Church Music

No hint of protestantism here, folks. This is a Marian hymn with words by Catholic priest, William Brian Foley, set to CHANCE by Catholic composer, Colin Mawby.

This hymnal notes that this song was commissioned for the New Catholic Hymnal, Gio’s favourite book.

Somehow, I was unaware of the concept of Mary’s Davidic lineage. Luke’s geneology is apparently used to justify this, although it does seem to be just tracing Joseph’s line to me. Let’s just say it is an early, if not Biblical, Catholic tradition, probably to deal with the competing ideas of a virgin birth and a Davidic line not completely lining up logically. Since both are theological, poetic, symbolic, metaphorical mysteries, it is a bit much to demand rational explanations.

The text runs out of nice things to say about Mary half way through and it becomes a prayer to Christ and praise to the Trinity.

I made up chords for a backing:

1 Mary, how lovely the light of your glory,

From David’s house, royal daughter you came,

Holier, higher than angels in heaven,

Holiest, highest through all God has done.

2 Blest of all women, both Virgin and Mother,

Favoured in grace for the Son whom you bore,

Christ is your Son whom all people must worship,

Christ is your Son whom all angels adore.

3 Pray for us, plead for us, exiles in darkness,

Pray with us, praying to Christ in our needs;

All pow’r is given him here and in heaven,

Christ ever lives for us and intercedes.

4 Father, the prayer of your Son interceding

Wins for us life and light for all our days;

Praise to you, Father, to Christ and your Spirit,

Glory, eternal God, glory and praise.

This is suitably penitent hymn for Lent and Good Friday with a text by Matthew Bridges and is here set to ABERYSTWYTH by Joseph Parry.

This is a fake organ backing using chords I found in TIS. The lyrics below are those from this hymnal, but I’ve seen up to six verses elsewhere. I wonder when “wrapt” stopped being used for “wrapped”.

1 Man of sorrows, wrapt in grief,
Bow thine ear to our relief;
Thou for us the path hath trod
Of the dreadful wrath of God;
Thou the cup of fire hast drained
Till its light alone remained.
Lamb of Love! We look to thee:
Hear our mournful litany.

2 By the garden, fraught with woe,
Whither thou to pray didst go;
By thine agony of prayer
In the desolation there;
By the dire and deep distress
Of that mystery fathomless –
Lord, our tears in mercy see;
Harken to our litany.

3 By the chalice brimming o’er
With disgrace and torment sore;
By those lips, which now would pray
That it might but pass away;
By the heart, which drank it dry,
Lest a rebel race should die
Be thy pity, Lord, our plea,
Hear our solemn litany.

4 Man of sorrows! let thy grief
Purchase for us our relief:
Lord of mercy! bow thine ear,
Slow to anger, swift to hear:
By the cross’s royal road
Lead us to the throne of God,
There for any to song to thee
Heav’ns triumphant litany.

Right tune, wrong text:

LiturgyShare have melody line plus chords here.

This song by the great Australian songwriter, Peter Kearney, is actually called “Born Anew”, but first lines rule in this hymnal. It was written way back in 1966, but he did not record it until 2003.

He has put that performance up on Bandcamp where the lyrics are as well. You can purchase the sheet music from his site.

In this hymnal are what I take to be the original lyrics that Kearney updated, so the first line, “Make me your brother, make me your friend”, becomes more inclusive: “Make me your brother, sister and friend.”

More interestingly the lines:

And then we will laugh, then we will sing,

Then the whole world to Christ we will bring.

becomes:

And then we will laugh, then we will sing,
Then like bells all the planets will ring.

I’m glad I found his version, because my version is too busy and too Irish. The sheet music in this hymnal is John de Luca’s arrangement but this backing is not his fault!

This is, of course, Sebastian Temple’s “Prayer of St Francis”, otherwise known as the Peace Prayer of St Francis of Assisi, but in this hymnal the first line rules. There are many settings and variations on this text and this one wore me down from repetition and inspired an aversion in me. A fresh look suggests a simple sincere arrangement and all should be well.

It is in AOV, so I have already blogged it, but I made a new backing using the different chords in John de Luca’s arrangement found here.

Verse 1:
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Verse 2:
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only light,
And where there’s sadness ever joy.

Bridge:
Oh Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Verse 3:
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

See what I mean – Chris Brunelle makes everything OK:

Check the claves:

I covered this back in 2012 from a miscellanous pile of music, but is also here in this hymnal.

The text was by Luke Connaughton and it is set to CRESSWELL by Anthony Milner.

Godsongs has some background. I found what looks legit sheet music at musescore. The text is here.

I made a new backing:

I haven’t ever properly blogged this one so here goes. I have looked at it referencing several settings here.

This is Charles Wesley‘s text and there are six of his verses here in the New Living Parish Hymn Book. In this hymnal they acknowledge that it may be sing to HYFRYDOL but here use the setting LOVE DIVINE by John Stainer. So a Methodist text with an Anglican tune in a Catholic hymn book – lovely. It is a grand hymn of praise.

