Church Music

This is a lovely song from the Iona community to see you from womb to tomb. It is from Heaven Shall Not Wait and is set to TRAVELLER by John Bell.

The text and a delightful commentary is here.

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.

This is a song of praise that uses aspects of Jesus’ life. It is from the Iona collection Heaven Shall Not Wait. It is another fantastic and unusual text.

I made a backing but the chords in the piano arrangement defeated me. I chose a much simplified set of chords for this backing.

Chorus

Blessing and honour, wisdom and wealth, freedom to save or to sever:

These we proclaim belong to our God, Lord of creation forever.

1 Safe as the atom, unsplit in its shell, strong as the sea in intention,

Fine as the weave of a dragonfly’s wing: power is God’s perfect invention.

2 Born of a woman and skilled at the lathe, forfeiting glamour and glory,

God, in the flesh of a carpenter’s son, practiced the power of a story.

3 Tempted to transform the stones into bread, taunted to call help from heaven,

Christ showed how strength lay in carrying the cross, forgiving seventy times seven.

4 Power is made perfect where weakness is strong; weakness is meant for our healing;

Healing is found at the feet of the poor where God, as servant, is kneeling.

5 Made in the image of one who, unarmed, challenged the great and the greedy,

Ours is the privilege to claim and express justice for all who are needy.

Words: John L. Bell & Graham Maule, copyright © 1987 Wild Goose Resource Group/ WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland. Melody: BLESSING AND HONOUR by John Bell. Websites: wgrg.co.uk & holycity-glasgow.co.uk

Rex in Queensland wanted a backing for this song his group is singing soon. The author of the text is unknown. It has numerous settings to choose from. Mary at Godsongs has looked at this but I don’t think the clips she provided are actually using the tune MELITA as she thought.

I could not find a name nor any sheet music for the tune requested so I made a stab at it and made a basic backing.

O Mother of Perpetual Help,
To thee we come imploring help.
Behold us here from far and near,
To ask of thee our help to be.
Behold us here from far and near,
To ask of thee our help to be.

Perpetual Help we beg of thee,
Our soul from sin and sorrow free.
Direct our wandring feet aright,
And be thyself our own true light.
Direct our wandring feet aright,
And be thyself our own true light.

Be thou to us through all this life,
The starlight of this earthly strife.
And Mother when I come to die,
Be Thou thy spouse and Jesus nigh.
And Mother when I come to die,
Be Thou thy spouse and Jesus nigh.

And when this life is o’er for me
The last request I ask of thee;
Obtain for me from heave’n this grace
To see my God there face to face
Obtain for me from heave’n this grace
To see my God there face to face

This is a solo song in the voice of Jesus that would lead to contemplation. It is from the Iona Community’s Heaven Shall Not Wait.

The tune by John Bell is a dramatic piece that would be suitable in a musical.

The text is here.

This song from the Iona community is more the occasion for a short theatrical mime than suitable for liturgy. A cantor sings the verses and the last refrain and the actors each of the other refrains. It is a well written piece relating to episodes in the life of Jesus. Once again it is reminiscent of medieval mystery plays.

It is from the book Heaven Shall Not Wait available at Wild Goose. Wild Goose is an alternative symbol for the Holy Spirit. If I recall, Bell says that you don’t know where the wild goose comes from, nor where it goes, but there is a lot of noise and mess when it is here.

My BIAB backing is another where the chords are cribbed from his keyboard arrangement.

1 Sitting next to no-one, he makes money out of fools:

Faking scales of justice and rewriting half the rules;

Tired of making profit from the easy wage of sin;

Keen he is to stop, but where on earth can he begin?

Refrain

And I still know I’ll know, should we never meet again,

What you love meant then.

2 No-one going near him, most folk turn and walk away;

Eaten by diseases, he grows weaker every day;

Just a social leper, seeking someone on the street;

One of life’s untouchables who no one wants to meet.

Refrain

3 A women of convenience, for the gentlemen of leisure;

A rag on whom they wipe themselves, pretending that she’s pleasure.

Oh, how she shrinks from the terror of their stare:

Those who tried to own her now would stone her, free of care.

Refrain

4 Pockets full of money and a head packed full of skill;

Proud beyond presumption, self assured and strong of will;

Craved for as an ally, but unwanted as a friend;

The paragon of know,edge has a soul he hopes can mend.

Refrain

5 Teacher and disputer and accepter of the lost;

Counsellor and Curer, never telling of the cost

Till one hellish Friday, silhouetted on a tree,

The one who heals creation took the pain imposed by me.

Refrain

Words: John L. Bell & Graham Maule, copyright © 1987 Wild Goose Resource Group/ WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland. Melody: SAVIOUR by John Bell. Websites: wgrg.co.uk & holycity-glasgow.co.uk

While I was fussing over settings for the Exsultet, I mentioned I hadn’t heard Erica Marshall’s version.

Fiona Dyball (who knows about these things) has come to the rescue, letting us see what was going on at the Immaculate Conception Church, Hawthorn, Australia at Easter Vigil. Any church would be blessed by an introduction to the Vigil as dignified and graceful as this.

The sheet music can be bought at Willow and you can see from the clip, the accompaniment can be minimal, simple and a beautiful support to the cantor.

Erica Marshall has written popular masses and many hymns as well as her work as an arranger over many decades. I popped her name in my search area and was surprised how just how many of her songs have turned up on the blog over the years.

OK, I’ve finally made it to the exciting title track of Heaven Shall Not Wait.

This is a great and disturbing hymn. Read the text here or listen to the piece and you will see why. The traditionally styled majestic tune Bell wrote is reminiscent of triumphalist hymnody and the effect is jarring as the intention is flipped by the excoriating text.

As in many of the hymns he grew up with in the Church of Scotland and those from my childhood in the Presbyterian church in Australia, heaven has only one syllable.

Same text, different tune:

Since John Bell is partly responsible for the songs I have been blogging, I thought this interview might be of interest. He mentions that he is approaching retirement, discusses his music, Celtic spirituality and an authentic faith in the present day. Finding God in creation is obviously close to his heart.

It’s always worth the time to listen to him.

The section of the songbook Heaven Shall Not Wait called “Jesus, One of Us” contains songs that relate to particular episodes in the life of Christ. This one is a dialogue song involving the calling of the disciples and could be used whenever that relates to the readings or tangentially for commissioning.

It is set to SCARBOROUGH FAIR so the tune will be well known at least.

1 “James and Andrew, Peter and John, men of temper, talent and tide,

Your nets are empty, empty and bare. Cast them now on the opposite side.”

2 “Jesus, you’re only a carpenter’s son: joints and joists are part of your trade,

But ours the skill to harvest the deep. Why presume to come to our aid?”

3 “Friends of mine and brothers through love, I mean more than fishing for food.

I call your skill to service my will, cast your lives to harvest the good.”

4 “Stir then the waters, Lord, stir up the wind. Stir the hope that needs to be stretched.

Stir up the love that needs to be ground, stir the faith that needs to be fetched.”

5 James and Andrew, Peter and John and the girls who walked by his side,

Hear how the Lord calls each by their name asking all to turn like the tide.

Words: John L. Bell & Graham Maule, copyright © 1987 Wild Goose Resource Group/ WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland. Melody: ‘SCARBOROUGH FAIR’ Irish traditional. Websites: wgrg.co.uk & holycity-glasgow.co.uk