This Monica Brown mantra from Holy Ground, is based on Luke 23:46.
You can buy the sheet music for almost nothing at Emmaus.
She is very fond of changes in time signatures in these mantras but it seems to work.
Into your hands I commit myself.
Into your hands I entrust all that is and all that holds my heart.
Into your hands I commit.
© 1994 Monica Brown
This mantra by Monica Brown is based on John 6:67-69 and has liturgical uses (eg Gifts) as well as being for private contemplation.
The sheet music is on the collection Holy Ground ($A5 at Emmaus).
To whom shall we go if not to you, O God.
You alone have the words of everlasting life.
We believe in You.
© 1992 Monica Brown
This is another marvellous mantra from Monica Brown that we used back at St Edwards in the day. It is a sentiment from the psalms and still most relevant for now.
The text is at Emmaus and the collection, Holy Ground, costs $A5 to download.
I blogged this some time ago, but made another backing:
I came across a hard copy of Monica Brown‘s book of mantras. Monica Brown is an Australian composer whose music just seemed to be there when I was at St Edward’s, Daisy Hill back in the late 1990s and 2000s, as part of the fabric and used in many liturgies.
These mantras would be a powerful tool for prayerful mindfulness.
This is the title track of the collection and I have blogged it before.
The whole collection can be downloaded for $A5 at Emmaus Productions. As soon as you click on “sheet music” it is in your cart, but it is only five dollars, making her pretty close to Brother Michael Herry’s giving it away philosophy.
The lyrics are at Emmaus.
I don’t know that this new backing is any better than the last one I made.
The last song in the collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1 from Liturgical Song, is this song for the Easter Sequence.
This is Paul Mason’s setting of c11 text by Wipo of Burgundy, Victimae Paschale Laudes in the ICEL translation.
For the full effect, Mason suggest a tenor voice cantor, a female voice cantor, SATB choir and assembly. Specifically, V1 – C1 + C2 in parts, V2 C1, V3 C2, V4 starts with C1 and ends with C2, V5&6 C1 + C2 in parts. It blossoms out in the alleluias, and it doesn’t at all come across in a BIAB backing. I’d love to hear a recording of the the full arrangement.
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
has sinners to his Father reconciled.Death with life contended: combat
strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.Tell us, Mary: say
what you did see upon the way?
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as He rose!The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
He goes before you into Galilee.That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious King, Thy mercy show!Alleluia x6
Christ has become our paschal sacrifice; let us feast with joy in the Lord.
Alleluia x6
This is a very good collection that does not need all the artillery that the arrangements suggest, but will carry it off if you have the multiple cantors and choirs. For your $A40 you get twenty songs, with seven having an additional full score. You get Paul Mason’s wonderfully obssessive liturgy notes, so what’s not to like. I’d would like more single sheets and samples of the music available online for those of us who can’t just sit and sight read a piece. I hope Volume 2 emerges as promised.
Paul Mason has included this arrangement by himself and Seth Harsh of William Henry Monk’s hymn in the collection Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1 (available at Liturgical Song).
Rounding out the nine new releases is a wonderful contemporary piano arrangement by Seth Harsh of “Abide With Me.” This version has been featured in Mass For You At Home (MFYAH).
I blogged the AOV version here , but this arrangement has a piano introduction added and some subtle changes to the chords.
My backing does it no justice – it always sounds like a piano roll when I just enter all the piano notes into BIAB.
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Paul Mason used a C15 Dominican chant for this text as a basis for his version of the Stabat Mater, rather than the usual Gregorian chant. As for the text, I’m sure Edward Caswall did his best for the translation but it does sound better in Latin.
Mason not only gives you music and text but expert exposition in which he refutes the usual attribution to Jacopone da Todi and traces its earliest appearance to C13 Bologna. This lament’s use is at Stations of the Cross and Holy Week.
You can find it in Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1 at Liturgical Song.
I had real trouble with this and made three backings a varying levels of blah. I ended up slowing his tempo on the one I like best:
This is even slower:
… and this just sounds bad at his tempo – not Mason’s fault! Maybe it would be better with minimal to no accompaniment.
