Church Music

My Presbyterian upbringing gives me two issues with Catholic music. I struggle when hymns stray off metrical and some Marian hymnody can be a problem to me.

I don’t know about this one. Does this veer towards sickly? I’m probably just looking for things to upset me.

The text is by John Raphael Peacey who was an Anglican after all (not a Sydney Anglican obviously) and should be immune to excess Marian sentiment. The version below is from this hymnal but there are some differences between that and what the copyright holder Hope Publications has at their site.

It is set to ST BOTOLPH by Gordon Slater another Anglican.

It looks like I couldn’t find chords and made them up with some help from a reverse chord site – although there is a diminished chord in there somewhere which sounds unlikely.

I made two backings, one organ, one not organ.

For Mary, Mother of our Lord,
God’s holy name be praised,
Who first the Son of God adored
As on her child she gazed.

Brave, holy Virgin, she believed,
Though hard the task assigned,
And by the Holy Ghost conceived
the Saviour of mankind.

God’s handmaid, she at once obeyed,
By her ‘Thy will be done’;
The second Eve love’s answer made
which our redemption won.

The busy world had got no space
Or time for God on earth;
A cattle manger was the place
where Mary gave him birth.

She gave her body as God’s shrine,
Her heart to piercing pain;
She knew the cost of love divine,
When Jesus Christ was slain.

Dear Mary, from your lowliness
And home in Galilee
There comes a joy and holiness
To every family.

Hail Mary, you are full of grace,
Above all women blessed;
And blest your Son, whom you embrace
in birth and death confessed.

I had a brief look at this some years ago because it turned up at Ryan’s parish for All Saints, appropriately enough.

The text is by William Walshaw How and here runs to eight verses. It is set to Ralph Vaughan Williams‘s SINE NOMINE. It has some odd features – the verses start on the second beat of the bar and the Alleluia’s seem to jump in early. ‘Tis grand though, even if eight verses would dam up the liturgical flow in most circumstances.

The sheet music says the first three verses are unison and then a lower harmony can be added.

This is more pretend BIAB organ:

1 For all the saints who from their labours rest,
Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress and their might,
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
3 O may thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win, with them, the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
4 O blest communion! fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
5 And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph-song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
6 The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest:
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
7 But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array:
The King of glory passes on his way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
8 From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

This was in CWB II so I looked at it there.

The text is by John Henry Cardinal Newman and it is set to Elgar’s DRAKES BROUGHTON. The text below differs from CWB II – the alt was less back then.

I updated my organ backing:

Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly
Manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully
In that manhood crucified;
And each thought and deed unruly
Do to death, as He has died.

And I hold in veneration,
For the love of him alone,
Holy Church as His creation,
And her teachings, as his own.

Adoration aye be given,
With and through the angelic host,
To the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This is Peter Kearney’s very popular song all around the world, which I found out when I looked at in the Praise to God Parish Hymn Book.

This is another of the folk style songs that John de Luca rearranged for his hymnal and for this one he made radical improvements over the version in PTG.

Peter Kearney sells his version of the sheet music of his song at his website.

John de Luca changed it from 3/4 to 12/8 and eliminated many extraneous bars to make it flow. To be fair most versions I have heard have done the same. He also added an introduction and increased the variety of chords from three to eight.

Fill my house unto the fullest,
Eat my bread and drink my wine,
The love I bear is held from no-one:
All I own and all I do I give to you.

Take my time unto the fullest,
Find in me the trust you seek,
Take my hands to you outreaching:
All I own and all I do I give to you.

Christ our Lord with love enormous,
From the Cross his lesson taught;
Love all men as I have loved you:
All I own and all I do I give to you.

Join with me as one in Christ-love,
May our hearts all beat as one;
May we give ourselves completely:
All I own and all I do I give to you.

I covered this one in CWB I, but repeat it here so I can do an organ backing.

This is all Richard Connelly‘s work, text included. He called the tune SANDY BAY. The original sources are out of print but the sheet music is available these days at Willow.

Antiphon

Father, we praise You,

We your trusting people;

Father, we thank You,

Ruler and Creator,

Giver of all our joy.

1 Now to your altar, in answer to your call,

We come to give thanks to you and praise you.

2 Send forth the light of your truth to be our guide

And show us the way to our eternal home.

3 Lord, we are sinners, unworthy of your love,

And You are the Father who can pardon us.

4 Mary, our mother, and all your saints of God,

Remember us, pray for us before his throne.

This Trinitarian hymn is new to me though rather old. I like the fact that it at least does say something about the Trinity.

