Gen Bryant‘s Sanctus from her Mass For Youth has matching melodic motifs with the Memorial Acclamations 1 and 3 and the Agnes Dei, which helps greatly from a learning perspective. There is mild syncopation and nice triplets to make things interesting.
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
I haven’t reviewed a Mass setting in a long time after the rush of new settings when the words were made worse over a decade ago.
I note Gen Bryant‘s Mass For Youth is topping the sales at Willow, and although I don’t remotely qualify as “youth” I thought for $A10 for downloadable sheet music at Willow, you can’t go wrong, so I’d have a look.
There are also snippets of her singing part of the parts there, but I can find nothing else on the web to hear how she wants them played.
It appears she has been working on this since 2007 looking at the copyright information. Her Kyrie is most singable, which is always a good start.
My backing might be a touch slow, but sing along to see if you could use her mass.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
This is one for APMN members who have received the latest newsletter that has the lyrics and a link to sheet music for Beth Doherty‘s song, “Garden / Laudato Si”, which will be useful in the Season of Creation.
Since I can’t see where to access this outside of the link in the newsletter, I’ll let you look at the lyrics there and access the sheet music if you are a member of the APMN.
The YouTube clip has been taken down for some reason, so I don’t know what style she had in mind. Even though the sheet music is in the very unfriendly key of C#, I still made a backing.
I’ll finish with Erwin Cabucos songs for now with this Christmas Song. He is admirably prolific, so I expect to have more to look at in the future. He is an Australian hymn writer based in a parish music setting, and I hope is part of an encouraging development for local church music.
I was hoping for some more specifically Southern hemisphere reference in the family orientated text, because I have got sick of singing about cold weather at Christmas. He, however, keeps it carefully nonspecific. Let’s see – for Queensland he could have referenced thunderstorms interrupting carols by candlelight, praying for no cyclones, Jacarandas still blooming or just sweating profusely in a poorly air conditioned church playing Christmas Mass.
This is a sprightly hymn of praise by Erwin Cabucos that would be a great recessional. It seems to be inspired by several psalms. I think it would be a good song for young people to sing as well.
Erwin Cabucos simply describes this hymn he has written as “a song about being kind.” I think it is somewhat more than that, being suitable for a Second Rite of Reconciliation or during Lent.
Inspired by Laudato Si, Erwin Cabucos has written a hymn in praise of creation.
The verses have basically the same tune but there are lots of little variations to watch out for. It might need a cantor there, but the refrain at least is for all to sing. He is expanding my vocabulary – I did not know “unharming” was a word – I looked it up and it is.
This song from Erwin Cabucos celebrates Australia’s only saint, St Mary Mackillop. He includes her best known statement, “never see a need without doing something.” It’s always good to have local Australian hymns about Australian subjects, as we are bombarded with songs that have the perverse Northern Hemisphere point of view – ie all Christmas and Easter songs with the the wrong seasons implied and about saints from far away in time and space.
The sheet music makes perfect sense but was a struggle for my meagre skills. The song is in F and like any sensible person, he suggest guitarists play it Capo 3 in D, and so only includes the chord symbols in D. Then he has put the vocal line on a bass clef meaning I had to transpose in two directions at once – I hope it came out right. I always think it is best to have both the real chords and the capoed chords, as many keyboard players improvise the left hand based on the guitar chords. It is hard to know what to do with a melody line that goes very low, it looks much neater on the bass clef, but again many basic musicians, like me, really only look at the treble.
I made two backings because I wondered if it would work better and be less frenetic in a swung rhythm.
1 St Mary of the Cross, may we also see Christ,
Like how you raised the dignity of the poor, Australia wide.
You have faith, tender yet tough, may we show your fortitude.
Like how you stood for love and hope that made way for common good.
Chorus
Pray for us to never see a need without doing something.
Pray for us that God will be with us in our lives.
Pray for us to be resilient in our tumultuous times.
May we show your courage here and everywhere for Christ.
2 You have faith grounded and deep, may we also see the Lord,
Like how you felt his presence through prayers and his Word.
May we show your kindness, and overcome our apathy.
Respecting peoples and cultures, new and old, so many.
Chorus
3 You have faith so passionate, may we also work for love,
As carers for this sacred home of all creatures great and small.
Like your devotion to St Joseph and Jesus’ mother Mary.
Erwin Cabucos has given as a song for Adoration and Communion.
I like the well expressed sentiment in the third verse and the courage to sing the word “perplexed” in a hymn. He again uses a skipping sort of rhythm in the verses that opens out into a more expansive melody in the chorus.
The opening line of the chorus strikes me as oddly phrased. It could be “You are life in the world” or “You are the life of the world”, but “You are life of the world” offends the pedant in me.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
