Church Music

This is one of three songs from James Quinn’s New Songs For New Seasons, that was used in the Praise to God parish hymnal, that I haven’t already covered on this blog. I have already blogged “This Is My Will“, “O Flock of Christ“, “Christ be Beside Me“, and “This Day God Gives Me“. Currently the best source for James Quinn hymns is the collection, Hymns For All Seasons.

This text is based on Psalm 150 and used in the Divine Office for evening prayer. Here it is set to DIADEMATA, but is also set to CORONA.

The text is here.

Another of the collections that the Praise to God parish hymnbook used was Father James Quinn‘s, New Hymns for New Seasons, from 1969. These were new hymn texts often set to old tunes. While that collection is out of print, you can still get this song in his best of collection, Hymns for All Seasons.

This one is his version of the Magnificat set to EDWIN by Edgar M. Deale, who lived from 1902 to 1999, so I suppose his music was actually current in 1969. The text is in this preview, but note that this has a different setting by Paul Inwood.

It was time for the wind up BIAB fake organ:

This is a much later song from the Weston Priory that was used in the Praise to God hymnal. This is from 1989, so Gregory Norbet was long gone by this stage. Cathy Polinski is noted as a songwriter for the album, Move With One Heart, but whether she wrote this particular song I can’t tell.

The collection is still for sale at the Priory.

Refrain:
Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth,
for our God speaks to all people.
Cease to do evil and learn to do good.
Make justice your home forever.

1. Shelter the oppressed and the homeless,
   and share your bread with the hungry.
   Release all those bound unjustly,
   and hear the widow’s plea.
2. Revive all spirits dejected,
   and heal the hearts of the crush’d.
   Open the eyes of the blind,
   and strengthen all weary hearts.
   © 1989 The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.

This is yet another song in the Praise to God parish hymn book sourced from Weston Priory‘s Locusts and Wild Honey collection, written by Gregory Norbet.

It is a sung prayer.

Refrain:
We thank you, Father, for the gift of faith,
through Jesus Christ your son,
and for the gift of life with our brothers, in this our family.
May your good news be a constant source of strength and joy,
for all of us who share in your wonderful love each day.

1. To live in the Spirit is to grow in liberty.
   Without love our freedom cannot be real.

Copyright © (1971), from the recording “Locusts and Wild Honey”,
The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.,
Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont.

This is another Weston Priory song with instructions to be “lively” – it seems to be their watch word. Like the others it was written by Gregory Norbet from the collection “Locusts and Wild Honey” and was sourced from there by the editors of the Praise to God parish hymnal. I’m having difficulty getting my mind around a time when it appears monks singing folk songs with a hint of a background in chant was revolutionary.

The sheet music is available from the priory.

I made a lot of these backings some time ago when I was a little ill and I skipped this one in error. So I made a quick backing that took ten minutes on Band in a Box – it’s a great program.

Refrain:
Today the goodness of God cries out,
and the waters come to life with your saving grace.

1. O Father of all you gave us your son
   to redeem us from the darkness of sin.
2. Radiant is your joy O God
   and the splendor of your love is alive, alive.
3. Today you appear O Christ to the world
   and your light has shone upon us, O Lord.

Copyright © (1971), from the recording “Locusts and Wild Honey”,
The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.,
Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont.

When the editors of the Praise to God parish hymnal, stepped away from the major prior hymn books for inspiration, they frequently turned to the Weston Priory and Gregory Norbet.

From their collection Locusts and Wild Honey they found four songs. I’ve blogged the title track here, and this Christmas song is one of the other three. The songbook is still in print and available from the priory. The lyrics, which I got from their site, have a fifth verse not in PTG.

Refrain:
A child is born for us today, alleluia.
He is our Saviour and our God, alleluia.

1. Let our hearts resound with joy
   and sing a song of gladness
   for the Lord our brother is come
   and we are redeemed.
2. Tell the world of our good news:
   Jesus the Christ is among us,
   and his presence we celebrate
   offering peace and our joy to all.
3. Christ is born, the Christ has come!
   Sing everyone: Alleluia!
   Caught in wonder at this birth
   we worship God become man for us.
4. Glory to God, born today
   of the Virgin Mary,
   in a cave at Bethlehem.
   Is there room in our lives for him?
5. His name shall be Emmanuel:
   God who lives among us.
   Angels sing and shepherds cry:
   born is the savior our Lord.

