This gospel song on the theme of justice has a text by Fran Minkoff set by Fred Hellerman of the Weavers. A brief commentary and appreciation is here.
The text is in this bulletin. GIA sell the arrangement by Michael Joncas and Hope Publications have their own version.
My version is only approximate this time as I couldn’t fit the shortest notes into the 12/8 style.
I have hit a vein of tradition hymnody in Gather 3rd ed and a few of the texts are new to me.
This one by Henry Alford is set to St GEORGE’S WINDSOR. I found several variant texts and Gather’s version seems a bit more archaic than some, even without the “ye”s.
1 Come, you thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
all is safely gathered in
ere the winter storms begin:
God, our maker, does provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come,to God’s own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home!2 All the world is God’s own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown
unto joy or sorrow grown:
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear-
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.3 For the Lord our God shall come
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall in that day,
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in God’s garner evermore.4 Even so, Lord, quickly come-
to your final harvest home!
gather all your people in
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there forever purified,
in your presence to abide
come, with all your angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home!
I’ve been able to skip a lot of songs in Gather 3rd ed. because I have already blogged them from other sources.
This hymn has a text derived from the Didache by F. Bland Tucker and set to RENDEZ A DIEU.
The text is here but Gather strip out the archaisms. Their text is on the last page of this bulletin. I also found the sheet music here.
The text, Christus Paradox, is by Sylvia Dunstan and is set to PICARDY. This is an unusually intelligent set of lyrics and by cunningly setting it to a familiar tune, she gets us to sing out her paradox so that we can live the incomprehensible.
GIA have a choral arrangement but the text is at Hymnary and it can be sung to any plain arrangement of PICARDY.
Not surprisingly, many of the songs in Gather 3rd ed. have turned up from other sources and have been blogged here already. This leaves songs that are often not used around here because they are from another culture.
That may be why this song, here credited as text and tune “South African” and yet somehow covered by copyright, is new to me. I note other versions have the lyrics in Shona (Haleluya! Pelo Tsa Rona) as well. I suspect in Australia at least, it is only going to be a choir piece.
Hymnary have the text. You can purchase the sheet music at GIA where it comes packaged with Siyahamba.
This is another TAIZE chant in Gather 3rd ed. It is based on Psalm 25:1 and attributed to the Taizé community.
The text is at TAIZE and they will sell you the sheet music.
This can be a two or four part canon but my backing is just the melody this time.
I’m finding a lot of the Gather 3rd ed. songs that I haven’t covered before are from TAIZE. This one is a canon and a joyful hymn of praise. It was written by Jacques Berthier.
I’m struggling to find the sheet music for sale at GIA or TAIZE. There is a copy here with the English and Latin text.
Brisbane local, Tim Roberts, has made a backing for this song.
…and so did I and probably unwisely I attempted the canon after one bar.
This should be the anthem of every church musician. The insightful text is by Fred Pratt Green and the stirring tune, ENGELBERG, was written by Charles V. Stanford.
The text and sheet music are available at Hope Publications. A choral arrangement is available at GIA.
I made a fake organ backing on BIAB.
This song from Gather 3rd edition is a dignified, restrained song of praise. It was written by Bob Moore with a text based on Romans 11:36-36. The tune benefits by taking it slowly. The guitar version I have puts a descant in the second verse and a countermelody in the third if you are ambitious, but the basic tune is good enough on its own.
GIA sell the sheet music and the text is in their preview.
I am working my way through Gather 3rd ed. skipping the songs I have already covered.
I am still finding exceptional hymns that are new to me and this one with words and music by John Bell is extraordinary.
The text for the refrain and some of the verses is on page four of this bulletin. The rest is in this book sample. How about this for making you think as you sing:
… God is never neutral who inspires my song.
… for there is no hurt which God requires me to retain
GIA only have the handbell version but both GIA and Wild Goose sell it in the collection I Will Not Sing Alone.
The commentary from that book on the song is salutary:
This song is a testimony both to the love of God and to the breadth of praise which is offered in response to that love. It is the antithesis of the smug, egocentric ‘me and Jesus’ praise song which – in the face of biblical testimony – denies the importance to God of the voice of creation, and encourages the false presumption that worship is synonymous with good feelings.