My backing is more fake BIAB church organ.

The text here remains fully archiac.

1 Love Divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n, to earth come down,
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
All your faithful mercies crown.

2 Jesus, thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love thou art;
Visit us with thy salvation,
Enter every trembling heart.

3 Come, almighty to deliver,
Let us all thy grace receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Never more thy temples leave.

4 Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve thee as thy hosts above;
Pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
Glory in thy perfect love.

5 Finish then thy new creation,
Pure and sinless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation,
Perfectly restored in thee.

6 Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love and praise.

There are other verses floating around:

Breathe on us thy loving Spirit;
Every troubled heart be blessed:
Let us all in thee inherit,
Let us find thy promised rest.

Take away the love of sinning,
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

I have played most Vigil masses when I am in home for years, but our lovely priest has unfortunately felt the call back to his home in India and we are being administered from Launceston until we get a new priest.

They are stretched too, and we have only had two masses a weekend for the last month because our Bishop Emeritus has very kindly been coming up from Hobart, three hours drive away, to fill in. This could not last so we are back to one mass a week from now on and we will alternate Vigil and Sunday.

… which is long winded way of saying I will only be playing the first and fourth weeks of Advent this year.

If I was selecting for the whole of Advent I would have used the same song for Entrance and Gifts each week.

Entrance: Advent Song (Browne/Wood) GA 281- I like the summer references.

Gifts: I wrote a song based on the Preface from Advent week one that I may post in the future.

We could use “Like a Candle”(O’Brien/Ogilvie) AOV NG 91, for lighting candles.

Week One

Communion: Advent Chant (Porter/Kirkland) AOV 2/123

Holy Darkness (Schutte)

Recessional: Christ be Our Light (Farrell) AOV 2/3

Week Two

Communion: Like a Shepherd (Dufford) AOV 1/160

Recessional: Prepare the Way of the Lord  (Boniwell) CWB II 250

Week Three:

Communion: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Recessional: O Emmanuel (Mangan) CWB II 241

Week Four

Communion: Advent Chant (Porter/Kirkland) AOV 2/123

Holy Is Your Name WILD MOUNTAIN THYME

Recessional: Emmanuel (Angrisano)

This is also known as “God, Whose Almighty Word,” or “Thou, Whose Almighty Word.”

It is a Trinitarian hymn and a sung prayer.

Either way it is set MOSCOW (aka ITALIAN HYMN) by Felice Giardini (C18) and the words were written by John Marriott and then subjected to various alterations. The version given here says the music is adapted from Giardini’s tune and there are significant changes, so there is “alt” in all directions.

The text given here is the variant from this hymnal. “Inly” may even be a word.

1 Lord, your almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight;
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the gospel day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
let there be light!

2 Saviour, you came to give
Those who in darkness live,
Healing and sight,
Health to the sick in mind,
Sight to the inly blind,
O now to humankind
Let there be light!

3 Spirit of truth and love,
Life-giving, holy dove,
Speed forth ypur flight;
Move on the water’s face,
Bearing the lamp of grace,
And in earth’s darkest place
Let there be light!

4 Holy and blessed Three,
Glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might,
Boundless as ocean’s tide
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the earth far and wide,
Let there be light!

This is the version of the hymn used here, although de Luca kindly dropped the key from G to Eb.

This is another version with more fripperies and in F:

I blogged this already from its appearance in Gather Australia.

Set to SLANE, this text is by Jan Struthers is a sung prayer that would suit a wedding or where there is need for consolation.

John de Luca gave us his own arrangement in this hymnal.

… but he cannot be blamed for my fake organ backing:

1. Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
   Whose trust, ever child-like, no cares could destroy,
   Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
   Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.
2. Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
   Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
   Be there at our labours, and give us, we pray,
   Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day.
3. Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
   Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
   Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
   Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.
4. Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
   Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
   Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
   Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.

Getting back to the New Living Parish Hymn Book, we have this sung prayer.

I’m thinking of uses in Lent or at a funeral.

It was originally written by Synesius of Cyrene (375-430) the Bishop of Ptolemais and was translated by Allen William Chatfield in the 1800s and arrived in this C20 hymn book with a little alt to the text (eg Jesus for Jesu).

It is set to SOUTHWELL from William Damon’s “Psalms” (C16), which is a gorgeous tune.

I got chords from TIS to make a backing with fake BIAB organ.

Verse 1
Lord Jesus, think on me,
And purge away my sin;
From earthborn passions set me free,
And make me pure within.

Verse 2
Lord Jesus, think on me,
By care and woe oppressed;
Let me your loving servant be,
And taste your promised rest.

Verse 3
Lord Jesus, think on me
Amid the bitter strife;
Through all my pain and misery
Become my health and life.

Verse 4
Lord Jesus, think on me,
Nor let me go astray;
Through darkness and perplexity
Point out the heavenly way.

Verse 5
Lord Jesus, think on me
That, when the trial is past,
I may your radiant glory see,
And share your joy at last.