Church Music

I’m not sure what to make of this spritely Christmas carol that concentrates on the forgotten parent, Joseph.

The text is by Ronald Knox who only died in 1957, but the text feels older. That may come from him being another Anglican convert to Catholicism and translating the Vulgate in your spare time. He also wrote detective fiction! There is a little “alt” going on here too.

The tune is John de Luca’s expanded version of a “French Noel” A MINUIT FUT FAIT UN REVEIL, which is from a more usual Christmas story.

It looks like I made up some basic chords for a backing:

1 Joseph, the Scriptures love to trace
The glories of thy kingly line;
Yet no succession of thy race,
No long posterity was thine –
Of her the everlasting spouse
Who must a Virgin ever be,
The faithful ruler of his house
Who owns no fatherhood in thee.

2 There were no songs of old renown,
no crowds to greet you when you came,
Two wanderers, to your native town,
That lost inheritance to claim;
But hard the hearts, and cold the air,
And mean the lodging where you lay,
And long the exile you must bear
Till upstart Herod’s dying day.

3 And though thy son was God indeed,
Over that home no angels sang,
But still through years of toil and need,
Hammer and mallet bravely rang;
And surely ’twas a gracious thing
When standing at his father’s knee,
The world’s great craftsman and its King
Not king but craftsman learned to be.

4 Joseph, the Church of God protect;
Her priests with holy care endow;
Shield of the faithful souls elect,
Hope of the fatherless be thou;
And, when our parting spirits cling
To earthly joys that cannot bide,
Make Naz’reth in our homes,
And bring Jesus and Mary to our side.

Where do you turn to for obscure hymns?

LiturgyShare of course:

This starts out as the same tune but becomes something better:

This is a wild instrumental and I suspect reveals that de Luca added two bars in the middle:

This is a song labelled American traditional or even a Spiritual and de Luca’s suggestion of “et al” in the authorship correctly suggests multiple versions and disputed origins. There is a detailed article about it all archived at Hymnary.

It is a very Lenten song. Most versions have three verses, the fourth noted here is consoling but somewhat undercuts the whole thrust of the song.

The music is, again traditional called LONESOME VALLEY.

1 Jesus walked this lonesome valley;
He had to walk it by himself.
Oh, nobody else could walk it for him;
He had to walk it by himself.

2 We must walk this lonesome valley;
We have to walk it by ourselves.
Oh, nobody else can walk it for us;
We have to walk it by ourselves.

3 You must go and stand your trial;
You have to stand it by yourself.
Oh, nobody else can stand it for you;
You have to stand it by yourself.

4 Though you walk this lonely valley,
And seem to stand all by yourself,
Yet someone else is always near you:
Our brother Jesus stands himself!

Of course you can just completely rewrite the song:

There is a version with a text by Jack Schrader that cleverly goes from Lent all through Easter in four stanzas, which is available at Hope Publishing:

1 Jesus walked this lonesome valley,
he had to walk it by himself;
O, nobody else could walk it for him,
he had to walk it by himself.

2 Jesus prayed for his disciples;
he prayed alone for you and me.
O, nobody else could bear such sorrow;
he prayed alone for you and me.

3 Jesus died on Calvary's mountain;
he died alone for you and me.
O, nobody else could die for sinners;
he had to die for you and me.

4 Jesus rose from death's dark prison;
he lives again for you and me.
O, nobody else could bring us victory;
he is alive to set us free.

… and then there’s the version from the movie:

Getting back to the New Living Parish Hymn Book, one of the nice things is when the editor, John de Luca, pops in with his his own work. Here he sets a text by Henry Arnold Thomas (aka Arnold Thomas) with a tune he called BYRON STREET.

This text is often sung to GONFALEN ROYAL and ETON, but de Luca does a nice job.

This is a good example of how much alteration is going on with these texts and how it makes finding hymns from their first line difficult.

Hymnary has the words from Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New, although the first line was apparently originally written as “Brother, who on Thy heart didst bear” :

1 Lord Christ, who on thy heart didst bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and now on high dost stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within:

2 Thy patience cannot know defeat,
thy pity will not be denied,
thy loving-kindness still is great,
thy tender mercies still abide.

3 O brother Man, for this we pray,
thou brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we thy brethren, day by day
may follow thee and keep thy word.

4 That we may care, as thou hast cared,
for sick and lame, for deaf and blind,
and freely share, as thou hast shared,
in all the woes of humankind.

