This is Pedro Rubalcava‘s setting of the Entrance Antiphons of the four Sundays in Advent. He adds a fifth to seventh stanza with general Advent themes, so you could sing the whole song or pick the appropriate verse for the week in Advent.
The text is here (page 5) and the sheet music can be purchased for download at OCP, where you can listen to a snippet of the original.
My backing is just for using the song as an entrance: refrain/verse/refrain, rather than the whole thing, but it gives you the idea of the 4/4 refrain moving into the 6/8 verse.
This attempt to make a song from the readings each week is not producing songs for the assembly I’m afraid, but this is just how they come out.
I liked an odd phrase from this week’s OT reading (Isaiah 22:19-23) “I drive him like a peg into a firm place.” I combined that with some of the ideas in Romans 11:33-36 and came up with a bizarre blues with chords that just shouldn’t be in a blues song.
I’ve skipped the Psalms in Spirit and Song Vol 2, as I did in volume one. I may get back and just do a run of their Psalm settings later on.
That takes me from Ritual Music to Seasonal Songs and to start with some songs for Advent.
Timothy R Smith has set some old advent texts and antiphons for this work. I love the simple tune and there is a nice harmony line as well. The sheet music can purchased from OCP and you can hear the original here.
The Christmas text is by Johann Rist (15th century):
Refrain
Break forth O beauteous heavenly light
And usher in the morning, usher in the morning.
1. Ye shepherds, shrink not with fright,
But hear the angel’s warning.
2. This child, this small helpless boy,
Shall be our hope and our joy.
3. The pow’rs of hell overthrown,
At last our peace shall bestow.
The Advent text shares the refrain but the verses are from various sources.
This is another of the wedding songs from the ritual music section of Spirit and Song Vol 2, this time by Janet Sullivan Whitaker. It is another solo piece on the pretty firm premise that wedding guests won’t know any Catholic songs anyway so you might as well have a specific wedding song. While looking for information about the piece I note its use for Gifts and Mother’s Day which might work as well.
It has a great lyric: “Let the light of love we bear be like the finery we wear.”
I have been working to the rule that I don’t put up copyrighted lyrics anymore and usually that’s OK because I can link to them somewhere else. This time I’ve failed, although I found a link to a pdf of the sheet music with little effort. I’m not linking that. It costs $2 to download the sheet music from OCP so that would make sense if you don’t own Spirit and Song Volume 2. OCP uploaded the song to My Catholic Voice if you want to hear the original.
My backing is a little kitsch I’m afraid.
Probably due its popularity as a wedding song there are quite a lot of Youtube clips of this song.
This is a wedding song by Matt Maher based in the Song of Songs. It is designed to be sung as a harmonised and alternating duet but would need a pretty good duo to get away with it during a wedding liturgy. The tune is lovely.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
My backing doesn’t have the harmony and doesn’t distinguish the male and female sections I’m afraid.
This is the original:
This is the live version showing his fingerpicking style:
Tom Booth wrote this adaptation of Psalm 23 which has been listed as a funeral song in Spirit and Song. It would work as a solo or choir vehicle (using the harmony line in the refrain) in that circumstance, but is a moving tune that would work in other situations. It has too many rhythmic challenges for an assembly to join in without the tune being smoothed out.
The text is at spiritandsong where it can purchased for download. You can hear the original here.
I’ve written a chorus based not on this Sunday’s texts, but on readings from the Assumption: the Beatitude in Luke 11:28 (Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it) and some thoughts from the readings 1 Cor 15:54-57 and 1 Chronicles 16:1-2. They made me think of music ministry and liturgy being the work of the people.
This is a funeral song from Bob Hurd. Funerals are hard from a musical point of view. You can accept the fact no-one is going to sing and use a song like this or “Go in Peace” (SAS 2/239) as a solo or choir vehicle, or you can use a song everyone knows or maybe new lyrics to a familiar tune (eg Go Silent Friend).
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download. The original can be heard here, with it’s over the top guitar introduction. It calms down after that and the tune in the verse is very interesting and also completely unsuitable for an assembly.
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
