I was having a gripe about Fiona Dyball’s otherwise exemplary presentation on sung prayer in high schools, in that so little of the material she used was Australian.
Let’s redress that here with a song by Fiona Dyball herself. I struggle a bit with Marian songs, probably due to my protestant upbringing, but this is quite a nice piece of music and as good a Mary song as I’ve heard.
She notes about her song:
God’s Call is a response to the account of the Annunciation, as told in Luke 1: 26-38. Mary’s call to discipleship is the call for us all: how will each of us respond to God’s invitation of love to fullness of life? This is a unique discernment for each person. The fruit of this deep listening to the Spirit is the joy of God’s faithful accompaniment as we move forward in our lives. God is with us as we build and sustain communities that are a living sign of faith, hope and love.
The piece was commissioned for an international Catholic pilgrimage to Israel in 2019. It premiered at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth on New Year’s Day, 2019 on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
I purchased the sheet music for $A8.95 at Liturgical Song.
The download package contains MP3 and PDFs of the Full Score, Cello, C instrument, and Assembly A5.
You can also listen to the song there to get an idea of the lyrics. One of the sample sheets show the SATB for the alleluias at the end so you can get an idea where it’s all heading.
I made two backings, one somewhat following her arrangement ( the piano is BIAB not her piano part) and one with interludes, harmonies and alleluias cut back to fit what might work in a normal parish. The down side of that is having to remove the instrumental parts that presage the melody of the alleluias – can’t have everything. I couldn’t put all the alleluia lines into the backings so best to listen her version for that. The verse lines that lead in to the chorus seem a familiar trope to me, Rob Galea’s “Fill Us Up” is similar too, but I’m sure there’s a famous hymn that has a similar tune for that phrase and I just can’t place it.