Church Music

I’ve seen some unfamiliar texts (to me at least) to well known tunes pop up in the liturgies posted here recently.

As We Gather At Your Table by Carl P Daw which can be sung to HOLY MANNA; NETTLETON or BEACH SPRING

The King of Love My Shepherd Is by Sir H. W. Baker which is sung to ST COLUMBA.

As the Bread of Life is Broken by James Chepponis (text here) sung to Holst’s THAXTED.

While looking into these songs, I came across this fantastic clip of “Come Ye Sinners” to the tune BEACH SPRING. I love the style of a cappella singing they use – I’d never heard of shape note singing.

Here is some more background about this lovely tune. If you were going to use an instrument for this tune how about mountain dulcimer! Love the drones.

I was asking Joe Santsingh some advice about playing to backings and he mentioned this song and sent me his arrangement.  He has revived the song in his parish and it is special to many people who grew up in the sixties I believe.

It is new to me because I was Presbyterian then and we would have only sung a song written by a nun by accident I think.

This was supposed to have been written by Sister Miriam Francis, but that was actually a pseudonym for Australian Nun Sister Irene O’Connor.

The text is here but I’m told if you are an Australian Catholic of a certain age it is etched in your brain. I can’t find it in any hymnals, nor for sale on the web so I’d be interested if anyone knows if the sheet music is available commercially.

Joe uses backings he creates to augment his playing along with a guitarist and voice. When you listen to his backing you can hear the space he leaves for music on the day.

My backing has a more prominent melody line for learning purposes and you can tell I’m cheating by using BIAB.

I don’t know if any of these are the versions they recorded back in the sixties:

Maybe this one:

If you read the article about the song you’ll see there is a link to Singapore:

3/3/25

After all these years I found this song in an old hymn book at my current chirch. It is in the Praise to God Parish Hymn Book. It is noted to be by Irene O’Connor FMM and published by Intersong Pty Ltd.

Entrance: Gather Your People (Hurd) AOV 1/71

Psalm 34 (O’Brien)

Taste, taste and see, the goodness of the Lord

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

Communion: Bread Broken Wine Shared (Horner) AOV 2/155

Lord to Whom Shall We Go (Herry) AOV 1/6

Thanksgiving: As Gentle As Silence (White) GA 470

Recessional : Sing to the Mountains (Dufford) AOV 1/92

This funeral song by Curtis Stephan was used at RS’s parish recently. It’s a lovely song but has melodic leaps and somewhat fiddly rhythms that suggest a solo. In any event it is not to be rushed.

The text is at spiritandsong and the sheet music can be purchased for download at OCP. There is a snippet to listen to at both sites.

The man himself:

Solo + guitar:

Guitarmusicministry:

This is a choir setting of the creed by Paul A Tate. The WLP site notes that it is not suitable for liturgical use.

The text is here. Listen to the snippet at WLP to get an idea of the intricate harmonies and countermelodies I haven’t done in the backing.  You can also buy the sheet music there.

This is a lovely song used at RS’s parish by Janet Sullivan Whittaker suggested for commissioning masses, but with enough in the text of the verses for general use. The tune is a traditional Welsh lullaby SUO GÂN.

The text is in the sample at OCP where you can buy the sheet music.

This is a contemporary hymn from Ed Bolduc. The refrain is in a different key from the verses, which seems to spark things up a bit.

The text is in the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased. You can hear a snippet at I-Tunes.

This song is used at RS’s parish and is by Donna Marie McGargill OSM.

The text is here and the sheet music can be purchased at OCP. Looking at the sheer number of YouTube clips this song is insanely popular in the US.

My backing is a little heavy handed.

James V. Marchionda wrote this song invoking the actions of the Holy Spirit, so it’s useful at Easter and Pentecost in particular.

The text is in the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased and you can listen to a snippet.

The song can pretty much go as long as you want substituting wisdom, courage, mercy, etc for “power”.

My backing gives out after two verses.

Rex requested this song and I can only applaud his zeal for preparation – it’s not even August.

It is a neat idea, putting the Gloria familiar from carols in The Gloria.

The text is available in the sample at OCP, where the sheet music can be purchased for download in time to learn it for Christmas.

In the preview I note that Paul Gibson who arranged this asked that no guitar chords be provided but “the guitarist may improvise chords if desired.” That was a challenge beyond my musical skill but I found a technological work around and came up with two versions.