Church Music

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.

After the Gloria, the high point of a mass setting is often the Sanctus and it is definitely so in this mass.

Here Taylor starts with more than a nod to NICAEA and it’s “Holy, Holy, Holy”, to establish a traditional base, before veering a little more nimbly through his very singable setting with more triplet action and a sustained chord before the resolution. The last line sounds very Christmassy.

He moves from the key of D in the Gloria to F for this and the Memorial Acclamations.

You can buy the mass at Willow in many forms.

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

This is NICAEA – BTW you can actually sing the Sanctus to this tune:

TAs discussed yesterday, the published sheet music for Paul Taylor’s “Mass of St Francis” didn’t have a Gospel Acclamation and unsurprisingly didn’t have a Lenten one either.

My last parish used this mass and also Paul Mason’s, “Mass of Glory and Praise”, so I just subbed in Mason’s Lenten Gospel Acclamation instead and have continued to do so at my current parish.

Taylor has now published a Lenten Gospel Acclamation available at Willow.

It isn’t an easy assignment this, as it has to be memorable, considering it is only done a few weeks a year, and it has to be acclamatory yet with Lenten reserve.

He ticks the boxes here:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ,

King of endless glory.

Nonetheless, I suspect we will stick with what we have been using for now.

When Paul Taylor published his “Mass of St Francis” in 2010, there was no Gospel Acclamation included and when you buy the collection at Willow, there still isn’t one.

So we used the Celtic Alleluia for many years and all was well.

You can now buy separately Paul Taylor’s official Gospel Acclamation published in 2024 for this mass. I bought the keyboard version and had to work out my own chords.

The intention is for the Cantor to sing six alleluias, the assembly replies with six more and after the verse there are six more for good measure with the high harmony line if the cantor is up for it. It is a welcome addition to Taylor’s mass and is certainly singable. It is in D and so I suppose follows on from the Gloria in the same key, although it really hasn’t much of a similarity to any other part of the mass. I do wonder why a cantor is needed for this Alleluia. Being done weekly it would quickly become familar enough to do once before and after the verse and belong to the assembly.

I made two backings of the alleluias through twice to get the idea. There was no tempo recommendation so I just found a comfortable speed.

However…

I blogged a different acclamation that was, I gather, an earlier attempt, in which he used the feel of the Memorial Acclamations for the Alleluia. It could be argued that this version is not joyous enough, but it fits the rest of the mass rather better, and having started to use it this year, we intend to continue with the unofficial one for now.

This is a sung through Gloria from Paul Taylor’s, “Mass of St Francis”.

It has interesting triplets and arresting chords that sustain interest and yet it remains most singable. I play it a little slower than set in the sheet music.

The sheet music is at Willow and they provide many instrumental options, which are available to purchase.

I made two new backings, one more contemporary and one just fake BIAB organ.

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise you, we bless you,
we adore you, we glorify you.
We give you thanks for your great glory,
Lord God, heavenly King,
O God, almighty Father.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
You take away the sins of the world
have mercy on us;
You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
have mercy on us.
For you alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

I’ll have a brief interlude away from the New Living Parish Hymn Book to look at this fine mass by Paul Taylor.

Chris suggested I have another look at this mass, which I originally blogged in 2011 here. It is easily one of the most popular in Australia, but I don’t know if it is used elsewhere. I posted some more recent versions by others here.

I was never very happy with my backings and as it is now the only mass I play locally, I had another go at them.

The mass is available in many forms at Willow, where they have sheet music and their own backing tracks. There is also the simpler version for guitar, which I have never used.

I play the Kyrie and the Gloria down from D to C but capoed to the third fret. (ie chord shapes in A). The rest I play down from F to Eb but capo 1 to get easy chords shapes in D.

I made all the backings in the original key and did an organ version and a nonorgan version. It is written at 100bpm, which I think is too fast but it is described as con moto I suppose. I left the organ backing at that speed but slowed the other one a little.

The Kyrie works well as intended with call and response between a cantor and the assembly.

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

Lord have mercy

It works fine in Greek as well.

I was away in Queensland last week visiting family and then staying at Coolangatta on the beach for a week.

I went to Sunday 8am mass at St Augustine’s just up the hill from our accomodation.

I fell in with parishioners, also struggling up the hill and was made most welcome.

The music was played on the organ and there were five singers leading the assembly.

Processional – Gather Us In

Offertory – Amazing Grace

Communion – Eagles Wings (Andersen)

Reflection – O God, Our Help in Ages Past

Recessional – Blest be the Lord

I’m pretty sure they were using Mason’s Mass of Glory and Praise.

They used hymn books (AOV), which meant for “Eagles Wings”, which is not in AOV, the assembly had only the refrain to sing as it was in the booklet.

The assembly knew the mass parts and the songs, except for “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” which was basically a solo. I suppose that means that for this parish, a traditional hymn is no longer part of their tradition.

Anyway, it is always a delight to go to mass away from home and see how other music ministers are faring and see what different slants can be given to the same liturgy. Thank you St Augustine’s Church.