Church Music

I’m going to skip some chant for Adoration from this collection:

167 The Divine Praises

168-169 Adoremus in aeturnam

170 O Sacrament Most Holy – this is from The Grail – music Charles Gonoud.

For the Liturgy of the Hours, CWB II has a very comprehensive collection of music for the Divine Office, much of which is chant, which I can’t see me doing, so I’ll skim through to look for any songs of note.

This one is based on Psalm 95(94) and I had to have a go with a tune called HEATHER DEW by James Hutton.

1 O come and sing to God, the Lord, to him our voices raise;

Let us in our most joyful songs, the Lord, our Saviour praise.

2 Before his presence let us come with praise and thankful voice;

Let us sing psalms to him with joy, with grateful hearts rejoice.

3 He is a great and mighty King, above all gods his throne;

The depths of earth are in his hand, the mountains are his home.

The next section in CWB II is songs for the worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass. Exposition and Adoration are not forms of liturgy nor spirituality to which I am drawn, but this book has plenty of music for it, most of which I have already blogged when looking at Corpus Christi.

This one is new to me and is a translation of Anima Christi which is supposedly by Pope John XXII. It is set to ANIMA CHRISTE by William Joseph Maher.

It is not new to my wife, the cradle Catholic however, who knows all the words and tells me it was played this Holy Thursday on the streaming of mass we have been watching from the Archdiocese of Brisbane. I must lack the imagination to participate online – especially with buffering and freezing – but without participating as an assembly, mass just doesn’t appear to function.

BIAB in fake organ mode:

1 Soul of my Saviour, sanctify my breast,
body of Christ, be thou my saving guest,
blood of my Saviour, bathe me in thy tide,
wash me with water flowing from thy side.

2 Strength and protection may thy Passion be,
O blessèd Jesus, hear and answer me;
deep in thy wounds, Lord, hide and shelter me,
so shall I never, never part from thee.

3 Guard and defend me from the foe malign,
in death’s dread moments make me only thine;
call me and bid me come to thee on high
where I may praise thee with thy saints for aye.

The lovely thing about this first volume of Catholic Worship Book II is its comprehensive nature as a liturgical resource. Just when you thought every funeral song ever written was already covered they throw in the Latin chants.

I’ve never really got the hang of chant on BIAB, but I might have another crack at it at some stage.

To their credit CWB II’s chant notation looks more intelligible than most and has accompaniment that looks metrical (must look into that). They also often lower the key (thanks be to God).

For now:

From the seemingly inexhaustible supply of liturgical music for funerals in CWB II there is this much loved song by Ernest Sands with a refrain based in In paradisum and verses from Psalm 27 (26).

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

This is yet another funeral song, this time Bob Dufford‘s adaptation of In paradisum.

CWB II just gives the refrain, so if you want the whole song with all the verses you’ll have to buy it at OCP, where the text is in their preview.

The range of songs just for funeral liturgies emphasises what a tremendous source volume one of CWB II is. This song also is a reminder of how maddening the lack of chords symbols is. The keyboard accompaniment at OCP is exactly the same arrangement by Dan Schutte, but with the chord symbols – so they had to do actual work to strip them away to disadvantage guitarists and keyboard players who use chords – absolutely maddening.

I’ve only done a backing for the refrain as found in CWB II.

This is just the ICEL text of In Paradisum set to TALLIS’ CANON.

1 May saints and angels lead you on,

Escorting you where Christ has gone.

Now he has called you, come to him

Who sits above the seraphim.

2 Come to the peace of Abraham

And to the supper of the Lamb:

Come to the glory of the blessed,

And to perpetual light and rest.

Mary at Godsongs posted about this lovely song by Michael Joncas. It is his paraphrase of Psalm 23 and a prayerful response to the Covid 19 epidemic.

The text and music have been posted here for now but I think I’ll have to take the lyrics I printed below down in a year.

His beautiful piano arrangement is well beyond me so I simplified the structure and found chords to make a BIAB arrangement.

1. Shepherd and sheep, my God and I:
   to fresh green fields you led my steps in days gone by.
   You gave me rest by quiet springs
   and filled my soul with peace your loving presence brings.

Chorus:
O shelter me, O shelter me:
the way ahead is dark and difficult to see.
O shelter me, O shelter me:
all will be well if only you will shelter me.

2. Yet now I tread a diff’rent way;
   death dogs my path with stealthy steps from day to day.
   I cannot find your peaceful place
   but dwell in dreary darkness, longing for your face.
3. I will look back in days to come
   and realize your faithfulness has led me home.
   Within your house I’ll find my peace,
   trusting that in your mercy you have sheltered me.

© The Jan Michael Joncas Trust 2020

This is more like it:

I’m skipping Philip Duffy’s chant setting of ICEL’s “Song of Farewell” (153) because BIAB CAN’T DO CHANT.

CWB II also has funeral songs for the procession to the place of committal.

This one is by James Quinn, the first verse being his translation of In paradisium and the second verse his own work. It is here set to SONG 1.

The text is here with the verses reversed. His translation of In paradisium is also here.

This is another “Song of Farewell”, this time by the wonderfully talented and prolific Sr Jennifer O’Brien. She uses the unaltered ICEL text from the Order of Christians Funerals, which you can find here.

The refrain is singable by an assembly but the verses are all different and will need a cantor.

I had figure out the chords for my backing from the keyboard music in CWB II, but really it was silly for them not to include them in any suitable song in this collection.

This is another funeral song and another version of the “Song of Farewell.”

This has a text by Delores Dufner and it is here set to RICHMOND.

The text is on page nine of this brochure, which has other good funeral song suggestions. They also use the tune AMAZING GRACE, which is probably better known and so better for participation.

Most sheet music I have seen put this song in G, as below, but CWB II brings it down to F (thanks be to God).