Church Music

This is a curiously affecting old Eucharist hymn that was quite new to me. It has special resonance for Holy Thursday.

The text is by St Thomas Aquinas as translated by Ronald Knox and it is set to SACRIS SOLEMNIS, a Downside melody.

Godsongs has some background here.

I made up chords based on the sheet music and made a backing:

1 Greet we this mystery yearly returning;
Still does its history set our hearts burning;
Gone are the former things, all shall be new again,
Thoughts, words, actions be true again.

2 Christ in the sight of his brethren reclining
On that last night of his, gave them for dining
Bread where no leaven was, lamb that was slain for them,
So did Moses ordain for them.

3 Thence this unaltering sacrifice fioweth;
Still his unfaltering grace he bestoweth
Where priests do consecrate, worthily taking it,
Then to Christians breaking it.

4 Man makes repast in this banquet supernal;
Shadows fade fast in this sunlight eternal;
Wondrous our heritage, Lord, in receiving thee,
Earth’s poor slaves — yet believing thee.

5 O gracious Trinity, fill, we implore thee,
With thy Divinity hearts that adore thee;
Dwelling in light, to that light bring us home again,
From thy paths ne’er to roam again.

I did cover this song by Sister Anne Kelly in the Praise to God Parish Hymn book, but I warn you the backings I made there took the suggestion that is was a march a little too far.

This is a still a stirring entrance. John de Luca has made his own arrangement and made the chords more interesting as is his wont.

I made a backing that is better than the last time:

Refrain

Great is the Lord! Acclaim him all you peoples,
Great is the wonder of our God.

1 Enter his courts with praise. Hasten and enter,
Eager to render thanks for his unbounded love.

2 Come, then, with confidence, open and trusting,
Ready to offer all to his unbounded power.

3 When we have entered in, joyful, triumphant,
Then to the Father cry in one unbounded praise.

4 Dwell in his presence here, humble and willing,
Grateful, with all his saints, for his unbounded love.

I previously looked at this one in OCP’s Guitar Accompaniment Book, which kindly made the chant metrical.

The New Living Parish Hymn Book had John de Luca’s own arrangement of PLAINSONG ADORE TE DEVOTE a C17 chant. He did the Latin version earlier as number seven in this hymn book.

The text is attributed to Thomas Aquinas (C13) as translated by Gerald Manley Hopkins C19), so we are in exalted company.

The fake BIAB organ backing I made is my fault and no reflection on de Luca’s arrangement.

1. Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

2. Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son hath told me take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true.

3. On the Cross thy Godhead made no sign to men;
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken;
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

4. I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
This faith each day deeper faith be my holding of,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

5. O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then; feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

6. Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory’s sight.
Amen.

Listen to a lovely acapella version here.

There are lots of version on the Youtubes – here are a few.

I covered this from its appearance in CWB I, only last year but it also turned up here in the New Living Parish Hymn Book.

It’s a French hymn with a text by Didier Rimbaud SJ and was translated by Ronald Johnson and Brian Wren. the tune is DIEU, NOUS AVONS VU TA GLOIRE by Jean Langlais.

Repeating it here lets me do a backing on BIAB organ, but the tune is fiddly and goes too high for an assembly to manage even in the refrain. It is a choir piece.

Refrain:
God, your glory we have seen in your Son,
full of truth, full of heavenly grace;
in Christ make us live, his love shine on our face,
and the nations shall see in us the triumph you have won.

1 In the fields of this world his good news he has sown,
and send us out to reap till the harvest is done.

2 In his love like a fire that consumes he passed by,
the flame has touched our lips: let us shout, ‘Here am I!’

3 He was broken for us, God-forsaken his cry,
and still the bread he breaks: to ourselves we must die.

4 He has trampled the grapes of new life on his cross;
now drink the cup and live: he has filled it for us.

5 He has founded a kingdom that none shall destroy;
the corner-stone is laid: go to work, build with joy!

It appears that this Christmas Carol is one I have never covered.

The text and music are noted to be of traditional English origin.

The text below has some emendations as found in this hymnal.

This is a fine tune and text and I suspect it may be avoided in church because of a lost comma and changes in the meanings of English words over centuries. The gentleman aren’t “merry”, nor are they so “merry” they need to rest. They are to be full of the joy of Christmas and stay strong (ie rest merry), because of the birth of the Saviour.

I suspect the idea of merry gentlemen may be why it so often sung in a secular setting. Then again it is in an awful lot of hymnals, so someone is singing it in church.

