Church Music

This song was written last year based on the readings for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. I got stuck on the fourth week and didn’t get going again after that.

My backing has the tune as I wrote. My demo perhaps not so much.

Chorus
Bringing good news to the poor,
Setting the captives free,
For the Body of Christ,
It’s time for this text to be.

1 Amen, open the book.
Amen, Amen, it’s time to look.

2 It’s time for many parts,
To come together in o-one heart.

3 Church is diversity,
The parts are complimentary.

4 Do not mourn, do not weep,
The joy of the Lord is yours to keep.

© 2023 Geoffrey Madden

Oh dear, the last chord of the chorus is Eb not Bb. I play it capo 3 anyway like any good lazy guitarist. Here is a fake sheet with the melody.

I wrote this song last year based on the readings from the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. If I feel like writing a song but I am not sure where to start, it’s not a bad idea to do that and if things work out you have a song to match a liturgy.

I am most open to suggestions for improvement.

1 We are not forsaken.
Our land is not abandoned.
God is always our help.
To his way we are wedded.

Chorus
Let God’s glory be seen,
Shining like the dawn,
Flaming like a torch,
Firing our Antiphon.

2 All good gifts God gives us,
Fair is his judgement.
Spirit give us wisdom,
So we may not be silent.

© 2023 Geoffrey Madden

I tried to make demos but I don’t think I was following my own tune 100%. I also changed antiphon to song but I’m not sure if that is good or bad.

I’m labelling songs I have written “Collab Project” to make them easier to me to search for in my blog, even if there isn’t much need for further collaboration in this song at least.

This was the other collaboration with Pam Bowen, and is in a completely different style. The text reminds me of the Buddhist concept of the Monkey Mind in the Mindfulness course I’m currently doing.

1 A cracked vessel is the mind
What goes in leaks out in time:
People’s names and people’s faces,
What took place in certain places,
All the science, all the math,
Memories of the distant past.

CHORUS
YOU CAN’T ADD MORE TO A FILLED-UP CUP,
YOU NEED TO LET SOME OUT.
THAT CRACK IS A BLESSING
YOU CAN BE GLAD ABOUT.

2 A cracked vessel is the heart:
Passions, fashions all depart,
Tastes change, love grows cold,
Old obsessions lose their hold.
Why cling to the overrated?
What you treasured gets donated.

CHORUS, REPEAT

3 But when God’s love rains, it pours.
If some seeps out, there’s always more.
Mind and heart and soul fill up;
A holy torrent floods your cup.
Overflowing, leaking too,
That’s how much your God loves you.

CHORUS:
YOU CAN’T FIT GOD IN A FILLED-UP HEART;
YOU NEED TO LET SIN OUT.
THAT CRACK IS A BLESSING
YOU CAN BE GLAD ABOUT.

lyrics © 2014 Pamella Bowen (BMI)

I have no memory of this, but it looks like I rewrote the lyrics and made a rough demo. I can’t even find any sheet music for this, but I obviously spent some time with the rearrangement:

1 A cracked vessel is the mind
What goes in leaks out in time:
People’s names and people’s faces,
Memories and distant places.

Chorus
But God’s love rains – a pure downpour.
If some seeps out there’s always more.
Mind and heart and soul fill up,
A holy torrent floods our cups, overflowing we can trust,
That’s how much our God loves us.

2 A cracked vessel is the heart:
Passions, fashions all depart,
Tastes change, love grows cold,
Old obsessions lose their hold.
Chorus
Bridge
Each leaks a blessing in disguise
We need to make some space
For God to come and live inside
And fill us with his grace.
No room for fear and doubt
Let that all run out and give a joyful shout
Chorus

About ten years ago Pam Bowen from the States sent me two lyrics to see if I could set them for her. I quite liked this prayer and she liked the setting, although, after a workshop she went to, she asked for a bridge to be added. I did write music for it, but I thought it ruined the simplicity that made it attractive in the first place. It didn’t make us famous or rich but after ten years I though it worth posting. Future songs in this series will invite collaboration but this one is done.

I made a backing and she got a terrific vocalist to sing it, who added her own grace notes etc.

Abba, here I am

Lying in the dark

Lost in my despair,

Fearing you’re not there.

Abba, here I am

Kneeling by my bed,

Crying in the blanket,

Feeling so alone.

Abba, here I am

Silent in my room,

Listening for your voice

Drowning out the noise.

Abba, here I am

Empty hands wide open,

Ready to receive

The grace you send to me.

Abba, here I am

Standing in your love,

Shining like a star

Reflecting who you are.

Abba, here I am

In you as you in me.

Lord, I’m ready to

Do what you’d have me do.

© 2014 words by Pamela Bowen (BMI) music by Geoffrey Madden

This is my backing with the simple tune intended.

Gen Bryant‘s Mass For Youth, in the sheet music I purchased, ($A9.95 at Willow) does not have a Gloria. Maybe the masses she intends this for rarely use a sung Gloria, maybe she isn’t happy with hers yet, who knows.

As a great impertinence and completely unsolicited, I wrote one for it. Of course, if Gen asks me to bin this I will.

I used the form of her second memorial acclamation – OK I am in 3/4 rather than 6/8 – using her chords and notes to start off and then added one musical phrase of my own and with repetition could fill out the Gloria. Having nicked most of the ideas I claim no copyright on this at all and I did it as an exercise, about which more later.

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise you, we bless you,
we adore you, we glorify you.
We give you thanks for your great glory,
Lord God, heavenly King,
O God, almighty Father.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
You take away the sins of the world
have mercy on us;
You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
have mercy on us.
For you alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

I occasionally write songs or hymns. I suspect a lot of parish musicians do likewise. When I was looking at Gen Bryant’s music to write the melody of the Gloria, it came very easily, having set words and the restrictions I gave myself. Years ago a lyric writer in the US sent me a couple of lyrics and I found it easier to set them than write something myself. I suspect, therefore, that I would work best as a collaborator, and it is interesting the companies like OCP lock up their songwriters together to get their committee songs.

Monica O’Brien and the Willow team are having a small song writing get together soon, and my hope for it is that we can establish a network for those who want to, to collaborate on our song writing. Except for a very few hardworking professionals, no-one is going to make any money out of this game, so I don’t think there is any great drama or risk in most of us doing this. Looking at Erwin Cabucos’s work recently reinforced my belief that our new song will come from the amateurs in the parish. I will be dead before anything useful comes from the hierarchy and we can only count on the schools for so much.

I’m going to put up some songs I have written of variable quality and age. I will post demos of me trying to sing the songs – fair warning, I have a poor voice. A lot of my songs have obvious flaws, but maybe someone else is best to fillet anything useful. I wrote hundreds of terrible songs when I was young for the two or three I still think are alright some forty something years later, so I doubt many of these songs are up to much.

Conversely, if anyone has a song fragment that they have lying around that they would like to bat around, do let me know.

For her litany for the Agnes Dei in her Mass For Youth, Gen Bryant uses the melodic theme from her Sanctus with a slower tempo in keeping with the liturgical moment. She also blends in lines from the Kyrie, which I thought unusual, but a little research has let me know that many litanies over the years have incorporated lines from the Kyrie so she is farming our traditions creatively.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

(Kyrie Eleison)

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

(Christe eleison)

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

I’m looking at Gen Bryant‘s Mass For Youth, which is most singable and worthy of our attention. It would be nice if it became the default school mass setting in Australia.

The Amen does not seem to relate to the other parts of the mass, but there is certainly enough congruity between the other elements of the setting already.

Amen x3

Gen Bryant goes back to 4/4 for Mem Acc 3 and I was thinking it would be much the same as Mem Acc 1, but no – she has inserted some melodic invention to differentiate the two acclamations.

The sheet music for the whole mass is $A9.95 at Willow.

Save us, Saviour of the world,

For by your Cross and Resurrection

You have set us free.

From the Gen Bryant‘s Mass For Youth, Mem Acc 2.

This is a change up in 6/8 time that nonetheless ends in with similar melody to the other acclamations, but over different chords to Mem Acc 1.

When we eat this bread and drink this cup,

We proclaim your death, O Lord,

Until you come again.

Continuing looking at Gen Bryant‘s Mass For Youth, we have the Mem Acc 1. As noted yesterday, it carries forward the melodic themes of the Sanctus.

We proclaim your Death, O Lord,
and profess your Resurrection,
until you come again.