Church Music

I’ve been away all of Easter and am just back after a fourteen hour drive today.

Those who weren’t away put together this music for this week.

Entrance: Sing of the Lord’s Goodness (Sands) AOV 1/131

Psalm 117 (O’Brien)

We give you thanks, O God, for you are good,

Your love endures forever.

Gifts: Our Supper Invitation (Bates) AOV 1/185

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

Song of the Body of Christ  (Haas) AOV 1/27

Thanksgiving: Alleluia No. 1 (Fishel) AOV 1/15

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

Basically the same as 2014, which is fine by me.

I’m still interested in what other parishes have selected if people wish to share.

This collection is heavy on the choir songs and this another Notre Dame Folk Choir / Steven C Warner song.

It is on the gospel side and lots of fun with handclaps and drumming encouraged. The version in “Voices As One” has only one verse, so that’s all my backing has, but I note the sample at WLP has four verses.

The text is in the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased.

My backing is more bluesy for those lacking a choir.

This is what it is meant to sound like:

This lovely old chestnut by George Bennard came up in Mary’s parish and since I haven’t come across it for forty years or so I thought I’d make a backing for it.

The text is here where it is claimed to be public domain and where there are links to sheet music. It should be country but not schmaltz. See whether you think that was avoided in the versions below.  (hint – it wasn’t)

More choir music from Steven C Warner and the Notre Dame Folk Choir. It is a setting of Psalm 122 so useful when that comes up but with other liturgical uses as well. The refrain is SATB for the choir and the verses are suggested for a cantor – not a lot for the assembly really. I can’t find anything on the net with their choir doing it I’m afraid, but this sounds a less fraught setting than many versions of this difficult to set psalm.

The text is in the the sample at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased.

Goodness…

I’ve already blogged John Michael Talbot’s “I Am the Bread of Life” here so that brings me to another song by Rory Cooney and Claire Cooney.  This song is sung from the point of view of God, but if you can handle that and the jaunty tune it does have liturgical uses.

The text is in the sample at WLP where you can hear a snippet and buy the sheet music.

One blogger is being deliberately obtuse in his comments about this song, but I have noted Rory Cooney attracts as much bile on the net as Haugen, Haas and Schutte.

My backing is light and frothy.

I don’t know what to make of this song by Rory Cooney and Claire Cooney. It is based on Psalm 69 seemingly reimagined by Barry Manilow. It says the verses are cantor and the refrain is by all, except the bridge is a conversation between the cantor and the choir who have been waiting very patiently. The snippet at WLP is a duet + choir and that is about right so while feasibly liturgical, good luck on getting it to work.

The text is in the sample at WLP where you can hear a snippet and purchase the sheet music.

I just couldn’t get this song in their style so I put in an over busy Bachesque piano with some strings and this is how the backing turned out.

While this song isn’t my cup of tea and I had to be introduced to Rory Cooney’s work by readers of this blog, as he hasn’t caught on much in this part of the world, he has written some fine songs. This is a sobering post he wrote about the realities of being a liturgical composer.

John Michael Talbot’s take on the Magnificat is a lovely restrained folk tune. It is delightful as a solo, but I’ll have to see if YouTube records any assemblies having a go at it (It does – see below). The tune shares some motifs with John Denver’s “For Baby (For Bobby)”.

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

The original:

Some Methodists sing a wonderful harmonised version:

But Catholics can sing it too:

The Magnificat seems to suggest a solo female version to me:

There are lots of versions on Youtube so it must be well known – even in Poland:

This is Steven C Warner of the Notre Dame Folk Choir’s setting of Psalm 40. Like most of the songs in Voices As One it has liturgical uses beyond just the Sundays when the Psalm is set.

The text is available in the sample pages at WLP where the sheet music can be purchased.

The refrain is arranged SATB with the tenor line a counter melody. You can listen to the piece here. It is a lovely prayerful tune.