Church Music

This is one of the songs special to our local St Peter’s church and used for the Mass for our patron saint each year. The music from the parish says it is written by Carey Landry but OCP also credits his wife, Carol Jean Kinghorn.

Much as I wonder about the use of key changes in songs for mass, this tune needs something new after two verses.

The text is here and the sheet music is available as part of a collection called “Hi God” at OCP. They also have a snippet of the song in Landry’s distinctive vocals.

Number 85 in Voices As One is “Sometimes By Step” which I have already blogged.

This song by Joe Mattingly is very much a choir song with a range beyond the assembly. I can’t find the text anywhere so you will have to get Voices As One or the sheet music to use it.

The sheet music is at sheetmusicplus and at WLP where you can also listen to a snippet of the song.

Chris’s parish use James E Moore’s version of “Taste and See”.  A lot of the tune seems to be clustered around either  low C or high C with triplets to trip up in the verses. Best for cantor use I fear for the verses. The chorus is more singable. We know a couple of other settings  of Psalm 34 so I doubt we’ll get around to this one.

The text is at Cantus Mundi. The sheet music is available to purchase for download at GIA.

My backing is rather too jazz.

This is Steven C Warner’s expurgated version of the “Song of Judith”. The original text is worthy of Game of Thrones and would have made a very different song.

If you aren’t using a cantor bringing it down from G to F might be needed for the assembly and the high note at the end will have to go. For a choir all is well and he is writing for the Notre Dame Folk Choir after all.

The text is in the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased and you can listen to a snippet of the song.

We have slotted back into Maggie Russell’s Mass of Freedom well enough, although I still find the rewrite of the Gloria jarring in the second verse. We have never sung “A Place at the Table” before so that should be interesting. Shirley Erena Murray writes marvellous lyrics that exemplify a practical social gospel.

Entrance: All Are Welcome (Haugen)

Psalm 123 (O’Brien)

Our eyes are fixed on you, Lord, pleading for your mercy.

Gifts: Open My Eyes (Manibusan) AOV 1/166

Communion: Bread Broken Wine Shared (Horner) AOV 2/155

Will You Love Me? (Boniwell) AOV 1/40

Thanksgiving: A Place at the Table  (Shirley Erena Murray – Lori True) AOV NG 1

Recessional: Though the Mountains May Fall (Schutte)  AOV 1/182

This song with a text by the prolific  Fred Green and with the tune AR HAD Y NOS (trad Welsh – “All Through the Night”) was used recently at RL’s parish.

The snippet at OCP has it sung by children, but it isn’t just a children’s song in its evocation of the agricultural lifestyle. The text is at spiritandsong and the sheet music can be purchased at OCP.

This song with a text by Albert Frederick Bayley was recently used at Ryan’s parish and is suitable for a rural parish where people make their own food or where there are environmental concerns (ie in the light of a recent encyclical  – everywhere I suppose).

The text is here. The tune is BUNESSAN so is very familar. (eg “Morning Has Broken”) My copy is in “Together in Song”.

Karoake:

This is another song from RL’s parish. It is by Ricky Manalo CSP and is a lovely song for Eucharist. It is a singable tune with no syncopation and my only quibble is a long held D.

The text is in the sample at OCP,  which is also where you can buy the sheet music for download.

I think this is the original with an oriental feel:

This is a lovely restrained choir version:

Handbells!!!!

This song is a general enough prayer to fit a lot of liturgical situations. It is by Deanna Light and Paul A Tate and is an uplifting hymn.

The text is here with a link to a performance of the song. You can purchase the sheet music at WLP.

Delores Duffner is usually a good bet for a great text and this is no exception.  Ryan’s parish used this with the tune McKEE although there are other settings available.

The text is here and Hymnary have information on the collections where the sheet music is available. There aren’t enough songs about mustard seeds.