Church Music

I’m looking at Brian Boniwell’s collection of songs called, The Comforter.

This one is a little unusual as the refrain is in our voice and the verses in the voice of Jesus. The text is based on Matthew 7:7.

This is Father Paul Gurr’s rendition:

Back to the Brian Boniwell songs in The Comforter collection.

This is a sung prayer, which starts off Trinitarian but are we meant to call the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus? I’d substitute with “Ho-oly Spi-irit.” Otherwise it is a singable song for Trinity Sunday.

This is one of two songs in the collection, The Comforter, not written by Brian Boniwell. It was written by Michael Carter, about whom I can find nothing on the internet – happy to receive any and all information though.

I found a preview of Father Paul Gurr’s version on Apple Music.

I made a rockier version.

I’m still looking at the collection, The Comforter, which is best thought of as an out of print collection of Brian Boniwell songs from forty or so years ago.

This is chant so no backing from me for this one.

I can find no trace of a recording on the web either, so for completeness, and for those who would like to chant this lovely prayer, here is the sheet music:

This is an enigmatic song by Brian Boniwell from the collection The Comforter.

That’s fine, not everything has to be prosaic and obvious.

This is a nice find. It is a song by Brian Boniwell for the Procession of the Gifts. The range is only C to C this time so it is quite singable.

This one sounds like an amalgam of psalms.

In our current debased world I don’t think these words are very singable. For some reason I skipped it when doing the Praise to God parish hymn book, so I will include it here for completeness.

I looked at this song many years ago, because it was in a folder of copied songs from the parish at which I played. It had been heavily amended and had no attribution. I thought it was by Brian Boniwell, but only confirmed that recently when I aquired the sheet music to The Comforter collection.

It looks like a had made a backing in the early 2000s on the original Band in a Box for Windows 3.1, and had made it into a MIDI file, which I put through a cut down version of Protools years later and it still sounded odd.

This song is actually a folk style tune that would work for gathering if you feel OK singing in the voice of God.

I made a new, slightly more suitable backing:

This is a song for Eucharist by Brian Boniwell that was sung by Father Paul Gurr on his album, The Comforter.

It has a fair old range that is probably too much for an assembly. I’m racking my brain to figure out what song the descending triplets remind of but can’t place it.

I made two backings as the one with strings is a bit hard to follow.

Some time ago I came across a collection called, “The Comforter”, which consists mainly of songs by Brian Boniwell. It accompanied a cassette made by Father Paul Gurr in the 1980s.

I haven’t been able to find this sheet music available anywhere else and the collection is well out of print, which is a shame because the music deserves another look.

There is perhaps an influence from Psalm 132 in the text, which would need “O Lord” replacing “Yahweh” I suppose these days. It is a gentle song of praise and encouragement for private prayer, but in times of trial might even find a place in a liturgy.

Brian has kindly consented for the sheet music to be posted.

I made a couple of backings – I am happier with this one:

This one is a bit of a fail:

Father Gurr’s style is an acquired taste – as is mine as it happens: