I’m doing a few more Peter Grant songs at present and have come across his adaptation of Psalm 103. The text has uses beyond the specific weeks it is the Psalm – Lent, evening prayer, praise, etc.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow where there is an instrumental snippet to listen to as well.
Refrain
The Lord is kind and merciful,
slow to anger and rich in compassion.
1 Bless the Lord O my soul,
and let all of my being praise the Holy name!
Bless the Lord O my soul,
May I never forget all God’s wonderful kindness.
2 God forgives all my sins, and heals all my ills,
God saves my life from the grave.
With compassion and love, the Lord blesses my days;
Gives me the strength of an eagle.
3 Just as far as the east is apart from the west,
God removes my guilt from sight.
Mother, father, God shows loving care and concern
To the faithful now and forever.
4 Praise the Lord mighty angels
Who obey God’s commands;
Praise the Lord ev’rywhere, all God’s creatures sing praise!
Peter Grant wrote this song based on Hosea 14, which is suitable for Lent. At As One Voice, they also note it would work for a second Rite of Reconciliation.
The sheet music can be purchased for download at Willow. Their preview shows enough of the sheet music to look at its suitability, but the musical snippet is rather short and doesn’t show the tune off to its best advantage.
My backing has the whole song to sing along to for learning purposes.
Refrain
Return to the Lord, my people, now your sins have made you fall.
Peter Grant has written a restrained and appropriately mournful setting for this text based on Psalm 42 and 43.
The sheet music can be purchased for download from Willow where there is a preview to listen to and enough of the sheet music in the sample to get the idea.
My backing has more percussion than his, which is questionable.
Refrain
Like a deer that longs for running streams my soul longs for you,
longs for you; my soul longs for you my God.
1 My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
When can I enter and see the face of God, see the face of my God.
2 Send forth your light and your truth; let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
3 And I will come to the altar of God, the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp, O God my God.
After a refreshing sojourn with songs from the Iona Community, it is time to return to Australian music. I have covered an awful lot of Australian music over many years, especially those collected in As One Voice Vol 1, 2 and Next Generation. I’ve also done Gather Australia and individual collections by esteemed songwriters such as Frank Andersen, Michael Mangan, Brian Boniwell, Leo Watt and Chris DeSilva.
There are those outside the AOV axis, like Emmanuel Worship, that I have barely touched upon, as well as those still being published in As One Voice’s digital platform. I have said repeatedly, a certainly unintended consequence of the excellence of selection of songs in As One Voice was a closure of the canon in many churches, who have not looked for anything new to sing since the 1990s. The death of the printed hymnal has also meant that there are numerous songwriters who would be justly famous, amongst Catholics at least, if there were still printed songbooks in which to be published.
Peter Grant is one of these who deserves more recognition. I have already blogged twelve of his songs (check by searching!) and I will start my return to Australian music with some more of his output. His “Communion Song” was included in As One Voice and “Christ Light Shining in the Darkness” brightened up the stodginess of Catholic Worship Book II. We were using the latter at St Peter’s, Rochedale before I moved to Tasmania and, while I am introducing new music cautiously down here, it will be a priority to add to the repertoire.
“Look to the Shepherd” would have been great for last Sunday (sorry) if you have done all your shepherd songs to death. It takes some guts to do yet another setting of Psalm 23, but he also was inspired by Isaiah 40:11.
The tune is all that we have come to expect from Peter. I love the held notes in the second last line of each verse.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow. Sometimes they don’t give enough of an idea of the tune in the preview, but in this case there is a lovely understated instrumental to listen to and a enough of a sample of the sheet music to get the idea. It would be better to have a sung snippet if that was feasible, and better yet if a church that was using this song could post it on YouTube. It would be a great aid to practice, as Chris suggested recently.
Despite the perfectly acceptable instrumental at Willow I made my own BIAB backing.
Refrain
Look to the Shepherd to lead you back home;
Follow his footsteps to safety.
Rest in his arms if your lost and alone.
Follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus.
1 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,
And gathering lambs in his arms.
He is longing to hold you close to his heart;
He is calling you home.
2 With the Lord, your shepherd you will not want;
In pastures of green you will lie.
He will lead you to waters so still and so clear
To refresh your tired soul.
3 From the Lord your shepherd you will not stray;
He keeps constant guard on his flock.
Surely goodness and kindness will follow your life
After this in Heaven Shall Not Wait there are some useful chants that I won’t cover just yet. I have other books from this source, including the Enemy of Apathy collection that I will return to in the future.
This, though, is a thoughtful hymn of rage that is a potent call to social action. It is from the Iona Community’s Heaven Shall Not Wait. It is set to SALLEY GARDENS (Irish Trad.), a lovely tune.
The Willow Facebook page noted hymnist, Richard Connolly’s death recently, and the ABC has put up an obituary that goes beyond his justified fame for writing the Play School theme.
His is music is still available at Willow. My copy of the The New Living Parish Hymn book has twenty of his songs, only exceeded by the editor of the hymnal John de Luca. He also wrote the text of a few of the hymns but usually deferred to his poet collaborator James McAuley (1917-1976).
The sheet music for this collection is also available at Willow.
This is a song celebrating the goodness found in ordinary weak humanity with a catalog of new Testament characters to demonstrate the theme. You can find it in the Iona Community’s Heaven Shall Not Wait.
It is set to WAE’S ME FOR PRINCE CHAIRLIE. The text is available here.
This is a majestic song of praise from the Iona Community with their usual well written and relevant text. By linking his kingship to nature and love they find a new angle to make monarchy acceptable.
If you sang this with Bells’ setting MARBLE QUARRY to organ accompaniment it would soar. It is from Heaven Shall Not Wait.
I rolled out the BIAB fake organ for this backing.
1 Jesus is Lord of all, monarch of mountain and wave,
Fuser of wind and fire, sculptor of crag and cave.
Jesus is Lord! God’s mighty word creates:
Each feature, worn or wild, to his intent relates.
2 Jesus is Prince of Peace: atom and neutron must cower.
Hate roots their suspect strength, but suff’ring love’s his power.
Jesus is Lord! God’s mighty Word converts
Weapons to welcome signs as foe to friend reverts.
3 Jesus is King of Love. Enemy, neighbour and friend;
They, with the self, are bound in love which knows no end.
Jesus is Lord! God’s mighty Word engraves,
Bold on the cross, that Christ-like love disturbs and saves.
4 Jesus is heaven’s high priest; earth is his altar below.
Sectarian pride he chides that Christian faith may grow.
Jesus is Lord! God’s mighty Word unites.
Those whom the past divides, he to the feast invites.
5 Jesus is Lord of Life! To him let every mind bend:
For him let every pulse and never their purpose spend.
Jesus is Lord! God’s mighty Word requires
Hands, hearts and head to demonstrate what he inspires.
This is an Iona Community song that we have used a lot over the years and I highly recommend it. Heaven Shall Not Wait was the collection it came from originally. It is set to a traditional Scottish tune, KELVINGROVE.
I’ve already blogged this song here because it was in As One Voice: Next Generation, and the text is there. It is one of the Wild Goose songs that you can purchase as an individual piece of sheet music from Willow.
There are notes on its use in the book:
This song has been successfully used at commitment and confirmation services. Verse 4 is sung solo and those wishing to do so, leave their seats and move to the front of the congregation. Then all sing the last verse together. In some places, people may prefer to sing this song in 2/4 time in which case simply change dotted minims to minims.
They advise that the piece should be played “not too slowly”. We found that it can be sung solo briskly but our assembly needed to breathe, so I would say neither too fast nor too slow.
I have looked at the backing I made eleven years ago and it is a good example of Band In a Box allowing you to start simply and sequentially add instruments. I replaced the melody line’s ordinary MIDI guitar sound with a HiQ sound that wasn’t available back then.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
