Church Music

A song of peace from Shirley Murray. It is in Alleluia Aotearoa.

The text is at Hope Publishing where it is set to SURSUM CORDA by Alfred Smith, the same setting used in AA.

My backing uses made up chords some guessed, some from the sheet music.

The link I have been using to where you can buy Alleluia Aotearoa at Philip Garside books has gone stale, but it looks like it can still be purchased in pdf form there.

I am embarked on the quixotic quest to blog all the Shirley Erena Murray texts in Alleluia Aotearoa. I had not reckoned on just how much of New Zealand hymnody came from one amazing woman and how many settings some of her texts found.

This is a hymn of unity for the Eucharist. The words are at Hope Publishing along with the setting LOVE UNKNOWN by John Ireland.

The real thing:

It does look like Shirley Murray wrote half this book (Alleluia Aotearoa), which is both a great legacy and more work than I thought.

At least I could only find one setting of this benediction. Both Alleluia Aotearoa and Hope Publishing use Colin Gibson‘s BENEDICTION.

This is my backing with made up chords.

This is a song for baptism in Alleluia Aotearoa with a Shirley Murray text. It is a lovely sentiment but uses the Maori word “aroha” so travels only as far as that word is accepted.

The text is at Hope Publishing where they provide the sheet music for the setting by T.B. Southgate (GIDEON). Trying to make a backing using chords derived from the sheet music was more difficult than normal. F13b5sus anyone – fortunately BIAB can’t do that chord.

AA instead gives the sheet music for the setting by Ian Render, WATER’S EDGE and actually provided the chords for a change.

They also suggested HERONGATE (Trad arr Ralph Vaughn Williams) and the indispensable Together In Song had the chords for that one. It is out of print unfortunately. Unlike CWB II, the editors obviously got out of cathedrals occasionally and understood the benefit of chords for guitarists and basic keyboard players.

This text from Shirley Murray in Alleluia Aotearoa, is useful for baptism, confirmation and commissioning as well as Trinity and Pentecost.

The text is at Hope Publishing. They give four settings and AA another two and a quick look at You Tube found another two so you are spoiled for choice. Some have been written specifically for this text and others are 8.7.8.7 and so fit fine.

The first four settings have sheet music at Hope.

OMNI DIE by David Gregof Corner (c17):

LOVING SPIRIT by Hal H. Hopson:

BETH by Rusty Edwards:

ANGSANA by Swee Hing Lim:

FELICITY by Colin Gibson is in AA:

David Dell’s setting, also from AA:

… or you could set it to ELLEN:

…or RESTORATION:

Hymnary says it is also sung to CHHUN-BIN but I’ll leave that one to you people!

OMNE DIE wins the YouTube poll.

Shirley Murray rewrote the verses of this already revised George Kitchen text to good effect. I blogged the earlier version here. The triumphalism of some old texts is jarring.

Murrays’s adapted text and the sheet music is at Hope Publishing.

This is a wedding song from Shirley Murray in Alleluia Aotearoa.

The text is at at Hope Publishing, where, like AA, they set it to KREMSER, a Dutch tune collected by Eduard Kremser.

It is also set to THE ROAD AND MILES TO DUNDEE, a traditional Scottish tune. Being public domain, this is a good example of the benefits of the Small Church Music site. There are BIAB files, MIDI files, PDF files etc etc there that can be very useful.

I still made my own backing to the tune that must have influenced one of the versions of “Away in a Manger”.

Entrance: Seek Ye First (Lafferty) AOV 1/48

Gifts: Mercy from the Heart of God (O’Brien/Ogilive) AOVD

Communion: Beatitudes (Balhoff/Ducotte)

Recessional: Bring Forth the Kingdom (Haugen) AOV 2/4

Entrance: Christ Light, Shining in the Darkness (Grant) CWBII 468

Gifts: Blessed Be Our God  (McKenna) AOV NG 13

Communion: They’ll Know We Are Christians (Scholtes) AOV 1/130

Recessional:  Galilee Song (Andersen) AOV 1/15

Entrance: Prepare the Way of the Lord (Boniwell) CWB II 250

Gifts: Mercy from the Heart of God (O’Brien/Ogilive) AOVD

Communion: Here I Am Lord (Schutte) AOV 1/90

Recessional: Send Down the Fire (Haugen) AOV 2/164

PS

18/1/2023

I was actually away in Melbourne for the weekend and so didn’t play locally. We went to St Francis’s church in Lonsdale St. The church was full for the 9.30am mass. There was a cantor and organist. From up the back it didn’t appear that there was any participation in the music by the assembly, but I suppose a lot of people there weren’t locals, so it is hard to see how that could be achieved. They do try I think, as the tunes for the hymns used are well know in one sense – eg HYFRYDOL and PICARDY, but perhaps they were new to the younger audience.

They used Philip Carmody’s MISSA SIMPLEX. They also use “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again”, which is somewhat rebellious. The prayers were very social justice orientated and Cardinal Pell was prayed for the Sunday after he died, but no other mention was made of him. So I guess this is a “liberal”, for Melbourne, inner city parish with traditional hymnody. If so, I wonder how that works only a few tram stops from the Archbishop at St Patrick’s.

Entrance: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Gifts: Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation

Communion: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Recessional: Organ music