Author Archives: maddg

Once again the editors of CWB II thought better of the less common setting of a text in the original CWB and replaced it with the more usual hymn tune. For Frederick Faber’s famous hymn text, CWB I used SAWSTON … Continue reading →

I’m beginning to see a pattern here. The editors of CWB I tended to select the most obscure setting for any text and their successors working on CWB II reverted to the more commonly used setting. I have blogged this … Continue reading →

This is a Trinitarian hymn with a text by James Quinn SJ. It has four settings noted in Hymnary, but CWB I chose none of these, going for HEALING by Douglas Mews instead. The text is here. The chords were … Continue reading →

I am working my way through Australia’s Catholic Worship Book, to look for songs that I haven’t covered from other sources. This one is C7 Latin, Sancti venite, Christi corpus sumite, translated by John Mason Neale in the 1800s. It … Continue reading →

This is a paraphrase by Anthony G. Petti of Verbum supernum prodiens by St Thomas Aquinas. In CWB I it is set to MELCOMBE by Samuel Webbe. This tune has been used to set dozens of texts, but I can’t … Continue reading →

This is an early Marty Haugen song based on Psalm 50 (51). I always surprised to come across one of his that I haven’t already heard. It isn’t suitable for use as the psalm but is fine as a hymn. … Continue reading →

This is an amazing text by Donald Wynn Hughes that is still relevant in our current violent world, with our “monuments of folly” and the “wreckage of our hatred”. Read it here. CWB I sets it to AGINCOURT (aka DEO … Continue reading →

This is a Lutheran hymn for baptising children that found it’s way into the Catholic Worship Book in Australia. The text is C19 by Nikolai F.S. Grundtvig, translated by Johannes H.V. Knudsen. Then again, other sources claim it is by … Continue reading →

This is Ralph Vaughn Williams setting called THE CALL of a George Herbert text that found its way into the Catholic Worship Book. It’s in every hymnal known to man. Not even CWB I would change “killeth” or set it … Continue reading →

This is Ernest Sand’s sung prayer to the Holy Spirit. The range of the antiphon looks a struggle but maybe taking the key down a few semitones might help. The verses are chant but my metrical soul couldn’t handle that … Continue reading →