Book so competely.
This is his take on Ray Repp‘s, “Hear, O Lord” and he has certainly changed it both musically and lyrically.
I can’t find any sheet music on line – all the links from my previous post appear dead and OCP only have an MP3 to sell you. Godsongs notes the old collections it is found in, but they would need to be obtained second hand. If you use sites like Scribd they have copies.
Assuming the music I found back in 2014 reflected the original and changing the key to D as used here, de Luca has once again usefully tarted up the folk arrangement:
The words may have seemed too personal or unsuited to liturgy because other versions of the text are out there. With a refrain that is very influenced by the psalms it is no surprise that revised verses would also be inspired there. I found these verse lyrics by David Lauria:
1 For the Lord is my light and strength, so whom have I to fear?
He watches o’er my life below, in him alone I trust.
2 There is a river leading to the city God had made
Though waters crash and mountains roar the walls shall stand untouched.
3 Come and see the works of the Lord, exalt his name on high!
Though nations cry and kingdoms fall his voice brings peace to all.
John de Luca also wiped the verses and replace them with his paraphrase of Psalm 129. It is certainly a common enough folk trope to write your own lyrics to an older tune.
I don’t think his first verse works anymore because “Sweet Jesus” has become a profanity, but the rest is fine.
1 From the depths I call to you, sweet Jesus, hear my cry.
Oh, let your ears be ever keen to hear me when I sigh:
2 If the Lord should mark our guilt, what creature would survive?
But God to us his mercy shows, and fallen souls revive.
3 So my soul waits for the Lord, no longer so forlorn.
My soul is longing for the Lord as watchmen wait the dawn.
4 For the Lord is merciful, on him we do rely;
His people, Israel, lifted up from failure to on high.
5 Glory now to God be given, the Father and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Gift of Love, for ever Three in One.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