1 God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray:

Refrain:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

2 In Bethlehem, in Jewry
This blessed babe was born,
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn:
Which poverty his mother Mary
Did not shun nor scorn: [Refrain]

3 From God our heavenly Father
A blessed angel came,
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
the Son of God by name: [Refrain]

4 The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding,
In tempest, storm, and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straightway,
This blessed Babe to find: [Refrain]

5 But when to Bethlehem they came,
Wherein this infant lay,
They found him in a manger
Where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling
Unto the Lord did pray: [Refrain]

6 Now to the Lord sing praises
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All evil should displace. [Refrain]

This is a C17 text by Thomas Ken set to TALLIS’ CANNON by Thomas Tallis (C16).

It is a sung night prayer that finishes with the Doxology. There are minor variations in the text and I have listed that found in this hymnal. Commentary is available here. Sheet music for accompaniment in various forms is provided at LiturgyShare.

Tallis is beyond my BIAB attempts but nonetheless a backing was made:

I tried a different organ sound too:

1 Glory to thee, my God, this night
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
beneath thine own almighty wings.

2 Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son,
The ill that I this day have done,
That with the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

3 Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the final day.

4 O may my soul on thee repose,
And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
Sleep that may me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

5 When in the night I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness me molest.

6 Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below,
Praise him above, angelic host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Getting back to the New Living Parish Hymn Book, I find a song I haven’t looked at before, “Glory Be to Jesus” a hymn for Holy Week or Body and Blood of Christ. It’s the sort of traditional Catholic hymn that I doubtless would know if I were a cradle Catholic, but I haven’t heard in the Catholic churches I’ve been to in the last thirty years and certainly wasn’t on high rotation in the Presbyterian church I grew up in.

This is a C18 Italian hymn, “Viva! Viva! Gesù! Che per mio bene” attributed to S. Alfonso and translated by Edward Caswall and set to CASWELL (aka WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN) by Friedrich Filitz, as arranged by Anthony Gregory Murray.

Hymnal.net has basic sheet music and slightly different lyrics. LiturgyShare also has the sheet music and his lyrics match these ones.

BIAB supplied the fake organ for a backing:

1 Glory be to Jesus,
Who in bitter pains
Poured for me the life-blood
From His sacred veins.

2 Grace and life eternal
In that blood I find:
Blest be his compassion,
Infinitely kind.

3 Blest through endless ages
Be the precious stream,
Which from endless torment
Does the world redeem.

4 Abel’s blood for vengeance
Pleaded to the skies;
But the blood of Jesus
For our pardon cried.

5 Oft as it is sprinkled
On our guilty hearts,
Satan in confusion
Terror-struck departs.

6 Oft as we exult it,
Lifting praises high,
Powers of evil tremble;
Victory fills the sky.

7 Lift ye then your voices;
Swell the mighty flood;
Louder still and louder,
Praise the precious blood.

I will close out my latest look at Paul Taylor’s Mass with his Agnes Dei.

It is an outlier being in 2/4 time and in Bb (or Dm). I have trouble bringing this in so I just strum the opening chord a few times and launch. There is a lot going on here, so I simplify it a lot playing it on guitar. It is a gentle appropriate litany for this part of the mass.

The sheet music is at Willow.

So this mass was one of the six recommended settings by the Australian Bishops and was one of the more practical selections for suburban parishes without Cathedral resources. It found wide acceptance across Australia and is one that visitors to your parish have a good chance of knowing already. It was the mass my current parish chose years before I arrived and was certainly used at parishes I played at in Queensland. It doesn’t need my recommendation but it has that for sure.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
Grant us peace.

I am having a further look at Paul Taylor’s Mass of St Francis, which is the only mass my current parish knows and is very popular all around Australia.

You can buy his mass at Willow.

We are up to the the Great Amen.

There is a descant for the last Amen if you can sing high enough.

I didn’t put it my backings.

Amen x3

These all take a similar form, which makes switching between them to mark different seasons pretty seemless.

I don’t know that these sort of acclamations give composers a lot of kudos, but Taylor’s are perfectly functional and appropriate.

The sheet music is available in the collection at Willow.

Memorial Acclamation 1

We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection

Until you come again.

Memorial Acclamation 2

When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup,

We proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.

Memorial Acclamation 3

Save us, Saviour of the world,

For by your Cross and Resurrection, you have set us free.

Acclamation 1

Acclamation 2

Acclamation 3

I noticed while looking into these matters the Google AI was scraping my own website – appalling.