Church Music

I noticed Yola’s parish used this song, and someone did ask for a backing years ago.

The text is at Hymnary. The refrain is by Satish Kumar inspired by the Upanishads. The text of the verses and the tune is by Marty Haugen. The sheet music can be purchased at various places on the net including sheetmusicplus and GIA.

I’m not sure my backing really does the song justice and is somewhat approximate.

This appears to be the original and while it may seem churlish when compared to the problem of world peace, the style of singing in the refrain is the strange church choir sound that I can’t stand that you often hear on recordings like this. If you go to You Tube the lyrics are there as well and the song is also attributed to Marc Anderson as well, but Hymnary is sticking with Satish Kumar and GIA credits no-one other than Haugen.

Entrance: Come to Set Us Free (Farrell) AOV 1/39

Advent Wreath: All is Wonder (Watts) AOV NG 4

Psalm: To You O God I Lift Up My Soul (Hurd) AOV 2/14

Gifts: Emmanuel (Angrisano) SAS 2/290

Communion: Seed, Scattered and Sown (Feiten) GA 195

A Trusting Psalm (Bates) AOV 1/115

Thanksgiving: Into the Darkness (Dawn) from “Songs of Fellowship” Book Five (No 70)

Recessional: Christ Be Our Light (Farrell) AOV 2/3

This song by Ken Canedo and Jesses Manibusan is listed as a communion song, which would work when the reading from 1 Cor 13 comes up. You’ll need a cantor for the verses I suspect, although the refrain should just about a work if the assembly can handle gospel and the key change into the last chorus.

They left the lyrics off the site at spiritandsong where you can buy the sheet music for download, but they are available in the sample at OCP. Jesse Manibusan wrote a commentary saying that it was mainly a Canedo song. You can hear the original here, that demonstrates its strength as a solo or duet.

Another solo effort – I’ve seen this church before because I remember the grand piano.

I really should like this communion song by Vince Nims. It’s singable – a bit high in the verses I suppose – only gentle syncopation and gently rising and falling notes etc – all the right things for assembly singing.

But I fear it is too prosaic. Is this what we should be singing, because if we haven’t got the “it’s more than wine; it your blood” idea going already it maybe we are in the wrong place? Do we really need to remind ourselves of that in such a bald way, when mystery would be better approach poetically and allusively?

The text is on page 5 of this bulletin. This piece is used in a reflection at spiritandsong where they appreciate its qualities better then I. I can’t find a place to purchase the sheet music for download on the net so you may have to get it from Spirit & Song Vol 2. You can hear the original here.

This is better than the original and also has the lyrics:

An excellent church choir:

A lovely stripped back cover:

A drummer’s view of the song:

This is another proper communion song from Spirit & Song Vol 2, this time written by Timothy R Smith. The refrain and the lead into the verses are fine and the song has a counter-melody/harmony if you are up for that, which you can hear in the original. The tune of the verse maybe gets a bit too clever in the first line where there is an elongated note in an odd spot (“us” in the first verse).

The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download. With seven verses there is plenty of choice for liturgical needs.

This is a gentle lyrical setting of Psalm 34 by Tom Booth that would certainly be suitable for Eucharist. It has a nice triplet leading into making us “radiant”. I’d love to hear it done with all the harmonies in the refrain. The original appears to have a different countermelody to the version in Spirit & Song.

The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.

This a very usable “Ubi Caritas” from Bob Hurd. I’ve used the Taize one in the past but this has five well written verses as a bonus, three based on the original prayer and two new ones from Hurd.  There is no syncopation and no variation in tune between the verses so it is designed for assembly singing for a change. It would be great for Holy Thursday.

The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.

My backing overdoes the strings again:

This is a fine version:

There are several less than wonderful clips of this song on You Tube but I love this one:

This is a nice instrumental:

This one is to show that it can be sung by an assembly. I haven’t put in the ones that were extemely slow, but this one might even be a little fast.

This song by Steven Angrisano could be a Eucharist song as stated by Spirit & Song, but it will work best as a solo vehicle and that may not fit plans for a participatory assembly. On the other hand it is a serviceable laid back P&W vehicle. The refrain has a harmony line/counter melody that might lift it above average. The verses have enough differences in the tune to cause difficulty.

The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.

This is Angrisano’s version:

This is the ever reliable Arch Street Band:

This song by Kathryn Scott is in the Eucharist section of Spirit & Song Vol 2 and is really quite a lovely devotional song. I’m not convinced of its use for an assembly due to the near constant syncopation and a few tricky timings. Again it appears to me that SAS are putting P&W songs where their liturgical fit is not obvious.

She is interviewed about the song here:

The text is here. You can purchase sheet music for download on the net but this link appears to be from the author herself to a piano arrangement in C. (Spirit & Song have it in D)

I suspect this is the original by Vineyard:

Kathryn’s solo version:

A gentler cover by Joy Williams.

Brian Wahl’s acoustic version:

A nice instrumental take on the song:

I’m back in the Eucharist songs from Spirit & Song Vol 2 with another song by John Michael Talbot.

His songs are very delicate and can be squashed by an unsympathetic assembly but this is a lovely tune and has obvious liturgical uses.

The text is here, although the first verse is missing. If you don’t have Spirit & Song Vol 2 you can get the sheet music for this song in the collection “Our Blessing Cup” from Talbots’s site.

My backing is unusually restrained:

I don’t know who this version is by but the vocal style is less so.

This is the man himself:

Some cover versions: