Church Music

This presentation at the Cathedral was on the Twentieth of May and can be heard here. It is certainly worth spending the time to listen.

There was much to admire in his talk where he continued his exploration of the scriptures looking for the stories that lead us to truth.  He emphasised the root metaphor of the Bible being that of journey. Journey implies a dislocation, a wrench and pain – God is a dislocating God. He explored why narrative is such a powerful tool for us to find hope in tragedy through locating ourselves in story. The stories are necessarily provisional and unfinished, hence our reliance on lived tradition.

Would the Cathedral have collapsed if he took it the next obvious step and observed that that makes the life of the Church of necessity relativistic? He has four more sessions to get there but I’m not holding my breath.

Numbers were down a little but he is still pulling a powerful crowd and is now simulcast around the world apparently.

This time the music and support was provided by Ignite Youth, which I always worry is an imperative. They played “Where the Spirit of the Lord Is”, a Hillsong Live song and a better song from local church Citipointe called “Presence Power Glory”. They had the words of Roby Curtis’s song “We Are The Body” on their handout, but didn’t get a chance to sing that.

The text for “Where the Spirit of the Lord Is” is here. The song is by Ben Fielding and manages every P&W cliche before going completely OTT. It was a good choice for this series as the line “we are slaves no more” is an important part of the Archbishop’s story. The sheet music is available all over the web in various arrangements and keys including musicnotes and brentwoodbenson.

My backing is in G.

“Presence Power Glory” is by Joel and Savannah Ramsay of Citipointe, a church in Brisbane I hadn’t heard of, and the chords at least are available in a free download of their music book “The Wildfire Music Book”. With no lead sheet anywhere it was back the the uke and spending some time with the song, so my backing may be approximate. The text is here.

Just so you know this song goes introx2/versex2/prechorus/chorus/ introx1/versex1/prechorus/chorusx2/Instrumentalx2/Bridgex4/chorusx1/Bridgex2.

The bridge and the chorus are designed to be able to be sung consecutively and then together.

My backing is in G.

Citipointe quiet:

Citipointe louder:

I’ll get back to “Voices As One” eventually but I’m still being educated on song choices by the correspondents who put up their music liturgy choices here. This is another selection for Pentecost from Ryan’s parish that I’m catching up with.

With a tune with a lilt attributed to St Columba and a text from Edwin Hatch what’s not to like. Godsongs has information, the text and links to sheet music.

This song was the entrance for Pentecost at Ryan’s parish.

I’ve blogged a reimagining on this song here from spiritandsong, but this is the original attributed to Rabanus Maurus and translated by Edward Caswell although there are several versions of the text. I’m assuming the lyrics in Gather will be for us Catholics, but you can see all the variants at Hymnary where you can also find information on LAMBILOTTE written unsurprisingly by Louis Lambilotte. The sheet music can be purchased at OCP.

Check out how happy the choir leader is with the fanfare:

Jesse’s parish used this song for the procession of the gifts on Trinity Sunday. I’d never heard it before so I’ve searched it out.

It is by Bob Fitts and the text is here. The sheet music can be purchased at musicnotes. This song has a high schmaltz risk and will need careful handling.

For some reason the music reminds me of “Love Never Lasts Forever” by Buckacre, revealing my knowledge of guilty pleasure 70s bands.

It sounds better when Fitts is joined by a crowd of Malaysians for some reason:

This was the wonderful choice for entrance for Holy Trinity at Chris’s parish. Using the familiar tune LAUDA ANIMA by John Goss, John Bell and Graham Maule have given us another challenging text with a Trinitarian theme.  Praising the Son who “upsets religion” is always going to resonate with ratbags like me.

The text is at Hymnary, where the hymnals that contain the song are noted. My copy is in Together in Song.

I’ve done a simple organ backing so singalong:

This is a song for Eucharist by Rev. James V. Marchionda OP.

The text of the verses reads rather prosaically and the tune is pretty basic so it will need something special by the singers to elevate it.

You can find the text in the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased.

Entrance: Gather Your People (Hurd) AOV 1/71

Psalm 116 (O’Brien)

I will take the cup of salvation and call on your name, O Lord.

Gifts: Our Blessing Cup is a Communion (Mason)

Communion: Table Song (Haas)

Come to the Table (Burland) AOV NG 33

Thanksgiving: The Eucharist Song (Andersen)

Recessional: We Are Called (Haas) AOV 2/60

I was away visiting family at Pentecost and attended Mass as a visitor.

While visiting the same city on Easter Sunday I entered some sort of portal and went to a church that was still in the early seventies – very old school Roman Catholic, songs from the old blue book, fairly dull organ music, little singing except from the priest and the least joyful celebration of Easter I have experienced – and remember I used to be a Presbyterian.

So this time we went to a Catholic church not five minutes drive from the last one. This time the time travel went back to the mid 1990s. They had progressed to AOV Volume One, which was nice. They spruiked for a Charismatic Catholic service coming up and Mass started with extemporaneous prayer that sounded very Protestant. The church was decorated for Pentecost, which was also nice, but the Mass parts were not sung. Four songs were sung to organ accompaniment  that really had no relationship to Pentecost at all (AOV1 71, 16, 129, 76) and I swear they had transposed one of the songs up to suit the singer, which was no help for participation from us groaners. There was little singing and what there was got swallowed in the thick carpets. The 1990s, however, was a much more welcoming era and it was certainly somewhere I could feel at home. I remember the priest gave a lively homily, but with my porous brain I forget the substance and the readers of the Word were especially good.

I suspect that these adjacent parishes are operating less parochially and more as a liturgical choice for the residents, based on the nature of the parish priest. In the cities we are spoiled for choice and can avoid difficult priests or jarring liturgies.  It can’t help with building communities however, as a change of priest means a community may shatter and with so few resources available to Bishops they have little leeway to take such things into account.

I enjoy going to mass at other parishes, because there is a learning experience added to the celebration. I have heard songs played properly for the first time that I had been playing with the wrong feel for years and some hymns suddenly make musical sense. Frequently, however, I note just how far we have to go with supporting musicians, singers and liturgists, all volunteers of course, and I strongly suspect visitors to our parish when I play would think the same thing sometimes. I’m not sure what era they wind up in when they attend our liturgies.

It’s more than just when the songs were written, it really feels like some parishes just hit the wall and cease to change and I suspect something is lost then. We are supposed to sing a new song. In the music liturgies people have been kind enough to post here, there is obvious thought and relevance to each celebration.  There are parishes that mix the most traditional with the most recent, others that are mostly AOV like us, and others that have good choices from traditional repertoires. If they are allowing the people to participate by singing then their liturgies are enfleshed in the present moment no matter when the songs were written.

Ryan’s parish recessed to this song at Pentecost.

It is a fine text by Delores Dufner and the tune is THAXTED by Holst from “Jupiter”.

Cantus Mundi has already done the heavy lifting with the text and You Tube videos. Sheet music is at Mutopia.

I love this tune and when it hits this section in “Jupiter” its never fails to lift my spirits.

My backing is a dreadful conceit – Holst on BIAB – heaven forbid.

This is a John Angotti song, which is a surprise in the WLP stable. It is really a solo or group performance piece and struggles as a liturgical vehicle really due to the nature of the tune. It’s a good country harmony song and the text is fine.

You can listen to the original here and see the text in the sample and buy the sheet music at WLP.

My backing adds a hint of gospel to the country.