I’ve already blogged “Trading My Sorrows” so I’m up to a reggae recessional by Dan Brennan, Ken Canedo and Jesse Manibusan. It is actually fairly singable if your assembly can cope with reggae. You can hear the gentle reggae original here.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
My backing’s not as relaxed.
This is a praise and worship song associated with the Christian vocal group “Avalon”. Despite being another committee song (written by Paul Field, Henk Pool, Ralph Van Manen and Robert Riekerk0) there is nothing special in the text. It is in the Gathering and Sending Forth section of Spirit & Song, however it is not suitable for an assembly to sing at all.
The text is available here.
My backing gets noisy in the refrain as it should.
Avalon’s original is pure pop:
Avalon live:
Wynonna Judd does the country version:
New Hope Christian Fellowship:
This is sweet:
There seem to be an awful lot of dancing going on with this song, for example:
This is a terrific pop song by Joshua Blakesley and Cooper Ray but I’m not sure it is a gathering song. Spirit & Song seem to be putting a lot of praise & worship songs into this category.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
My backing shows what several glasses of wine can achieve with BIAB.
This is a gathering song with a refrain in Spanish and English and a choice of English or Spanish for the verses. The tune by Bob Hurd sets an excellent and functional text by a committee comprising Hurd, Pia Moriarty, Ana Victoria Demezas and Jaime Cortez.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
My backing is BIAB at its most crudely Spanish.
I believe this is the original:
This is a surprisingly good keyboard solo.
This is quite restrained from a mass:
This lady tries to teach the SATB melody lines with what sounds like a beginner drummer practising in the background.
What a choir can do with it:
This is a Rich Mullins song in the Gathering and Sending song section of Spirit & Song Vol 2. I don’t think it is suitable for either really as only the sing-along refrain is suitable for assembly singing. It goes fairly high and realistically is a solo piece.
It sounds like a sort of traditional American folk song with all the repetitions.
We are singing in the voice of Christ here, which may be a problem.
The text is here. The sheet music can be purchased for download from musicnotes, although their version simplifies the chords greatly.
I couldn’t get all the chords into BIAB to do the riff properly but watch some of the Youtube guitarists to get the idea.
The original:
This cover version sensibly drops the key down to D from G.
This brave soul is in the original key:
This song encourages young men with guitars in bedrooms doesn’t it:
…and older men.
…and brothers.
…enough.
This song by Tom Kendzia might be an entrance for Pentecost with its invocation of the Holy Spirit. The tune goes high enough that it could do without the key change for the last verse, but is otherwise singable. The introduction and interlude keyboard line looks tricky.
There is a call and response in the verse that is interesting in that the cantor gets the boring same note tune and the assembly gets something more fun. It makes just as much sense with no cantor however.
The text is at spiritandsong. The sheet music can be purchased for download at OCP.
You can hear the original here.
I couldn’t get all the chord changes to fit into BIAB for my backing.
Entrance: City of God (Schutte) AOV 1/57
Psalm 45 (Waters)
The waters of the river gladden the city of God.
Gifts: Blessed Be Our God (McKenna) AOV NG 13
Communion: Seed Scattered and Sown (Feiten) GA 195
Bread Broken Wine Shared (Horner) AOV 2/155
Thanksgiving: Springs of Salvation (Fr Frank Andersen)
Recessional: Lord the Light of Your Love (Kendrick) AOV 2/59
OK this is a gathering song. It is by Jaime Cortez and is a pop song with mild enough syncopation to get by and enough interest in the tune to sustain the task. The text is worthy and serviceable but will need an injection of enthusiasm by the assembly.
The text is at spiritandsong and the sheet music can be purchased for download at OCP. You can hear the original here. It sounds like he is channelling Michael Mangan.
My backing goes more latin pop.
The man himself:
The Pax Christi Choir:
Are they intending this as a recessional? This is a song by Sarah Hart and Kevin B Hipp in the section of Spirit and Song for “Gathering & Sending Songs” and it certainly isn’t a gathering song. It could be used during the sign of peace if such a thing fitted the liturgy, but I doubt it would very often.
The text is at spiritandsong and is just repeated as long as is necessary. I couldn’t find a downloadable copy of the sheet music to buy, so you may have to just get it from this collection.
You can listen to the original here.
My backing is a little faster and I haven’t got the 6/8 vibe going properly:
This song with versions in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Vietnamese looks like it had something to do with World Youth Days.
The tune is by Marco Frisina who also wrote the Italian and French text as well as the English refrain. The English verses are by Rufus Zaragoza who also wrote the Spanish refrain but the Spanish verses were written by Jaime Cortez. The Vietnamese version was by Xuan Minh. Is that quite clear now?
It is at least easily singable for a change.
The text of all the versions is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
This version sounds like it’s channelling Rufus Wainwright.
Various choirs:
