Church Music

This song by Tom Kendzia might be an entrance for Pentecost with its invocation of the Holy Spirit. The tune goes high enough that it could do without the key change for the last verse, but is otherwise singable. The introduction and interlude keyboard line looks tricky.

There is a call and response in the verse that is interesting in that the cantor gets the boring same note tune and the assembly gets something more fun.  It makes just as much sense with no cantor however.

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

You can hear the original here.

I couldn’t get all the chord changes to fit into BIAB for my backing.

Entrance: City of God (Schutte) AOV 1/57

Psalm 45 (Waters)

The waters of the river gladden the city of God.

Gifts: Blessed Be Our God (McKenna) AOV NG 13

Communion: Seed Scattered and Sown  (Feiten) GA 195

Bread Broken Wine Shared  (Horner) AOV 2/155

Thanksgiving: Springs of Salvation  (Fr Frank Andersen)

Recessional: Lord the Light of Your Love (Kendrick) AOV 2/59

OK this is a gathering song. It is by Jaime Cortez and is a pop song with mild enough syncopation to get by and enough interest in the tune to sustain the task. The text is worthy and serviceable but will need an injection of enthusiasm by the assembly.

The text is at spiritandsong and the sheet music can be purchased for download at OCP. You can hear the original here. It sounds like he is channelling Michael Mangan.

My backing goes more latin pop.

The man himself:

The Pax Christi Choir:

Are they intending this as a recessional? This is a song by Sarah Hart and Kevin B Hipp in the section of Spirit and Song for “Gathering & Sending Songs” and it certainly isn’t a gathering song. It could be used during the sign of peace if such a thing fitted the liturgy, but I doubt it would very often.

The text is at spiritandsong and is just repeated as long as is necessary. I couldn’t find a downloadable copy of the sheet music to buy, so you may have to just get it from this collection.

You can listen to the original here.

My backing is a little faster and I haven’t got the 6/8 vibe going properly:

This song with versions in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Vietnamese looks like it had something to do with World Youth Days.

The tune is by Marco Frisina who also wrote the Italian and French text as well as the English refrain.  The English verses are by Rufus Zaragoza who also wrote the Spanish refrain but the Spanish verses were written by Jaime Cortez. The Vietnamese version was by Xuan Minh.  Is that quite  clear now?

It is at least easily singable for a change.

The text of all the versions is at spiritandsong where the sheet music can be purchased for download.

This version sounds like it’s channelling Rufus Wainwright.

Various choirs:

This is an oddity. A hymn that is a drone. It’s by Matt Maher and based, logically enough, on Isaiah 61. The tune is challenging and has a wide range with some scary leaps.

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

My backing is vaguely Middle Eastern I suppose.

The original:

Matt Maher live:

A great cover by Chris Brunelle who deals with the intro inventively on guitar:

An advent celebration with a choir tackling the refrain:

Irving Bible Church:

I can skip 345 God Has Chosen Me (although unlike “As One Voice” this arrangement gives you chords) and 346 God of Wonders  because I’ve blogged them already, which brings me to Great God by Dave Wilding. I think this is another another praise and worship song that has been shoehorned into a section for gathering and sending.

The text is shall we say… basic, and can be found at spiritandsong. The sheet music can be purchased for download at praisecharts. You can hear a snippet of the song at OCP.

The nature of the lyrics suggested a heavy backing to me:

This is a terrific version with simplified chords put up so you can play along and learn the song.

Worship Invasion:

Bobby Fisher and Greg Lee have written a recessional with a soul flavour and a great call and response verse structure. The solo voice in the response goes quite high so it might be difficult without a cantor/soloist. The refrain also gets a bit high after the key change

The text is at spiritandsong, where you can listen to a snippet of the original track. It can be purchased for download at OCP.

My backing baulked at soul so it came out laid back jazz instead.

This is more as intended.

Michael W and Deborah D Smith wrote this song in praise of God. It has a tune that gets very interesting indeed in the refrain and would be singable apart from the long held D’s.

The lyrics are available here. The sheet music can be purchased at various sites on the internet including sheetmusicplus.

I had my usual trouble with 6/8 time so my backing has an uptempo country waltz feel.

This appears to be the original with that odd American church choir sound.

This live version is somewhat less nauseating.

These choirs are much messier but more listenable:

I can jump to “Fish With Me”, because No 341 “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt and Beth Redman is one of the few songs from this collection that were picked up into As One Voice: Next Generation and I have blogged it already here.

So on to the fishing song by Ken Canedo, which recasts the pericope from Matthew into a country rock form. I can’t see the assembly managing more than the refrain. The most interesting part musically is the bridge. I can’t see this as much of a gathering song, but if the readings are on I’m sure a spot can be found for it. You can hear the original here.

The text is at spiritandsong and umpteen different versions of the sheet music can be purchased for download there.

I upped the ante to a country boogie version which is less stodgy.

See it with all the actions here.