The text (with some alt) is by Edward Cooper (1770-1833) and it is set to SONG 5 by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625).

I got the chords from Liturgy Share and made a stodgy backing, but that’s my fault:

1 Father of heaven, whose love profound
A ransom for our souls hath found,
Before your throne we sinners bend;
To us your saving love extend.

2 Almighty Son, incarnate Word,
Our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord,
Before your throne we sinners bend;
To us your saving grace extend.

3 Eternal Spirit, by whose breath
The soul is raised from sin and death,
Before your throne we sinners bend;
To us your quickening power extend.

4 Thrice holy — Father, Spirit, of
Mysterious Godhead, Three in One,
Before your throne we sinners bend;
Grace, pardon, life to us extend.

This is Frank Andersen‘s “Trinity Song”, but the first line rules in this hymnal. Father Frank is a beloved Australian composer of songs for the Mass.

The sheet music for this song can be purchased in the Eagle’s Wings collection at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart site.

This is another of John de Luca’s arrangements of folk style hymns. Firstly, he dropped the key from G to F, which I like from a singing perspective, but is a typical keyboard player’s revenge on guitarists.

Amazingly from a chord perspective things are even simpler:

Looking at the keyboard arrangement, all I can say is that Erica Marshall’s arrangement for Father Frank is a lot different from this one. Any organists who have NLPHB night be able to tell us more.

I use this song every year, but as a hymn about the Trinity it doesn’t actually say a lot.

The last time I looked at this my backing was uncharacteristically restrained. This time I made a folk styled backing:

1 Father, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me!
You hold my life in Your hands:
Close beside You I will stand!
I give all my life to you:
Help me, Father, to be true!

2 Jesus, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me!
You hold my life in Your hands:
Close beside You I will stand!
I give all my life to you:
Help me, Jesus, to be true

3 Spirit, in my life I see
You are God who walks with me!
You hold my life in Your hands:
Close beside You I will stand!
I give all my life to you:
Help me, Spirit, to be true

This is the venerable hymn text by Frederick William Faber here set to SAWSTON. When I blogged it for CWB I, I thought it was an idiosyncratic choice, but here we have John de Luca making the same choice, so it was a local preference I suppose.

I don’t like the text any more than I did, even in this version, which differs somewhat from others I have seen.

I made a new organ backing on BIAB:

1 Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword:
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death! (Rpt)

2 Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free:
How sweet would be their children’s fate,
If they, like them, could die for thee!
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death! (Rpt)

3 Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win all people back to thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
Mankind shall then indeed be free!
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death! (Rpt)

4 Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife,
And preach thee too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life:
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death! (Rpt)

This Eucharistic hymn survived to CWB II as “Draw Near and Take” with the same setting of GUSTATE. It is John Mason Neale’s translation of the C7 hymn from the Antiphonary of Bennchar. That said there has been a lot of alt about and the words below are from this hymnal and vary greatly from CWB II.

CWB II preferred de Luca’s choice of tune to the setting found in CWB I. He used Anthony Gregory Murray’s setting of this traditional Irish song.

Since my other backing isn’t organ, this one is:

Draw nigh and take the body of our Lord,
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured;
Saved by his Body, hallowed by that Blood,
Whereby refreshed, we render thanks to God.

Salvation’s giver, Christ the only Son,
By that his Cross and Blood the victory won;
Offered was he for greatest and for least,
Himself the victim and Himself the priest.

Victims were offered by the Law of old
That, in a type, celestial mysteries told;
He ransomer from death and light and shade,
Giveth his holy grace, his saints to aid.

Approach ye then with faithful hearts sincere,
And take the safeguard of salvation here.
He that in this world rules his saints and shields,
To all believers life eternal yields.

With heavenly bread makes them that hunger whole,
Gives living waters to the thirsting soul,
Alpha and Omega, to whom shall bow
All nations at the doom, is with us now.

This is great – you get to see the organ being pumped.

There is a musical phrase in this tune that seems to have influenced the the great Stan Rogers’s song Northwest Passage.

This is a typical Christopher Willcock setting, this time of Psalm 26 (27). The refrain is singable, if too high, but the cantor doing the verses has odd notes and time changes to contend with.

The sheet music can be purchased at Willow. I already looked at it while doing AOV, but have redone it in fake BIAB organ.

Refrain

Do not be afraid, I am with you.

I have called you by your name, you are mine.

I have called you by your name, you are mine.

1 The Lord is my light and my help; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; before whom shall I shrink?

2 There is one thing I asked of the Lord; for this I long:

to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

3 I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

Hope in Him! Hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord.