We often sing this song by Marty Haugen, especially as a recessional. You can hear some of the original here and it is very jolly. If you play it slowly on an organ it sounds all wrong. This more like it.
The text is at spiritandsong. It can be purchased for download at OCP, which is passing strange as I have it as a GIA copyright song.
I’ve always thought this song was a bluegrass song hence my backing:
Another huge hit, this time by Bernadette Farrell. You can hear the original here. We do it a little faster and with more enthusiasm. This solo version takes some liberties with the timing but is OK. This version is probably too fast, but the crying baby makes it for me.
It can purchased for download at OCP.
We often don’t get past the first three verses, which is a pity, as the text is worth singing the whole song and it is a justly popular hymn.
Verse 1
Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.Refrain
Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.Verse 2
Longing for peace, our world is troubled.
Longing for hope, many despair.
Your word alone has pow’r to save us.
Make us your living voice.Refrain
Verse 3
Longing for food, many are hungry.
Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others,
shared until all are fed.Refrain
Verse 4
Longing for shelter, many are homeless.
Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Make us your building, sheltering others,
walls made of living stone.Refrain
Verse 5
Many the gifts, many the people,
many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another,
making your kingdom come.Refrain
© Bernadette Farrell 1993.
Here’s another experiment using a VST instrument for the melody line:
In church terms, this is a hit song by David Haas and it is in extremely high rotation. It transgresses the singing in God’s voice “rule” but I can’t see that getting in the way of its use because it is much loved, important to the faith lives of many pew sitters and I strongly suspect a well written hymn. Having played it very frequently it is a sign of its quality that it does not fill me with dread to play it. It is has uses all over the liturgy but it makes a great funeral song.
I think this is original. I play it slower than I used to but I can’t do it quite this slowly. This is more the speed I’ve heard it played. There are any number of churches singing this song on Youtube if you want to go looking, a sure sign of popularity. Note that the first two verses are played before the first chorus. We often repeat the last line of the chorus right at the end and it fits the music in the AOV guitar version well.
The text is available here. It can be purchased for download at GIA.
According to my People’s edition of As One Voice Volume Two, it was published in 1996 only four years after the first one was published. It is subtitled, “Uniting God’s People in Song.” It has some more traditional hymns, like its predecessor, but concentrates on the eighties and early nineties. Within these two volumes, the vast majority of our local church’s repertoire has been found.
The first song is a Wild Goose Collective song by John Bell and Graham Maule, a setting of Ps 47. John Bell describes it as “a song of great celebration and demands a lively tune which should motivate the feet as much as the mouth.”
I don’t think I quite got this backing right, so you can use it for learning the tune but brighten things up with percussion and noise. It looks best done as call and response.
Verse 1
Clap your hands all you nations, Amen, Hallelujah!
Shout for joy all you people: Amen, Hallelujah!
Holy is the most high; Amen, Hallelujah!
Mighty over all the earth. Amen, Hallelujah!
Verse 2
God subdues ev’ry nation, Amen, Hallelujah!
God is king of all creatures; Amen, Hallelujah!
God has given this land Amen, Hallelujah!
to the people he loves. Amen, Hallelujah!
Verse 3
To the shouting in triumph, Amen, Hallelujah!
To the blasing of trumpets, Amen, Hallelujah!
God has gone up, Amen, Hallelujah!
God ascends over all. Amen, Hallelujah!
Verse 4
Praise the Lord with your singing, Amen, Hallelujah!
Sing God psalms forever. Amen, Hallelujah!
God is monarch of all, Amen, Hallelujah!
sov’reign over the earth. Amen, Hallelujah!
Verse 5
Those on earth who are mighty Amen, Hallelujah!
still belong to our Maker, Amen, Hallelujah!
God exalted on high Amen, Hallelujah
God forever our Lord. Amen, Hallelujah!
© WGRG, Iona Community, 1993.
http://www.iona.org.uk/wgrg_home.php
A song written for Hillsong by Russell Fragar. Also known as “Love You So Much” it is another slow P&W song as you can see here. When I was blogging “As One Voice: the Next Generation” last year, the only song choices I got grumpy about were the Hillsong ones, so I obviously have a blind spot in that area and I should refrain from further comment.
Verse 1
Hear these praises from a grateful heart
Each time I think of You
The praises start
Love You so much, Jesus
Love You so muchVerse 2
Lord, I love You, my soul sings
In Your presence
Carried on Your wings
Love You so much, Jesus
Love You so muchChorus
How my soul longs for you
Longs to worship You forever
In Your power and majesty
Lift my hands, lift my heart
Lift my voice towards the heavens
For You are my sun and shieldVerse 1
© Russel Fragar / Hillsongs Australia 1996.
This one is listed as author unknown but I have seen it attributed to Stuart Townend. You can hear a version here that has all three parts. It is another slow burn P&W song with the novelty of the three parts to sustain it. It’s the sort of song that you can repeat forever and drop lines in and out to the Spirit’s content.
My backing is at 70bpm and the three parts come in sequentially. I had to actually use Realband to put the third line in and since I have no idea what I am doing in that program I apologise for any noticeable ropiness. Each vocal line is separated in the stereo specturm to help with learning the parts.
