Church Music

I’m still trying to get all the Christmas songs that I haven’t already covered elsewhere from Gather 3rd ed. before Christmas arrives.

This is a lovely song with a text by Sylvia G. Dunstan and set by Bob Moore. There is a descant for the second half of the chorus.

Hope Publications has sheet music for sale here along with the assemblies’ part and a litany for use as candle lighting in Advent.

GIA also have their arrangement for sale and the text in in their preview. They suggest it for Epiphany. It’s still fine for Christmas though.

This is another Christmas song of merit from the team of Mary Louise Bringle (words) and Sally Ann Morris (music). I like the line “summer’s heat or winter’s chill” as I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a Christmas song from the Northern Hemisphere acknowledge the existence of the Southern Hemisphere. It is a most singable tune and an apposite text.

This time GIA does have the sheet music to sell for download and the lyrics are in their sample.

I love the text of this Christmas song by Mary Louise Bringle based on Isaiah 9:1-6 with its obvious liturgical applications. The tune by Sally Ann Morris works well too, but I’d bring it down from Gm to Em for an assembly ie play the chords without the suggested capo 3 setting.

The lyrics are in a preview at Hymnary, but GIA only seem to have a handbell version of the sheet music to buy there. It is in RitualSong and Gather 3rd and 4th editions, if you have those collections.

Whenever I see 6/8 time I go Irish I’m afraid. BIAB doesn’t have a lot of 6/8 styles and dislike just using waltz time.

There are few more of these topical songs from Gather third ed. to get through before Christmas.

Francis Patrick O’Brien, a priest from Boston with the most Irish name of all time, seems to be a GIA artist whose songs haven’t travelled to the churches in Australia I’ve played at, so they remain to be done despite all the other collections I’ve blogged. This Christmas Alleluia might have a place in a Christmas pageant, though it is singable enough for an assembly. His text speaks of the joy of the Holy Family and the liberation in the Magnificat.

The sheet music can be purchased at GIA, where the text is in their preview.

I enjoyed making a BIAB backing for this one.

The guitar version of Gather third edition has a few more Christmas songs that are new to me. This one is a gentle Christmas song that is a singable alternative to the usual carols. It is by Francis Patrick O’Brien.

One annoyance is that I have to retrieve information like introductions and tempos from the sample at the GIA website. Guitarists are on a need to know basis for these matters apparently.

The sheet music is available at GIA. The text is here.

Surprisingly after all the collections that I have blogged, Gather 3rd edition has some Christmas songs that I have not touched on as yet.

This one has a wonderful text by Shirley Erena Murray. The text is available from the always obliging Hope Publications.

Gather has used Lori True’s setting, who has set other Murray texts, and she incorporated Dona Nobis Pacem as a bridge between the second and third verses, sung a three part canon, which then can continue under the third verse. This really makes it a choir piece unless you omit the canon.

This arrangement can be purchased at GIA.

For my backing I had to fudge and only do two lines of the three part canon.

You get a better idea from this clip.

Having looked at the Advent songs in Gather 3rd edition, almost in time for Advent, it’s time for a break. I’ve slipped past ten years of this odd hobby of blogging hymn tunes and I will see what changes Christmas and the New Year bring.

In the year of her death Shirley Erena Murray deserves the last word.

This is a creation for Advent by Carol E. Browning who took Conditer alme siderum in translation as her verses, and added a refrain of her own composition every two verses. The tune of the verse is a metrical version of a chant in Mode IV.

I’ve blogged the unembellished version here.

GIA sell the sheet music and you can find the words, new and old, in their preview there.

This is another beautiful, if ridiculous in the Southern Hemisphere, song for Advent in Gather 3rd ed. William Gay wrote the heavily inculturated text and Annabel Gay the music. In Australia, we could use verses 2,3 and 5 for Advent, Lent or social justice perhaps, and leave the other verses for other people in other places.

The text is here. GIA sell Marty Haugen’s arrangement.

This is a lovely Advent gathering song in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a weird anachronism in the Southern Hemisphere. That is not the fault of Ruth Duck, the lyricist, as she is allowed quaint, inculturated songs for her local area as much as anyone, but everyone knows this time of year means heat and bush fires and uncomfortable sticky nights. It would never be sung in Australian Advent.

Lori True write the music and the sheet music is sold at GIA, where the text is in their preview.