Church Music

I find it interesting to see what John de Luca did with Folk Mass material. I suppose he must have looked at three chord wonders and realised they need something more for an organist to get stuck into.

This is a Sebastian Temple song that I blogged in the Praise to God Parish Hymn Book. Chris W reminded me it was in this collection too. It has a fair old range so it’s out of my league to sing.

The text is here. This is Mary’s area, so see what she had to say at Godsongs.

It seems de Luca thought it deficient in chords so he added a whole lot more. I assume the PTG version was just taken from the original:

I made a backing with the extra chords but still in folk style:

This is the orginal that goes from folk to barbershop:

I blogged this many years ago from its appearance in AOV.

It was written by William Kethe a refugee from Catholic persecution and contributor to the Geneva Bible. It is based on Psalm 99 (100) and set to OLD 100th, from the Geneva Psalter.

NLPHB has five verses.

I’ve had another crack at a backing:

1 All people that on Earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice:
Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell;
Come ye before him and rejoice.

2 Know that the Lord is God indeed;
Without our aid he did us make:
We are his folk, he doth us feed,
And for his sheep he doth us take.

3 O enter then his gates with praise,
Approach with joy his courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless his name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

4 For why the Lord our God is good;
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

5 To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
The God whom heaven and earth adore,
From men and from the angel-host
Be praise and glory evermore.

I’ve been away in Sydney this weekend to see Ron Sexsmith. This wonderful Canadian singer songwriter doesn’t come to Australia often and wasn’t coming to Tasmania so we made the trip to Sydney to see him.

He is the gentlest most self effacing performer I’ve ever seen and just about the most talented songwriter on the planet. I saw him years ago in Brisbane solo, but this time he had a couple of long time confederates with him on bass and drums at the Sydney Recital Hall.

I doubt I could find a place in liturgy for it, but this is Ron:

I case you find his voice an acquired taste, how about this cover of one of his songs by Emmy Lou Harris.

A couple more samples:

I have looked at this text in Gather 3rd ed, where it was set to DIADEM, and OCP’s Guitar Accompaniment Book where it was set to CORONATION.

NLPHB sets it to MILES LANE by Wiliam Shrubsole, which was it’s original setting. The text was by Edward Perronet and was altered by J. Rippon. Hymnary has a deeper dive than usual into its origins. I have certainly found many variants in the text and include those from NLPHB below, where the archiac language has been removed for a change.

It is a hymn for Christ the King. This setting has a dramatic build up for the assembly to blast out.

I should have got the simplified chords from TIS but it looks like I overcomplicated things with too many chords in my backing:

1 All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

2 Crown Him, you martyrs of our God,
Who from His altar call;
Praise him whoe way of love you trod,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

3 Hail him you heirs of David’s line,
Whom David Lord did call;
The God incarnate, man divine,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

4 You seed of Israel’s chosen race,
You ransomed of the fall,
Hail him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

5 Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget,
The wormwood and the gall,
Go spread your trophies at His feet,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

6 Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe,
Before him prostrate fall,
And shout in universal song,
And crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all.

I blogged this as “All Glory, Laud and Honor” while I was looking at the OCP Guitar book.

This is another ancient text, this time from more than 1200 years ago from St Theodulph of Orleans and translated less than 200 years ago by John Mason Neale. It is set to VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN (aka ST THEODULPH) written by Melchior Teschner 400 odd years ago and harmonised by Johann Sebastian Bach about 300 years ago.

It is essentially a praise and worship song, often used for Palm Sunday. The text has many many variations and I have posted the lyrics from the New Living Parish Hymnal with all the archaic language intact.

Refrain

All glory, praise, and honour
To thee, Redeemer, King,
Whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.

1 Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s name comest,
The king and blessed one.

2 The company of angels
Are praising thee on high,
And mortal men and all things
Created make reply.

3 The people of the Hebrews
With palms before thee went:
Our praise and prayers and anthems
Before thee we present.

4 To thee before thy passion
They sang their hymns of praise:
To thee now high exalted
Our melody we raise.

5 Thou didst accept their praises,
Accept the prayers we bring,
Who on all good delightest,
Thou good and gracious King.

This is good excuse to have another crack at this hymn with a text attributed to St Francis of Assisi, translated by William Henry Draper, and set to LASST UNS ERFRUEN a C17 German tune arranged by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

I blogged this one years ago here. NLPHB has all seven verses with archaic language intact.

I made a new backing:

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam,
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in heav’n along,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice;
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou fire, so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light,
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Dear mother earth, who day by day
Unfoldest blessings on our way,
O praise him, Alleluia!
The flowers and fruits that in thee grow,
Let them his glory also show;
O praise him, O praise him
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

And all ye men of tender heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise God and on him cast your care;
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

And thou, most kind and gentle death,
Waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise him, alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
and Christ our Lord the way hath trod;
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship him in humbleness;
O praise him alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One;
O praise him, O praise him.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

I’ve already done this as “My Loving Saviour, How Have I Offended You” from CWB I and the backing there is not terrible really.

The tune is HERZLIEBSTER JESU by Johann Cruger, harmonised by Johann Sebastian Bach. The confronting text on the Passion is by Johann Heerman and translated by Robert Seymour Bridges. See the previous post about this song for other possibilities.

I just made it noisy BIAB church organ this time.

The text is again slightly different to elsewhere but Gio will be happy to know Anthony Petti was not involved.

1 Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

2 Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee:
I crucified thee.

3 Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
the slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered.
For man’s atonement, while we nothing heedeth,
God interceedeth.

4 For me, kind Jesus, was thine incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.

5 Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.

I have blogged various versions of this in English with excruciating backings.

This is the Latin version of this Eucharistic hymn by Thomas Quinas set to PLAINSONG ADORO TE [1], for which de Luca gives his own arrangement.

Which I can predictably do little with in BIAB:

1 Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,
Quae sub his figuris vere latitas:
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,
Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

2 Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur:
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius:
Nil hoc verbo Veritátis verius.

3 In Cruce latebat sola Deitas,
At hic latet simul et humanitas:
Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro paenitens.

4 Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:
Deum tamen meum te confiteor:
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.

5 O memoriale mortis Domini,
Panis vivus, vitam praestans homini,
Praesta meae menti de te vivere,
Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

6 Pie pelicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo sanguine,
Cujus una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

7 Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
Oro fiat illud quod tam sitio:
Ut te revelata cernens facie,
Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae.

This is the basic chant:

This is John de Luca’s arrangement, would any organist like to comment on it for our benefit?

It does best unaccompanied I guess, although the strings and guitar work OK.

This is, of course, “The Three Drovers,” I have all the details of this song noted already from blogging it in the Praise to God collection.

Comparing that to the sheet music in this collection, the arrangement is the same but de Luca has made the sheet music easier to follow for singers, with all the lyrics under the staves in his usual format.

Christmas songs with “summer heat” are much appreciated. My daughter heard this playing and instantly knew it from singing it in choirs in her youth.

I made a backing that is more 3/4 than 6/8 this time but is more singable.

Across the plains one Christmas night
Three drovers riding blithe and gay,
Looked up and saw a starry light
More radiant than the Milky Way;
And on their hearts such wonder fell,
They sang with joy. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’

The air was dry with summer heat,
And smoke was on the yellow moon;
But from the heavens, faint and sweet,
Came floating down a wond’rous turn;
And as they heard, they sang full well
Those drovers three. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’

The black swans flew across the sky,
The wild dog called across the plain,
The starry lustre blazed on high,
Still echoed on the heavenly strain;
And still they sang, ‘Noel! Noel!’
Those drovers three. ‘Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!’

© 1948 Chappell & Co Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd., London W1Y 3FA.

This is a translation by K. W. Blount from over three hundred years ago, of a Latin text Vexilla regis prodeunt by Venantius Fortunatus that is roughly 1500 years old. It is set to PLAINSONG VEXILLA REGIS here arranged by John de Luca.

de Luca says the translation is “et al” and there are many variations in the text – I have typed his version. Wikipedia helpfully goes through textual variants.

If you don’t have a relic of the true cross to process with it is an Easter hymn. It reminds me of the Dream of the Rood.

Liturgyshare have the chant.

I shouldn’t really attempt this sort of thing on BIAB but here goes.

I

Abroad the regal banners fly,

Now shines the Cross’s mystery;

Upon it Life did death endure,

And yet by death did life procure.

II

Who wounded with a direful spear,

Did, purposely to wash us clear

From stain of sin, pour out a flood

Of precious water mixed with blood.

III

That which the prophet-king of old

Hath in mysterious verse foretold,

Is now accomplished, whilst we see

God ruling nations from a Tree.

IV

O lovely and respendent Tree,

Adorned with purple majesty;

Culled from a worthy stock, to bear

Those limbs which made thee holy there.

V

Blest Tree, whose happy branches bore

The wealth that did the world restore;

The beam that did that body weigh

Which raised up hell’s expected prey.

VI

Hail Cross, our hope; on the we call,

Who keep this solemn festival;

Grant to the just increase of grace,

And every sinner’s crimes efface.

VII

Blest Trinity, we praises sing

To thee, from whom all graces spring;

Celestial crowns on those bestow

Who conquer by the Cross below.

Amen.

This sounds nice in Latin:

Right tune, different translation:

Nice instrumental backing: