Church Music

On Michael Herry’s site he calls this a “Hymn of Trust”. The words and sheet music are there as well. He also has a version by the Marist Singers on this site.

His site says the text of the refrain is anonymous but adapted by Tricia Walsh. The verses are adapted from psalm 138.

CWB II says the verse is translated from a source of Pauline charism by Fr Walter Silvester and the verses are The Grail translation of the psalm. Make of all that as you will.

I prefer Herry’s sheet music although he pitches it in Eb and CWB II brings it down to D. He also has different markers for emphasis for the chant in the verses.

I made a backing to learn the refrain mainly. I did include the verses but used notes for the tones rather than each word because BIAB CAN”T DO CHANT.

This c19 text with obvious liturgical uses is by George Washington Doane. CWB II has Becket G. Senchur’s modernised version (no “thees”), but this makes the tortured yoda style syntax look worse. With archaic language the sentence structure is probably more acceptable.

Here it is set to TALLIS’ ORDINAL.

You are the Way: in you alone
from sin and death we rise;
without your grace we nothing are,
in you all goodness lies.

You are the Truth: your Word alone
full wisdom can impart;
and Word alone transforms the mind,
and purifies the heart.

You are the life: the empty tomb
Proclaims your victory,
And those who put their trust in you
shall evermore be free.

You are the Way, the Truth, the Life;
grant us that Way to see,
that Truth to keep, that Life to live,
that we your friends may be.

Original text:

1. Thou art the way: to Thee alone
   From sin and death we flee;
   And he who would the Father seek
   Must seek Him, Lord, by Thee.
2. Thou art the truth: Thy Word alone
   True wisdom can impart;
   Thou only canst inform the mind,
   And purify the heart.
3. Thou art the life: the rending tomb
   Proclaims Thy conqu’ring arm,
   And those who put their trust in Thee
   Not death nor hell shall harm.
4. Thou art the way, the truth, the life;
   Grant us that way to know,
   That truth to keep, that life to win,
   Whose joys eternal flow.

This song by Lucien Deiss uses Luke 15:18 as the basis for the antiphon and Psalm 51 for the verses. I gather it is used at funerals.

The text is here. The sheet music can be purchased at WLP.

My backing groups the verses into 2 verses at a time.

Entrance: Gather As One  (McKenna) AOV NG 48

Psalm 145 (McKenna)

Praise the Lord my soul!

Praise the Lord my soul!

Gifts: The Cry of the Poor  (Foley) AOV 1/83

Communion: Come to the Table   (Burland) AOV NG 33

Thanksgiving: Be Merciful (Haugen)

Recessional: Sing of the Lord’s Goodness   (Sands) AOV 1/131

I should have mentioned that CWB II is alphabetical by first line not title so this song is near the end, as its first line is “With every mountain.”

I was going to say this is a more recent song but it still goes back to 1998. It is a Michael Mangan song that I haven’t come across before so that is a nice surprise. It’s from the collection Forever I Will Sing and the text is available in a word file at his site. You can also buy the collection there at Litmus. He based the text on Psalm 98 and it is singable and suitable for adults as well as children.

For all my bleating about CWB II falling well short of a useful collection of hymns, the editing has appeared to be exceptional. There is however an error here, with a D/F# written as D/F on the third line.

This is one of the few times CWB II give chords, so making a backing was easier than usual.

Continuing the pattern of fairly recent texts to old tunes is this hymn, especially relevant for Advent, by James Quinn, which is set to LEIBSTER JESU (c17).

The text is here and there are nice appreciations of the author and text here and here.

My survey of the songs from Catholic Worship Book II that I haven’t already covered is nearing the end.

I am up to this song with a text by Christopher Idle based on Ecclesiasticus 1 according to CWB II and is a hymn to Wisdom. Like many songs here it is a newish text to an old tune, in this case DIX.

The text is at Hope Publishing, where they suggest it is based on many references from proverbs and set it to every tune other than DIX.

This is delightful song from M.D. Ridge and with gathering, baptismal and sending forth verses it is liturgically useful as well.

It is available to purchase from OCP and the text is in their preview. It is in my copy of their Guitar Accompaniment Book as well (590) and that’s where I got the chords for my backing because CWB II wouldn’t include them.

This is Ubi caritas est vera set to chant mode VI.

This site gives the Latin text and an English translation.

You can hear it in Latin here.

How lovely that Richard Connolly did a setting of Ubi Caritas. He paraphrased the Holy Thursday liturgy and set it to his tune, JEREMY.

The text is here. As One Voice have a sample of the sheet music here and you can purchase the sheet music there as well. It is also in Together In Song 434.

Here is an appreciation of Richard Connolly.