1 At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.2 Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed.3 O how sad and sore distressed,
Was that Mother highly blest
Of the sole begotten One!4 Christ above in torment hangs,
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying, glorious Son.5 Is there one who would not weep,
Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?6 Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?7 Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.8 For the sins of his own nation
Saw him hang in desolation
Till his spirit forth he sent.9 O thou Mother! Font of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with thine accord.10 Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.11 Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified.12 Let me share with thee his pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torment died.13 Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live.14 By the cross with thee to stay;
There with thee to weep and pray,
All I ask of thee to give.15 Virgin of all Virgins best!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share thy grief divine.
In the absence of a clip for this version here it is in Latin Gregorian chant.
OK this one is a bit special, but I don’t expect to hear you singing it at Mass this week.
Paul Mason has used the Song of Songs and the letters of Blessed Jordan of Saxony in what I interpret as a lusty paean to romantic love. It is available in the collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1 at Liturgical Song.
He, however, describes it thusly:
“You Are So Deeply Engraved in My Heart” is a beautiful new song for use at celebrations of Marriage and Religious Profession, as well as Masses for Religious, Masses for Marriage Anniversaries and the feasts of St Mary Magdalene and St Scholastica. Texts from Song of Songs and a 12th Century love letter from Jordan of Saxony to Diana D’Andalo are set to a beautiful soaring melody resulting in a moving song about the love between Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the Church.
It appears Mason was worried enough that the text would be misconstrued (by the likes of me), he devoted a whole crowded page to explaining its origins in the letters of Blessed Jordan to Blessed Diana, who were separated by distance and their vows. I think they may have been healthier and happier together. Allegorising obviously sexual works like the Song of Songs is an unfortunate part of the Catholic Church’s historical treatment of women as either virgin or whore.
I get this song’s use in a marriage liturgy, but my understanding the religious life is limited and its use for Religious Profession and a Mass for Religious has me head scratching.
You are so deeply engraven in my heart
That the more I realise how truly you love me from the depths of your soul,
The more incapable I am of forgetting you
And the more constantly you are in my thoughts.
For your love of me moves me more profoundly
And makes my love for you burn more strongly,
Burn more strongly, burn, burn for you.
I hear my beloved!
See how he comes leaping on the mountains,
Bounding over the hills.
[Rpt and stop at “burn for you”]
In the absence of any recordings of Mason’s song, how about:
INXS singing for another tragic Diana:
This is Paul Mason’s setting of the Pentecost Sequence attributed to Robert II, King of France and translated by Edward Caswell.
This is another fantastic melody and it is frustrating not be able to hear his proper arrangement anywhere. You can buy the sheet music in the collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1 at Liturgical Song.
I made a version nonetheless:
1 Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come, with treasures which endure;
Come, thou Light of all that live!2 Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow;
Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.3 Light immortal, Light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:
If thou take they grace away,
Nothing pure in us will stay;
All our good is turned to ill.4 Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.5 Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
In thy sevenfold gifts, descend:
Give us comfort when we die;
Give us life with thee on high,
Give us joys that never end.
This is another fine Paul Mason song that has come from a specific parish but has wide applicability. It is a gathering song, a song for Gifts, a Communion song and even a Recessional. In his usual style he notes twenty-seven liturgies for which it is especially appropriate – not for nothing is Paul Australia’s favourite liturgy nerd!
He notes:
“We Are Called” is energetic and uplifting, based on the texts of the prayer, vision and mission of the Cathedral parish (Lumen Christi) in the Diocese of Wollongong, called to be bearers of Christ’s love, called to reveal the light of Christ to the world.
It is available as a single sheet, or in the essential collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol 1.
I’m not sure my backing is quite the “passionately” he was looking for.
Refrain
We are called to be bearers of Christ’s love.
We are called to reveal the light of Christ to the world.
Merciful God, merciful God,
You have called us out of darkness into light,
The light of Christ.1 May the gifts that we share help in building up the Body of Christ,
The Body of Christ.
Help us to reveal Christ’s love to the world through all we say and do,
All we say and do.2 May the Spirit of Trith strengthen us, help us bear witness to your Word,
Witness to your Word.
Feed us at the Table of the Eucharist to give light to the world,
Light to the world.
© 2021 Paul Mason Published by Liturgical Song www.liturgicalsong.com
