Church Music

This is Curtis Stephan’s reboot of Panis Angelicus, which RS’s parish used this Easter. It is also suitable for Corpus Christi. It is bilingual for assemblies that express themselves in English and Latin.

The sheet music is available at OCP and the text is in their sample there. The preview of the music suggests a string section but I went country rock so my backing is a little rough.

Curtis Stephan live + choir:

Pax Christi Choir with strings and harmonies:

RS’s parish also did Rutter’s Pie Jesu and I thought better of attempting that. I leave that to the Cambridge singers:

This song by Laurie Klein is from the Easter services at RS’s parish. I don’t think I’ve blogged it before, but I’m sure I’ve heard it around the traps.

The text is here and Hymnary have some information about the songwriter and the hymnals in which the song appears. The sheet music can be purchased at various sites on the net including Hope Publishing and Praise Charts.

This is a lively new song that we will be doing over the next weeks.  It is written by a committee of Steve Angrisano, Jesse Manibusan and Sarah Hart.

The text is at spiritandsong where you can purchase the sheet music for download.

I’m still looking at the Easter liturgies that people were kind enough to post and for songs that are new to me.

This song from RS’s parish is by Christopher Walker and I have a copy in Breaking Bread 30. It is most suitable for Adoration of the Cross.

The sheet music is available at OCP. The text is available in their sample.

This is beautiful:

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

Psalm 117 (McKenna)

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good his love is everlasting.

Gifts: Without Seeing You (Haas) AOV 2/158

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

We Walk By Faith (Haugen) AOV 1/63

Thanksgiving: Alleluia! Love Is Alive (Angrisano)

Recessional: Jesus Is Risen Today (O’Brien- Ogilvie) AOV NG 82

Ryan’s parish had some very interesting songs over Easter. This is the least remarkable, but it is a stirring hymn to the tune of Beethoven’s “Hymn to Joy”, so I don’t need to do a backing.

The text is here. It is by William J. Irons and is also known as “Sing With All the Sons of Glory.”

They also used some very interesting chant and a capella style hymns that are frankly beyond BIAB, so I thought I’d just mention them.

Mandatum (Latona)

Reception of the Holy Oils (French)

Faithful Cross (Gouin)

Joseph Take Him Off the Tree (Schaubel)

Up From the Waters (Haugen)

This one from Ryan’s parish for Palm Sunday by David Haas took a bit of figuring out, so it had to wait until I had time to work on it.

The text is here (scroll down). Good luck finding the sheet music – it is a GIA copyright and I can’t find anywhere you can buy it – I’m very open to suggestions because this is a pretty good song that could suit many styles. The first line of the refrain (three hosannas) is probably meant for a cantor, who could then handle the verses if you are worried about the high notes.

I made my approximate backing based on this and a You-tube clip:

Ryan was upset that his parish passed over this song this year and that sounds a recommendation.  I like texts that are to the point and this translation of a folk song from Ghana by Tom Colvin is great for Holy Thursday.

The text is here.  My copy of the sheet music is in Worship 431 but it is also available at Hymnary.

Fast

Really slow:

I am moved to briefly comment on my own site after hitting a record 1207 hits yesterday.

There are usually 700-1000 hits a day looking for information on liturgical music and it is very seasonal – for example “As I Have Done For You” has been briefly top on the hit parade for Holy Thursday. From previous communication it seems that a music leader tells everyone to sing along with the backing at home until they get it right, to reduce practice times at church.

The stats show a lot of people linking on to AOV, OCP, GIA, WLP, Litmus, Hope Publishing etc etc and it is to be hoped that they find the sheet music they are looking for there.

I am very grateful to the people in their parishes who send in what they are are playing or hearing in their parishes. I have never played in a church where organ music was the standard, so hearing selections from parishes who have that option is a learning experience for me. I apologise for the fake organ backings, but they are meant as a way for me to learn what a song sounds like, rather than a backing that would be used in church.

AOV, for their hard work, rightly dominate the scene in Australia, so there is also a gap of US songs published after AOV 1&2 that have little penetration into the Australian market, because we have nothing like the continuous review of songs that is seen from OCP for example. Hearing of new songs being used in parishes suggests at least that they are worth investigating.

I hope that the backings continue to help people like me, who can perhaps strum a guitar but can’t sight read music, to learn how the songs go and so broaden their palate for liturgy in their churches.

I currently play about twice a month in a small, friendly parish with amazingly talented volunteers (they can sight read!) and it is coordinated by an overqualified volunteer who keeps us organised and also plays at mass herself.  She also runs the meetings where a few of us pick the music to match the upcoming liturgies and decide whether to try to get the assembly to learn a new song.  The assembly loves to sing but can be slow with anything unfamiliar.  They have really taken to singing the Psalm response over the last couple of years, which is great.

Best wishes

Geoffrey Madden

This is another Palm Sunday song that came up in RS’s parish.  It is by Dan Schutte and is meant to be lively.

The text is here and the sheet music is available to purchase at OCP.

My backing attempts lively in a Celtic mode with all eight verses and the descant in the refrain from the second time through:

I gather this is the original and I’m not sure what style it is but it has that weird sort of churchified choral singing that drives me nuts:

Chris Brunelle to the rescue:

A less annoying choral version: