Church Music

When you take out the hymns available in As One Voice from Catholic Worship Book II you are left with a lot of fairly recent texts to rather old tunes.

This is another one is by the very prolific Michael Forster and I suspect it is a deep cut because a can find no sign of lyrics or performances anywhere on the net. I can’t even find it on CCLI and OneLicence and there have an awful lot of his material there.

CWB II set the text to NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT, the tune of “Now Thank We All Our God”.

I made a backing in case you want to sing along to learn it from CWB II.

Just for fun here is a secular hymn to the same tune in SATB.

Bernard Sexton wrote this song for the Fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 2012. The text is here, although CWB II has five verses and I’ve seen six. Apart from from the range being somewhat too wide for the assembly it is, not surprisingly, a liturgically useful hymn for the Eucharist.

I’ve made a backing based on chords I found on the net, but infuriatingly CWB II has none.

The sheet music used to be available to download but the links are dead. I can’t find a way to purchase it online.

I’ve already blogged this text by Frederick William Faber here set to HYFRYDOL.

Catholic Worship Book II prefers IN BABILONE.

The text has more stanzas than CWB II uses (see here) but those chosen by the editors, which I have included below, are extraordinary.

There’s a wideness to God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea,

and forgiveness in his justice sealed for us on Calvary.

There is plentiful redemption through the blood that Christ has shed;

there is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader than the measures of our mind;

and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

But we make his love too narrow by false limits of our own,

and we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not own.

Restless souls why do you scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?

Foolish hearts, why do you wander from a love so true and deep?

If our love were more than simple we should take him at his word;

and our lives would be illumined by the goodness of the Lord.

This is a song for Pentecost with a social justice edge by Brian Wren set to LAUDS by John W. Wilson. I’m sure it has a liturgical fit more generally as well and CWB II is to be applauded for including his work.

Hope Publishing Company have the text and sheet music freely available here.

As usual, I have made a BIAB backing to help for learning purposes.

I missed the meeting at which the songs were chosen for the next few weeks as I was accompanying my daughter to an antenatal class of all things.

So with thanks to the team here are this weeks’ selections. We are switching back to Mason’s Mass of Glory and Praise.

Entrance: All Are Welcome (Haugen)

Psalm 89 (McKenna)

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge

Gifts: The Summons   (Maule-Bell) AOV NG 149

Communion: In the Breaking of the Bread  (Hurd) AOV 1/58

Thanksgiving: Servant Song   (Gillard) AOV 2/169

Recessional: Though the Mountains May Fall  (Schutte)  AOV 1/182

This is a c18 text by Thomas Olivers based an older Jewish original and Rev 4-5. There are many other verses and variations but the text below is as per CWB II.

Here it is set to LEONI by Meyer Lyon.

The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days
And God of love.
The Lord the great I AM!
By earth and heaven confessed;
We bow and bless the sacred name
Forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise,
Whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide us all our happy days
In all our ways.
He calls us each a friend;
He calls himself our God.
And he shall save us to the end
Through Jesus’ blood.

He by himself has sworn; 
We on his oath depend.
We shall, on eagle wings up borne,
To heaven ascend.
We shall behold his face;
We shall his power adore
And sing the wonders of his grace
Forever more.

The God who reigns on high
The great archangels sing,
And “Holy, holy, holy!” cry,
“Almighty King!”
Who was and is the same.
And evermore shall be:
the Lord, our Father, Great I AM!
Eternally.

Before the Saviour’s face
the ransomed nations bow,
all praising his almighty grace,
forever new.
He shows his wounds of love,
they kindle to a flame
and sound through all the worlds above
the slaughtered lamb.

The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high.
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
They ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God and mine!
I join the heavenly lays:
All might and majesty are thine
And endless praise!

This is a typical CWB II hymn. A text from c20, with a tune from much further back in time – here c18.

The text is by Bryn Rees and will suit any liturgy with a focus on the Reign of God. Godsongs has background on the author and the hymn. The text is here.

CWB II chooses to set it to HANOVER by William Croft. My backing is more fake organ from BIAB.

Back in CWB II is a Delores Dufner text set to MARTYRDOM.

GIA have Michael Joncas’s setting and her text is in their preview.

This is my backing for the tune used here.

There is no misprint in the title, this is from Catholic Worship Book I. It is also in The New Living Parish Hymn Book 269.

It is a charming 70s song for Eucharist from Mark Arnold. Brett was looking into copyright for it and it resides with the author whom we don’t know how to find. I’ll put it out there for anyone who might know a bit more about the song and its author. Being in the two hymn books noted suggests an Australian songsmith.

The text is here (scroll down).

I’m nearly in the home stretch covering Catholic Worship Book II.

This is a social justice text from the seventies by Fred Pratt Green and set to WAREHAM, an c18 tune by William Knapp.

Both the text and sheet music are freely available at Hope Publications. for which I am grateful.