Church Music

I’ll dip in and out of Voices As One when CWB II does too many old hymns in a row.

I’m up to the Christmas songs in CWB II so many will have been covered on this blog already.

255 Angels We Have Heard On High

256 Away in a Manger

…which brings me to the very surprising songwriter for CWB II, the wonderful children’s entertainer, Peter Combe, of “Toffee Apple” fame. It is for school Christmas celebrations and a lot of fun for the children to echo the lines of the verse.

You have to wonder why there are no guitar chords for this song in CWB II.  It is hardly for cathedral organ. I note CWB II changes “Father” to “Mother” in the chorus.

He has put the lyrics up here. I rarely get to use a polka setting on BIAB.

CHORUS
Baby lying in a manger
No room in the inn
His mother watches over
The new born king.

The shepherds come to see him (echo)

CHORUS

The shepherds come to see him (echo)
The wise men kneel and worship him (echo)

CHORUS

The shepherds come to see him (echo)
The wise men kneel and worship him (echo)
The ox and the ass stand round him (echo)

CHORUS

The shepherds come to see him (echo)
The wise men kneel and worship him (echo)
The ox and the ass stand round him (echo)
The angel watches over (echo)

CHORUS

The shepherds come to see him (echo)
The wise men kneel and worship him (echo)
The ox and the ass stand round him (echo)
The angel watches over (echo)
Mary rocks him (echo)

© Peter Combe 1990

This is Psalm 34 as set by Paul A Tate in Voices As One Vol 2.. The assembly will only manage the refrain and the cantors will do the tricky verses.

The sheet music can be purchased at WLP. The text is in their sample.

The refrain is

The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.

He also sets an alternative antiphon  – “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

Entrance: All the Ends of the Earth (Dufford) AOV 1/76

Psalm 92 (McKenna)

The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.

Gifts: Blessed Be Our God (McKenna) AOV NG 13

Communion: Unless a Grain of Wheat (Farrell) AOV 1/35

Thanksgiving: O Sacred Flame (Marshall)

Recessional: Sing of the Lord’s Goodness (Sands) AOV 1/131

With the repertoire of CWB II mostly traditional hymns I will intersperse some songs I haven’t covered from WLP’s Voices As One Vol2. These are the antithesis of CWB II, being contemporary style.

This is by John Angotti and Ed Bolduc and won an award in 2005 for Praise and Worship song of the year.

It is a performance piece with the verses having a different tune but the chorus and bridge can be sung along with.

The sheet music can be purchased at WLP where the text is in their sample.

Advent, in CWB II, gets closed out with:

253 Advent Litany

…and this song aka Rorate caeli desuper. It is a chant for Advent based on Isaiah 45:8. The translation in CWB II is by Rev Percy Jones and since there is no claim of copyright, here it is:

Antiphon

You heavens, sprinkle dew from above.

You clouds rain down the Just One.

1 Withhold your anger from us O Lord,

Be mindful no more of our evil doing,

For the city of your Holy One has become a desert:

Sion has been laid waste, Jerusalem empty and desolate:

The house of your hallowing presence and of your glory,

Where our ancestors of old sang your praises.

Antiphon

2 We all have sinned and have become like one unclean.

We have all fallen low as dead leaves fall in autumn;

And like the wind our sins have swept us away.

You have hidden from us your face.

You have crushed us in the grip of our transgressions.

Antiphon

3 Behold O Lord the affliction of your people;

And send him who is to come.

Send forth the Lamb, the Lord of the universe:

As ransom gold from Petra in the desert

To the mount of Sion’s daughter,

May he deliver us from the yoke of our captivity.

Antiphon

4 “Be comforted , be comforted, O you my people,

For quickly comes your salvation.

Why are you consumed with grief?

For your sorrow has transformed you;

I come to save, away with all your fears:

For I am your Lord and your God Most High,

Israel’s Holy One and your Redeemer.”

Antiphon

 

The tune is beyond me (BIAB can’t do Chant!) but not the people at Gregorian Chant Hymns.

The Latin text and sound file are here.

Better still you could download the Parish Book of Chant as a free pdf from Musica Sacra and wonder why you paid money for CWB II.

As I continue my survey of Catholic Worship Book II, I am mainly coming across traditional hymns.

I have already blogged elsewhere:

250 Prepare the Way another from Brian Boniwell in CWB II

251 Wait for the Lord a TAIZE chant.

This is a song often known as “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” in a translation by Catherine Winkworth, but there is more than one translation in use.

The text in CWB II is Harry Hagan’s paraphrase and translation of the Philipp Nicolai text, which is copyright.

It is set to Bach’s harmonisation of Nicolai’s arrangement of Hans Sachs’s WACHET AUF.

BIAB should not go near Bach.

This Christopher Idle text for Advent is based on Isaiah 35 and set to AVE VIRGO VIRGINUM(aka GAUDEAMUS PARITER)

The text is here.

This is the sheet music with a different text:

Stephen noted this in recent correspondence:

One year, when preparing the Easter music for an Anglican church, I discovered No 302 in The Australian Hymn Book – the tune and metre Vruechten 67.67 D – Melody from J Oudaen’s “Psalter’, Amsterdam 1685, words by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934): “This joyful Eastertide away with sin and sorrow…” How interesting and enchanting I thought it! What do people think of it? Is it ever sung?

I’m doing a lot of traditional hymns that are out of my comfort zone lately, but this is certainly a thrilling tune with a ferocious range, so I’ll let the choir sing it and groan along an octave down for the “arisen”s. All the details are as noted by Stephen and Hymnary puts it all together as usual. It shows up in Protestant Hymnals in the main there.

1 This joyful Eastertide,
away with sin and sorrow!
My Love, the Crucified,
has sprung to life this morrow:
Refrain:
Had Christ, who once was slain,
not burst His three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain;
but now has Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen;
but now has Christ arisen!
2 Death’s flood has lost its chill
since Jesus crossed the river;
Lover of souls, from ill
my passing soul deliver: [Refrain]
3 My flesh in hope shall rest
and for a season slumber
till trump from east to west
shall wake the dead in number: [Refrain]

Entrance: Hearts on Fire  (Mangan) AOV NG 62

Psalm 15 (McKenna)

Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

Gifts: Will You Love Me?  (Boniwell) AOV 1/40

Communion: Come to the Table (Burland) AOV NG 33

Thanksgiving: All You Works of God (Haugen) AOV 1/19

Recessional: Lord the Light of Your Love (Kendrick) AOV 2/59

I’m slogging through the largely traditional Advent repertoire of CWB II and I’ve already done:

247 The Angel Gabriel 

I have actually done a version of this song too as “The Advent of Our King”. This is a different translation of Charles Coffin’s text – translated by Anthony G. Petti and based on Robert Campbell, except for the fourth verse, which is from the other version by John Chandler – is that quite clear.

Here it is set to FRANCONIA  by William Henry Havergal. I got the chords from the ever reliable Together in Song for more fake BIAB organ.

The text used here is from the New Catholic Hymnal and is the same used in CWB I if you have a dog eared copy of that. I can’t find the lyrics on the internet but two verses are used to light the Advent candle in this liturgy. I think CWB II picked the better text, but one that is adapted enough from its public domain sources to be copyright – well done Faber.

This is the other text set to FRANCONIA.