5 That ours may be the holy task
to help and bless, to heal and save;
this is the happiness we ask,
and this the service that we crave.

The Australian Hymn Book goes back to something like the original opening line, but modernises the words otherwise and has:

1 Brother, you on your heart did bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and even now you stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within;

2 Your patience cannot know defeat,
your pity will not be denied,
your loving-kindness is so sweet,
your tender mercies are so wide.

3 Our brother Man, for this we pray,
our brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we, your people, day by day
may follow you and keep your word.

4 That we may care, as you have cared,
for sick and lame and maimed and blind,
and freely share, as you have shared,
in all the woe of all mankind.

5 So in your mercy make us wise,
and lead us in the ways of love,
until, at last, our wondering eyes
look on your glorious face above.

It looks like de Luca took that version and added a little “alt” of his own, but unfortunately didn’t fix the bad work on the second verse:

1 Jesus our brother, you did bear
the burden of our shame and sin,
and even now you stoop to share
the fight without, the fear within;

2 Your patience cannot know defeat,
your pity will not be denied,
your loving-kindness is so sweet,
your tender mercies are so wide.

3 Our brother Man, for this we pray,
our brother Man and sovereign Lord,
that we, your people, day by day
may follow you and keep your word.

4 Make us to care, as you have cared,
for sick and lame and maimed and blind,
and freely share, as you have shared,
in all the woe of all mankind.

5 So in your mercy make us wise,
and lead us in the ways of love,
until, at last, our wondering eyes
look on your glorious face above.

So that’s four different opening lines at least – there oughta be a law against it.

Before I go back to the New Living Parish Hymn Book, there is another OCP product I want to look at. I forget where I saw this one, but it is a hymn by Curtis Stephan and Steve Angrisano suitable whenever the readings highlight the vine and the branches metaphor.

It could be a slow burn praise and worship song, but their version takes it pretty easy. If you are queasy about singing the voice of God it might not be for you, but it is from John 15 if that helps. The You Tube index suggests it is very popular.

OCP sell the sheet music and provide the text in their preview.

I let it build in my backing:

This was actually added to Breaking Bread in 2018, so I already looked at it here, but I forgotten it until it came up again at Ryan’s parish recently.

The text is in the preview at OCP where you can purchase the sheet music.

It’s such a great lyric I made another backing for it:

This Eucharist song was added to Breaking Bread for 2027 and is the last of the additions for me to look at. English composer, Anne Quigley, wrote the song. This is a beautiful composition, which also has application at weddings.

It can purchased at OCP, where they also provide the text in their preview.

So that’s Breaking Bread for 2027.

Lots of liturgically useful, well written songs that are mostly all in the one tonal idiom – quiet, reflective and not particularly uplifting. They are all following such good hymn writing rules that they have a sameness that could be relieved by a little rule breaking. Still I have to say they are all worthy hymns by excellent song writers.

Katie Wills‘, “Trinity Song” has been added to Breaking Bread for 2027 and is another song with obvious liturgical uses.

The text says more than usual about the implications of the mystery of the Trinity, which is nice for a change. The swell into the verse is a chance for great praise.

Usefully, you could imagine using this song at liturgies other than Trinity Sunday with themes of creation, praise, gathering and Adoration found in the verses.

So buy the sheet music at OCP and read the text they provide.

This is another song with an older text for the verses, here by Genevieve Glen, as set by Justin Wedgewood, who wrote the words of the new refrain. It has been chosen for Breaking Bread for 2027.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP, who have provided the text in their preview.

This ones leans hard on a tune of rising and falling scales, which is fine, except that if every hymn does this it becomes a cliche.

To make this less noticeable I made this rather more country than I suspect is intended.

This is another useful liturgical hymn chosen for Breaking Bread for 2027. This one is a Sarah Hart song, with a refrain for both Ash Wednesday and for the rest of Lent and nine verses to select from, so you could play it all through Lent with the same tune and a variety of words. This is very well done.

The sheet music is at OCP as is the text.

BIAB added some country fiddle.

This Dan Schutte song added to Breaking Bread for 2027 is officially the most upbeat song selected. Schutte is 78.

It is based on Phillipians 4 and is a fine hymn of thanksgiving with many applications.

The sheet music can be purchased at OCP where the text is provided in their preview.

I tried to make this at least somewhat rousing in BIAB.

This recording conspires to make things a bit less joyful.