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:
As I mentioned in the Pentecost Sunday post comments, our small choir of three chanted the Alstott translation on Saturday, and I think it went very well because it was clearly written to work with the chant whereas the Caswall adaptation here is rather awkward, and it affects the flow.
Band in the Box must work like magic (with the help of the person programming it, of course) because the chords on my website couldn’t be more basic and are nowhere near as artistic as the ones sometimes provided in NLPHB; yet something quite pleasant has been produced!
Chant is much better sung a capella, but instrumental tracks are very useful for learning and practising the melody.