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 Jacob Freidrich.
The tune is noted by CWB I to be AVE VIRGO VIRGINUM from Johann Leisentritt’s Catholicum Hymnologium Germanicum. Hymnary calls it GAUDEAMUS PARITER by Jan Roh. It is attributed elsewhere to Johann Horn, but I gather that is the same person. The sheet music is here.
My backing is fake BIAB organ with chords derived from sources on Hymnary.
Cradling children in his arm
Jesus gave his blessing.
To our babes a welcome warm
He is yet addressing.
Take them, Lord, give life anew,
In the living waters!
Keep them always near to you
As your sons and daughters!
Jazz!
Quartet!
Big band style on the organ!
From a Catholic hymnal that supposedly doesn’t mimic Protestant hymnody we have:
Ahh, yes, the Brebeuf hymnal – I have a copy. Mostly due to the amount of advertising material that that mob put out on their free and very useful resources. It is a very interesting hymnal to have on the shelf and not in the pew.
Most of the hype was the intense research and study put into it, and it does feature some lovely new hymns written by a fellow Australian. It does have a weird quirk of being a melody line edition AND the option of having 17 bajillion tunes for the same hymn lyrics, which makes it a bit chunky. It does have some lovely Stations and it’s a great resource.
Australia did the multi melody system better with our word books. It encourages us to be more creative with tune selection. It helps develop the skill of finding a tune to the words, which can end surprisingly well, or horribly badly (which is rare). The most obvious tune to me is the Christmas one, Tempus Adest Floridum, which will be one of the worst pairings.
Thanks Gio
I must admit ccwatershed.org is not my natural home and I always seem to find something to disagree with whenever I read anything by Jeff Ostrowski, my loss I’m sure. But hey, we both love hymnals.
You might have to help me out with what a word book is.
Growing up a Presbyterian we seemed to be able to sing every thing to a few favourite tunes. I use “Together In Song” a lot for their easy melody and chord versions of many traditional hymn tunes, but I sometimes have to track down bass runs elsewhere to make my fake organ BIAB backings less boring.
cheers
Geoff
I classify hymnals into three main types – Word books, Melody books, and Full Music books.
Word books are the simplest and most compact, containing only the words of the hymns. They give you the most freedom and can be the easiest to use. Some examples would be the Living Parish, New Living Parish, AOV Combined Edition, New Creation Hymn Book, Hymns of Faith and Scripture in Song.
Melody books have the words and melodies for each hymn. They are pretty good when learning new hymns, but can have drawbacks in Australian contexts. Sometimes the melodies have variations that aren’t correct for the local population (e.g. Faith Of Our Fathers, Lourdes Hymn and Tantum Ergo have different versions than in the US) – and people just tend to ignore the music at that point. Some examples are AOV 1 and 2, Together in Song, Australian Hymn Book, Catholic Worship Book, New Catholic Hymnal, Gather Australia, Common Praise, and parts of Living Worship Hymnal. They seem to be the standard among American hymnals.
Full Music books have the organ/keyboard music for hymns as well as the words. They usually appear as an accompaniment book for hymnals, such as Living Parish, New Living Parish, Catholic Worship Book 1 and 2, New Catholic Hymnal, As One Voice, Together in Song, and many more.
Alternatively, the Full Music Books can be as a standalone hymnal with the words and melody seperate, as seen in the old Hymns Ancient and Modern, as well as the other English hymnals.
Thanks, I’m with you now.
Geoff