This is not an Advent song but was the title track of the Craig Colson album from which “This is Your Justice” derives and I thought it worth a look too.
It is a solo vehicle but powerful nonetheless.
The sheet music is for purchase at WLP where the text is in their sample.
Rounding out lent for CWB II is this translation of a sixth century song Clarum decus jujunii, possibly by Gregory the Great, translated by Maurice Bell.
This Marty Haugen song, which he says was originally an entrance hymn for Holy Thursday, is in the Lent section of CWB II because of the extra verses Haugen wrote for each week of Lent.
Happily CWB II have the chords this time.
It is up to his usual excellent standard as a singable hymn and most suitable for the solemn liturgies it addresses.
The text is here but you will need to seek out GIA’s preview to look at the Lenten verses if you don’t have CWB II, although it is also in Gather Australia 307 (& Ritual Song 541). You can buy the sheet music or view the preview at GIA.
I’ve done Marty Haugen’s “Return to God” 298, so that gets me to this song from The (Unrevised) Grail with the antiphon from Joel 2:17 and the verses from Psalm 51.
The antiphon is:
Parce Domine, populo tuo, ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.
…which means “O Lord, spare thy people, and be not angry with us for ever”. but is here translated to:
Spare your people, Lord, spare your people; spare us Lord.
Be not angry, Lord, with your people forever.
The text of the verses is here – scroll to Psalm 51 vss 3,4,5,6,9.
The music is chant mode 1. Since BIAB can’t do chant I can’t do this justice but I did put in some breathing pauses this time for a change:
I’ve noticed that the antiphon is always the same but the verses have various different tunes for the verses.
I’m still in the Lent section of CWB II and finding more Lent songs I didn’t know.
This one has a text by Kevin Nichols and is usually set to PASSION CHORALE (Hassler) but in CWB I & II it is set to NESHANIC by the very prolific Erik Routley.
This is one of the wonderful songs by the team of James Phillip McAuley the poet and Richard Connolly the tunesmith.
I can grouch about the over abundance of traditional hymnody in this collection but I always enjoy Connolly’s tunes. McAuley’s texts are direct and apposite and not a word is out of place.
It was in CWB I and also Together In Song, where I got he chords for my backing.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
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Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.