Church Music

While in Tasmania last weekend I attended a confirmation mass in George Town attended by the Archbishop.  That makes two masses presided over by archbishops in three weeks. I may never live it down.

The team picked these pieces of music for mass this week.

Entrance: All Are Welcome (Haugen)

Psalm 17 (McKenna)

I love you Lord, my strength.

I love you Lord, my strength.

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

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

Thanksgiving: They’ll Know We Are Christians (Scholtes) AOV 1/130

Recessional: Lift Up Your Hearts (O’Connor) AOV 1/156

I’m continuing my survey of new David Haas songs following on the from the APMN conference in Perth.

This is a reflective prayer that is “inspired from the wisdom of Henri J. M. Nouwen”.

The text (eight verses) is in the preview at GIA where you can purchase the sheet music.

This is a delightful song for gathering and welcome by David Haas.

This was another song he sang at the Perth APMN conference and it was well received. He noted at one point that we should not be fearful of songs that hit Ds, but as a matter a charity I would be tempted to drop the key from G to F. They are six verses for a generous opening.

The sheet music can be purchased at GIA, where the text is in their preview and also here.

Entrance: Summoned by Love (O’Brien/Watts) AOV 2/18

Psalm 95 (McKenna)

Give the Lord glory and honour.

Give the Lord glory and honour.

Gifts: I Have Loved You (Joncas) AOV 1/126

Communion: Bread of Life (Farrell) AOV 1/164

Thanksgiving: Sing a New Song (Schutte) AOV 1/80

Recessional: You Are Mine (Haas)  AOV 2/2

David Haas had us doing this without accompaniment at the Perth conference starting with the basses and adding one line at a time until we were all at it, with actions and a good time was had by all. It is an adaptation of a Zulu song and is suitable for gathering or processing, especially with a large group.

This is what it is meant to sound like:

GIA sells the sheet music here and if you look at the preview there are lots of ad libbed phrases to sing over the basic track.

My backing is not entirely serious as it is meant to be accompanied by drums only but at least I start the lines sequentially and then all sorts of things start happening.

This is Hass teaching the song live and also at another event below:

This is a similar song (? the source) and sounds magnificent:

This David Haas song is a song of unity that I could see as an opening song, although it has many liturgical uses. The work has its inspiration in the community depicted in Acts but is a prayer for every parish gathering.

There are eight verses so I would be choosing the most appropriate, but Haas spoke about using the whole song for entrance even if broken up in amongst the entrance rites.

GIA sell the sheet music here and the text is in their preview.

This is the quality of song that we should be considering introducing to our assemblies. Clare Johnson, in her main presentation at the APMN conference spoke of songs being “sticky but not tacky”. I think this would stick.

The conference of the APMN in Perth last week has pointed me to lots of new songs.

Chris deSilva gave out a music book that has more of his excellent songs than he has put on his website. He said he was going to put them on there eventually, so I might wait until they are up before posting – I’ll see. I asked him to write a setting for the Exultet and he eventually thought he might – maybe for Easter 2019.

I met Br Michael Herry and had a nice chat. He gave us a song called “A Hymn of Healing for the Church” that I will get to eventually.

Davis Haas sang a lot of his newer material with us and they were an eye opener for me.

For many Australian Catholic parishes time stopped musically after the As One Voice compilations in the nineties.  That is testament to the great editorial care that was taken at the time and usability of the resource, but it does mean that music is only renewed if there is local effort. Unlike Breaking Bread, for example, there is no structural renewal provided.

By the way, I don’t see CWBII as a force for renewal really. In my opinion it’s laudable aim of a common repertoire has been hamstrung by a lack of newer material, a relative lack of Australian material and the fact that 95% of Australian parishes use overheads and are unlikely to invest in hymn books ever again unless forced to – especially given the parlous state of finances in most parishes.

That all means that I know David Haas songs from AOV and I have have blogged all of his Table Songs (1991) collection, but I have not kept up with his more recent mature material.

The songs he demonstrated are all available to purchase at the GIA site, so I thought I’d respond to his presentation with a sampling of my own of his newer work.  I’ve also found a whole lot I don’t know in my copy of Gather Comprehensive, so I could be doing Haas songs for a long time.

The song “I Will Live On” was composed by Haas for his mother’s funeral and is an impressive emotional piece. The refrain is for the assembly who continue the phrase “I will live on” under the cantor’s verses – and a cantor is needed here. It could be used in a mass other than a funeral, for “gifts”, for example or when the psalm comes up, but not replacing it.

The sheet music can be purchased at GIA, where you can read the challenging text based on Psalm 118 in their preview.

This is very like the presentation Haas gave to us in Perth about this song and is worth a look.

Since I have already blogged “All Are Welcome” and “Bread to Share” that only leaves “On the Journey to Emmaus” from the folio All Are Welcome by Marty Haugen.

This one has the obvious liturgical use when the relevant readings come around. It is set to Haugen’s arrangement of COLUMCILLE a traditional Gaelic tune.

The sheet music can be purchased at GIA where the text is in their preview. You can also find the text and background information at Hymnary and further information at Godsongs.

My backing is the hymn arrangement rather than the Concertato version.

I’ve nearly got through the folio All Are Welcome.

This is Marty Haugen’s setting of Ruth Duck’s text of the Benedictus otherwise known as the Canticle of Zachary from the Gospel of Luke.

Duck’s text is at Hymnary along with other settings. The sheet music can be purchased for very little at GIA, where there is also a preview.

My backing is perhaps a little jaunty for an old man like Zachary.

I haven’t finished Marty Haugen’s All Are Welcome folio.

This is his setting the Te Deum. The sheet music can be purchased at GIA.

This is some background on the text and some translations, although I can’t find Haugen’s text anywhere on the net.

My backing finds BIAB sounding rather good.