Church Music

For Lent this year we will again use “Be With Me, Lord” as a seasonal psalm. We also decided to use “Oh God Why Are You Silent” all through Lent as an offertory. That said, not everything will be written by Marty Haugen.

Although we won’t change the mass parts until Easter Vigil, staying with the Mass of St Francis for now, we will use the Lenten Gospel Acclamation from Mason’s Mass of Glory and Praise.

Entrance: Praise To You O Christ (Farrell) AOV 1/28

Psalm: Be With Me Lord (Haugen)

Gifts: Oh God Why Are You Silent (Haugen)

Communion: Tree of Life (Thompson) AOV NG 138

Thanksgiving: Merciful God (Bringle/Alonso)

Recessional: On Eagles Wings (Joncas) AOV 1/153

This song for Pentecost in Gather 3rd ed. has a text by Ruth Duck and is set by Lori True. Over the last verse there is a harmony Vene Sancte which in turn gets joined by a descant Vene Sancte after the verses finish. You’ll get the idea.

There is a nice commentary on the words here. The sheet music can be purchased at GIA where the text is their preview.

This is a short slow chorus in the Gospel tradition with words by Timothy Wright and set to “Congregational Praise Song”. It is designed for repetition.

Although the arrangement by Valeria A. Foster is a GIA copyright, I can find no trace of it anywhere there, so you may have to look for the sheet music in the hymnals noted at Hymnary.

I’m in the service music in Gather 3rd ed. and this is a TAIZE song for Pentecost. the tune is by Jacques Berthier.

The refrain is for the assembly and repeats under the cantor singing proclamations from the Johannine Jesus.

Most of the lyrics are here. GIA only seem to have a handbell arrangement, so you may need to seek it out in the collections noted at Hymnary.

The last Easter song in Gather 3rd ed. that I haven’t covered already is this Rory Cooney song. It is an interesting tune with a key change half way through the verse and gentle syncopation that is kind of catchy. Part of the song sounds like its from Joseph and his Amazing Dreamcoat, but Lloyd-Webber was a scavenger as well. It has applications more generally than Easter.

The text is in the preview at GIA where you can purchase the sheet music.

I’m blogging the Easter songs in Gather 3rd ed. that I haven’t already covered elsewhere. I suspect this setting of Herman Stuempfle‘s text by Sally Ann Morris was a labour of love because she called the tune STUEMPFLE. It has also been set to LASST UNS ERFREUEN.

GIA will sell you the sheet music and you can find the text in their preview there.

This is a Easter song from one the great text writers, John L. Bell. He has set his challenging words to a gentle tune he calls TRANSFORMATION.

The text is here with a nice reflection. I should note that some sources attribute this to John Bell and Graham Maule.

I also have it in the collection Enemy of Apathy, which can be purchase at Wild Goose. GIA, once again, only seem to have the handbell arrangement.

Lovely, but… I noticed none of the clips on You Tube used Bell’s tune. I found another setting in Worship 4th ed. by Sally Anne Morris. Using the melody line preview at Hymnary and outrageous guesses as to the chords I made this backing:

… but that wasn’t it.

G3 also suggested HOLY MANNA, and that appears to what is mostly being used if You Tube is a guide

..and then there is SUA GAN:

I’d use Bell’s tune but I’d bring it down 3 semitones.

Entrance: Lift Up Your Hearts (O’Connor) AOV 1/156

Psalm 31 (McKenna)

I turn to you Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.

Gifts: Be Merciful (Haugen)

Communion: Gift of Finest Wheat  (Westendorf/Kreutz) CWB II 651

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

Recessional: Sing a New Song (Schutte) AOV 1/80

John Bell has adapted and set the words of Desmond Tutu for this song in the Easter section of Gather 3rd ed. It has wonderful and wider applications.

The hope filled text is here. GIA will sell you the sheet music here with a bonus song thrown in for US$1.80.

This Brian Wren text was written for New Years, but Gather 3rd ed. re-purposes the words for their Easter section. They use a setting Lori True, but it appears to more commonly sung to Carlton Young‘s music.

Wren’s text is at Hope Publications, where you can also find the Young setting. Lori True uses the fourth verse as a chorus. GIA only seems to have the True setting for handbells, so you will need to look GIA collections for the sheet music.

This is a backing for the Lori True setting:

This is the Carlton R. Young backing, and even allowing for the vagaries of BIAB it is more singable.