Church Music

I have covered this Eucharistic hymn already with a modernised text as provided in CWB II. To make those changes rhyme, quite a lot of other changes needed to made and there are other alternative lines in CWB II that vary a lot from this version.

The New Living Parish Hymnal has the more archiac words and John de Luca’s arrangement of MISNEACH.

It was in Percy Jones’s Pius X hymnal as well:

Let’s see what changed:

His arrangement didn’t help me much as I think this backing is worse than my last effort:

1. “Come to me, all ye who labour, come, and I will give you rest”:

Such, dear Lord, thine invitation to each soul to be your guest;

and we answer with deep longing, while our sinfulness we see,

Jesus, Lord, I am not worthy, yet in mercy come to me.

2. Here, upon this altar lowly is the food you make your home,

While we hail thee Lord and Master, reigning from thy heavenly throne;

Life without thee would be lonely, so our hearts still cry to thee:

Jesus, Lord, I am not worthy, yet in mercy come to me.

3. All is joy when thou art near us; earth can never bliss impart

Like the peace and heavenly sweetness of thy visit to each heart;

All unfelt are grief and sorrow, as with trust we cry to thee,

“Jesus, Lord, I am not worthy, yet in mercy come to me.”

I am enjoying doing the hymns from the New Living Parish Hymn Book. I’m finding hymns that are new to me, arrangements by John de Luca that improve on the original versions and it also gives me a chance to do better with organ backings on songs that I have looked at before.

This is in CWB II as “Come, O Long Expected Jesus”, but the archaic text is what Charles Wesley wrote, so that’s fair enough. It is set to STUTTGART, probably written by, and certainly collected by, Christian F. Witt.

I’ve found numerous extra verses but these are the four in this hymnal.

A renovated backing using BIAB organ:

1 Come, thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free,
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

2 Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear Desire of ev’ry nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

3 Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us for ever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

4 By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

This is a different setting (HYFRYDOL) but it is rather nice:

For the thrill seekers amongst us, the New Living Parish Hymn Book included Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of this cheery number. Does this really get played at funerals? It would need a very high level of expertise to pull it off.

The German text is here translated by Peter Pears and the original tune, KOMM, SUSSER TOD, was by Johann Sebastian Bach. Britten’s arrangement is in Five Spiritual Songs, which still can be purchased at Faber Music. I found another arrangement here.

I figured out some chords and made a backing, but Britten and Bach by BIAB is very concerning:

1 Come, soothing death, come sweet repose!

Come, bear my soul to heaven,

From mortal weariness shriven.

Ah come, I wait for thee,

Come to deliver me,

Ah, let my eyelids close,

Come, sweet repose.

2 Come, soothing death, come sweet repose!

Saviour, I long to see thee

And with the Angels greet thee.

Now fades the day’s pale light;

World, take my last “good night”.

My weary eyelids close,

Come, sweet repose.

It sounds even more melancholic in German:

This is a different arrangement in English:

Sad cellos:

Incredibly slow organ:

The Eastman Wind Ensemble:

There are many arrangements and translations to pick from.

As conducted by Eric Whitacre, so you know what to expect:

On the subject of Whitacre:

I would be as likely to use “Come, Soothing Death” in a liturgy as play Whitacre’s “When David Heard”. However, if your choir can manage this level of choral despair go for it.

I covered this McAuley/Connolly Advent classic from its appearance in CWB II, but their work is always worth promoting. Note McAuley’s straight forward concise text.

The sheet music is available at Willow.

I’m leaning rather heavily on Chris’s LiturgyShare site for many of these songs as he is great on traditional hymnody and has very helpful simple recordings for learning songs. I also think his plain style of singing matches McAuley’s text rather well and he is better to learn from than a lot of more performative vocalists.

I did a string version last time, so I switched to BIAB organ for this backing.

Antiphon

Come O Jesus, Come O Lord
Fulfiller of the Father’s word.

1 When Adam fell God gave His word
He would not leave man in defeat,
And far ahead He then prepared
The day when heav’n and earth should meet.

Antiphon

2 Christ came to keep His Father’s word,
He raised man up from dark defeat;
Through Christ the Father has prepared
A day when all shall be complete.

Antiphon

3 In Advent we commemorate
That first great coming of the Lord
And, looking forward, celebrate
The day when all shall be restored.

Antiphon

This is also based on Veni Creator Spiritus but with far different lyrics, though still for Pentecost. It is here set to TALLIS’ ORDINAL. Godsongs has some background.

It is in CWB II so I blogged it there. The backing is new with different organ sounds.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come
From thy bright heav’nly throne,
Come, take possession of our souls,
And make them all thy own.

Thou who art called the Paraclete,
Best gift of God above,
The living spring, the living fire,
Sweet unction and true love.

Thou who art sevenfold in thy grace,
Finger of God’s right hand;
His promise, teaching little ones
To speak and understand.

O guide our minds with thy blessed light,
With love our hearts inflame;
And with thy strength, which ne’er decays,
Confirm our mortal frame.

Far from us drive our deadly foe;
True peace unto us bring;
And through all perils lead us safe
Beneath thy sacred wing.

Through thee may we the Father know,
Through thee th’ eternal Son,
And thee the Spirit of them both,
Thrice blessed Three in One.

All glory to the Father be,
With his coequal Son:
The same to thee, great Paraclete,
While endless ages run.

More chant…

This is Veni Creator Spiritus, a C9 Latin Pentecost hymn translated by Edward Caswell. John de Luca gave his arrangement of the plainsong chant for the New Living Parish Hymnal. I got the chords from LiturgyShare, where there are lots of settings of this text with their sheet music.

This backing isn’t as awful as BIAB chant usually is, but it still isn’t great. The text here is that found in this hymnal and has been adapted.

1 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
and in our hearts take up thy rest;
come with thy grace and heav’nly aid
to fill the hearts which thou hast made.

2 O Comforter, to thee we cry,
thou heavenly gift of God most high,
thou font of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.

3 To every sense thy light impart,
and shed thy love in ev’ry heart.
To our weak flesh thy strength supply:
unfailing courage from on high.

4 O grant that we through thee may come
to know the Father and the Son,
and hold with firm, unchanging faith,
that thou art Spirit of them both.

5 Now let us praise Father and Son
and Holy Spirit, with them One;
and may the Son on us bestow
the gifts that from the Spirit flow.

The Latin is easier to chant:

This is a Pentecost hymn, that I covered many years ago from its appearance in As One Voice.

The text is six hundred years or so old, by Bianco da Siena (NB Wikipedia’s incorrect date of death) and translated by Richard Littledale (death date correct this time) in the 1800s.

The setting is DOWN AMPNEY by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

I tried to make a better backing than last time:

The text has variants: these are the words in this hymnal:

1 Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

2 O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes, in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

3 Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing:
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

4 And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

This hymnal has the tune in the key of C rather than the usual key of D − Thanks be to God.

This is just Gregory Norbet‘s wildly popular song, “Hosea”, but, as previously noted, everything thing in the New Living Parish Hymn Book is on a first line basis. It remains a useful song for Lent and Reconciliation.

I was kind of hoping for another John de Luca arrangement, but he left this one as is, just without the optional interlude. There is an extra person noted here as contributing to the music, Mary David Callahan OSB, although he may just be the arranger. Hymnary notes its presence in many hymnals, both GIA and OCP, a somewhat miraculous occurrence. Godsongs has useful background as always.

The sheet music is available at OCP in the unlikely event you don’t already have it.

I blogged this already from its appearance in As One Voice, but I made a somewhat less alarming backing this time.

Verse 1

Come back to me with all your heart,
don’t let fear keep us apart.
Trees do bend, tho’ straight and tall;
so must we to others’ call.

Refrain

Long have I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life.

Verse 2

The wilderness will lead you
to your heart where I will speak.
Integrity and justice
with tenderness you shall know.

Refrain

Verse 3
You shall sleep secure with peace;
faithfulness will be your joy.

Refrain

Copyright © 1972.
The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.,
Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont.

www.westonpriory.org

Entrance: Mercy from the Heart of God (O’Brien/Ogilive) AOVD

Psalm 66 (McKenna)

O God, let all the nations praise you!

Gifts: All the Hungry, Come (Doherty)

Communion: To the Table We Are Called (O’Brien/Harvey) AOVD

Recessional: Hope in Love (Bierer, Deegan, Hart, Lynch, Watts)

Entrance: Gather As One (McKenna) AOV NG 48

Psalm 84 (McKenna)

Lord, show us your mercy and love,

and grant us your salvation.

Gifts: Blessed be Our God (McKenna)

Communion:  Mercy from the Heart of God (O’Brien/Ogilive) AOVD

Recessional: Send Us Out (Bryant) AOVD