Copyright © (1971), from the recording “Locusts and Wild Honey”,
The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.,
Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont.

The instructions on the music say “lively”, and I’ll leave you to decide if they measured up to that in any of the versions they performed:

OK this is an oddity.

There was a record in the 1960s called “Let’s Sing a New Song” from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Hobart, recorded at the studios of radio 7HO under the name, The Canician Folk Singers, with solo and guitar by “Sister Philip”. PTG took “Today Our Hearts” from this album for their hymnal. The words are noted to be by Sister Philip – so far so good. The tune is uncredited. The tune is in fact the tune of “The Little Drummer Boy” written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was certainly in copyright in 1969 and I suspect still is, hence the lack of credit for the music, which seemed to have written itself.

Which is a pity, as the Eucharistic text is fine, although it doesn’t really fit the tune that well, so may it needs to be reset – the third verse I have rearranged with my best guess as to how it fits the music. I can find no details about the mysterious Sister Philip from Hobart.

1 Today our hearts O Lord we offer anew.

Together with the bread and wine to you.

Today our sep’rate lives will join in One.

As with the bread we break, we will become,

Many will be the Body of One, Christ your Son.

2 Almighty Father, take the joy and care.

We have united to your Son’s great prayer.

Help us to take you to the world again,

That men might come to You, might come and live,

The life your Son died to give, died to give.

3 O loving Father as the rising dispels

The darkness, may the life Christ won shine more,

Resplendently, throughout our lives and lift

The darkness which around us lies,

That living for Thee, may all we other Christs be, other Christs be.

The last song I will look at that the Dominican Fathers who put together the Praise To God parish hymn book sourced from The Living Parish Hymnal is this setting of part of the Breastplate of St Patrick.

They give two settings, both old Irish tunes, GARTAN (arranged by C.V. Stanford) and DEIRDRE, which is the setting also found in the the Australian Hymn Boook (454) and Catholic Worship Book I (638)

GARTAN:

DEIDRE:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

GARTAN

DEIDRE:

Going down the rabbit hole of hymnal archeology in the Praise to God collection has led me to this song they sourced from the Living Parish Hymn Book. It is another gorgeous Richard Connolly setting, but this time with his usual poet and wordsmith James P McAuley.

It really is a lovely poem set to music with themes suitable for Gifts. It is still in print, too, at Willow, where you can buy the sheet music. Better still they have the whole collection, Year of Grace. Looking at the sample at Willow, it is much better set out than the sheet music in PTG. The hymn is also in the Australian Hymnbook 587.

I got sick of organ and just did BIAB guitar for a backing, using chords manufactured from the organ music:

Antiphon

Our lives, O God, and all that we own we give;

Give us Your Son, by whom alone we live.

1 The fruits of earth, the bread and wine,

We lay upon the altar stone;

With them we offer and consign

All that we are and all we own.

2 God takes our whole created good,

Presented with the bread and wine;

Our human selves of flesh and blood,

Transformed in Christ, are made divine.

3 How poor the gift, how great the gain,

Ourselves we give, and Christ receive;

The Word who speaks no word in vain

Has promised this, and we believe.

I still have a couple of songs from the Living Parish Hymn Book that made their way into the Praise to God hymnal.

This is another Richard Connolly song for which he wrote the words for as well as the lyrics – OK Jennifer Connolly wrote the refrain. It is a fine song for Gifts, with his usual inventiveness in the tune.

Luckily this one is still in print and available from Willow. You might actually have it already as it is in the Australian Hymn Book 586, and that is easily obtainable second hand.

I got the chords to make a backing by putting the notes in the sheet music through a chord identifier on the internet – tedious.

Antiphon

From many grapes and grains of wheat

One host we offer at your feet.

1 Great Lord of lords, eternal King,

Accept the lowly gifts we bear;

Pure bread your holy people bring

And with it daily work and prayer.

2 O God supreme, who stooped to share

With sinful men your love divine,

Accept the tears and joy and care

Enchaliced with the holy wine.

3 Father, we know full well our sin,

From birth we tread a shameful way;

But let Christ’s precious offering

Remove from us our sad decay.

4 As incense rising in your sight,

Accept the homage of this day;

And bless your church, O Lord of light:

For this your holy people pray.