Entrance: Emmanuel (Angrisano) SAS 2/290
Candle: All is Wonder (Watts) AOV NG 4
Psalm: To You O God I Lift Up My Soul (Hurd) AOV 2/14
Gifts: Gentle Woman (Landry)
Communion: You Are Mine (Haas) AOV 2/2
Sing Out Earth and Skies (Haugen) AOV 2/32
Thanksgiving: Into the Darkness (Dawn) from “Songs of Fellowship” Book Five (No 70)
Recessional: Sing of the Lord’s Goodness (Sands) AOV 1/131
Like most of the P&W songs in Spirit & Song this one is too individualist to be considered for liturgy, but that it isn’t what it is written for. It is a rock song suitable for jumping up and down a lot to. Matt Maher has written a “love song to God” stomper. It has the usual ropey, somewhat lazy, unfocussed text and the mandatory pre-chorus, bridge, loud and soft passages that let you know it is praise and worship.
The text is at spiritandsong where the guitar accompaniment can be purchased for download.
My backing is simple rock:
Matt Maher:
This is lovely song by Sarah Hart and Sam Mizell. I trying to think which James Taylor song has been purloined here, but perhaps it’s just an amalgam. It’s a nice song but it would be better if Mr Taylor sang it.
The third verse is instrumental but you could just repeat the first verse if that is not wanted. You can listen to the original here.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.
My backing goes a little more latin.
A P&W meditation by Bart Millard of the band “Mercy Me”. I gather this song is insanely popular and has been covered by everyone.
Text here. The sheet music is available from various sellers on the net including musicnotes.
My backing is a bit over pretty.
This is the original with a country flavoured vocal:
Mercy Me + LSO:
Wynonna:
Susan Boyle:
Amy Grant:
etc etc
Hailey Mason sent me a link to this Infographic she helped develop:
Source: ChristianUniversitiesOnline.org/
Being a grumpy old man who first went to university in the 1970s, I am astonished at the presentations skills that BYTs* have. What an amazing document – but I have to quibble about the dates for foundation of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, I wouldn’t date it from the schism myself. It also amazes me that every citation is for a website rather than a primary document, but as I say, I’m a grumpy old man. I was surprised to find a reference to a salpinx, which is another name for a fallopian tube in my field of medicine, but I suppose it does look like a trumpet.
*BYT= bright young thing
as in “The grumpy old man felt threatened by the BYT’s talent and energy.”
Why not visit their site and see what they are up to.
This is a P&W song by Tim Hughes. It is a fine pop song and in the right context would get every singing along.
The text is here. The sheet music can be purchased for download as several sites on the net including musicnotes, but they take it up to F (Spirit & Song in D, recorded in E – take your pick) and that will make the bridge too high to sing along with.
My backing is basic pop music and more fun than all the versions below!
Tim Hughes has the gradual build to freak out down pat in his version:
Tim Hughes live:
Michael W Smith:
Hillsong:
A shadowy cover:
Cute:
A guitar lesson in E:
You can even go karoake here.
Entrance: Emmanuel (Angrisano) SAS 2/290
Candle: All is Wonder (Watts) AOV NG 4
Psalm: To You O God I Lift Up My Soul (Hurd) AOV 2/14
Gifts: God of Day and God of Darkness (Haugen) AOV 1/56
Communion: Bread Broken Wine Shared (Horner) AOV 2/155
Seed Scattered and Sown (Feiten) GA 195
Thanksgiving: The Magnificat (Kearney) AOV 1/52
Recessional: A Voice in the Wilderness (Robinson) AOV 1/60
This is a P&W song that is not noisy, but rather pleasant and heartfelt. It is by Sarah Hart and Jayme Thompson.
The text is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download. There is also a snippet of the original to listen to which is light and refreshing in style.
My backing takes it further into jazz:
The Arch Steet Band:
Other covers:
I can skip “Come, Now is the Time to Worship” because I have already blogged it here, although I notice the arrangement in Spirit & Song Vol 2 is at a more sensible 106 rather the 58 in AOV NG.
“Forever” is a rock song of the P&W genre with a verse/ verse /prechorus/chorus etc format designed for jumping up and down to.
The text is here. The sheet music can be purchased for download at various sites including musicnotes.
This is Chris Tomlin:
He sings it better in the live version with U2 style guitar:
An astonishing cover by Thomas Gray, a one man band:
This is just a man and guitar but still good:
There are several tutorials showing how to play the song on Youtube.
I’m struggling with this song because P&W songs are prone to the risk of being emotionally manipulative, and my instinctive resistance to this song is that without amazing restraint it could easily fall into the shallow love song to God genre – over sentimental etc etc. In many of the versions I listened to the voices were not broken enough to match the obvious sincerity of the lyrics. The medium subverts the message.
There are also echoes of Whitney’s Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” in the refrain, which doesn’t help.
In my imagination it would work if sung by Tom Waits.
The text is here. It can be purchased at various sites on the net including sheetmusicplus – who have a handbell version, which I would love to hear.
This is obviously the single most popular song ever recorded judging by the number of versions on YouTube. I’ll just put up a few versions to see if I can find one that doesn’t go over the top:
This is the version – guitar, harmonica, the songwriter with a more broken voice – perfect:
Oh.. and I found the handbell versions!