While I have a short break from AOV, this is one from The Source: New Songs Vol One – I haven’t done one from this collection since October.
This is by Stuart Townend, a very successful English Christian musician and is from 1998.
My backing is at 75 bpm and BIAB added an intro (Emaj7 / E7 ). The tune does little for me and the lyrics of the chorus are too repetitious, but I acknowledge that context changes things and it is likely a useful slow P&W song. You can hear a snippet of it performed live here.
Verse 1
Giver of grace
How priceless Your love for me
Purer than silver more costly than gold
Giver of life all that I’ll ever need
Strength for my body and food for my soulChorus
Oh You are good so good to me
Yes You are good so good to me
Oh You are good so good to me
Yes You are good so good to meVerse 2
Giver of hope Rock of salvation
Tower of refuge yet there in my pain
Now I’m secure loved for eternity
Showered with blessings
And lavished with graceRefrain
Bridge
I’ve never known a love
So perfect in its faithfulness
It lifts me up to the highest place
A glimpse of heaven
And a taste of my inheritance
I know that one day I’ll be with YouVerse 1
Chorus
© Kingsway’s Thankyou Music 1998.
I’m working from the old combined guitar version of As One Voice and at this point they have the “Mass for Moderns” by Father Stephen Robinson, the “Mass Shalom” by Brother Colin Smith, the “Mass of Creation” by Marty Haugen and the “Mass of Freedom” by Maggie Russell.
The revised combined guitar version of AOV apparently has updated mass settings, however I haven’t heard that the “Mass for Moderns” had been adapted to the new translation. *
I have blogged the new “Mass of Creation” starting here and it is in high rotation going by the number of searches looking for it that find this site. Paul Mason revised Colin Smith’s Mass with some success and I have blogged the revised version here. I’m afraid I couldn’t get past the new Gloria of the revised “Mass of Freedom”.
Which brings me to the end of “As One Voice” Volume One. It was only published in 1992 and has succeeded wildly in its aim of producing an “affordable and functional hymnal that offers … a varied selection of the best liturgical music now available from overseas, together with familiar and new material from our own liturgical composers here in Australia.”
I’ve been looking at the foreward by Fr Kevin Bates in my people’s edition. It is worth reading in its entirety:
In a busy, bustling world searching for meaning and hope, the Christian Church draws from its treasury, things new and old, so that the world might come to taste something of this meaning and hope.
The Church has a long memory.
The Church also has great imagination and passion for the future.
God’s people are always on the lookout for music which both remembers and imagines, which is true to their memory and which is life giving for their future. God’s people are constantly on the lookout for music which both nourishes and challenges, which heals, which proclaims truth and beauty, which comforts and celebrates joyfully the hope that Jesus’ living and dying and rising means something to us all.
God’s people are also looking for music which speaks to them with immediacy, with language and sounds that find a home in their hearts without need for explanation and translation, just as the stories of Jesus did when he sang his song among us so many years ago.
This collection of music in “As One Voice” takes an initiative, the purpose of which is to be more comprehensive, more earthed, more hospitable and more true to the broader memory and aspirations of the Christian people. It is wth great joy and enthusiasm that we present this outstanding collection to you. And it is with grateful hearts that we move forward, encouraged by the response that this project has already received from so many quarters of the Church.
I recommend “As One Voice” to you for your worshipping communities, for families and for personal prayer and reflection.
As do I.
Looking about the net for background about the songs there is (ahem) a certain amount of hostility to this collection that is somewhat hard to fathom. Going through every song required me to note the number of traditional hymns to which I had paid little attention. The inevitable number of Haugen, Haas, Hurd etc songs is reasonable considering they were looking back at the sixties, seventies and eighties and, while I am now a grumpy old man of fifty, I don’t find them the breath of Satan. For all the folk leanings, there are modern “traditional” hymns by Christopher Walker and Paul Inwood as a contrast. The other delightful thing about AOV is, of course, the Australian liturgical musicians who found a place in this collection. One of the painful things about the lurch to tradition we are currently living through is that it necessarily banishes anything Australian as too recent for consideration.
I suspect the communal will and thought and prayer life of the pew sitters, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit, will not allow the voice to be silenced.
I will get around to AOV 2 soon.
* 22/12/2012
I have heard that the Mass for Moderns has been revised and is in use but I have none of the publication details.
This is the Michael Joncas one. It is a setting of Ps 118. We usually do the other one, which I dislike so I was hoping this might provide an alternative as we have never done it before. You can hear snippets of the Joncas one and the other one at AOV. This is a more listenable version. This is another fine version, this time piano and duet vocal.
It can be purchased for download at OCP.
Watch for the different tune in the third verse. This setting appears singable and much better than the other one.
Refrain
This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad;Verse 1
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
His mercy endures forever;
Let the house of Israel say:
“His mercy endures forever.”Refrain
Verse 2
The Lord’s right hand has struck with pow’r,
The Lord’s right hand is exalted;
I shall not die, but live
and declare the works of the Lord.Refrain
Verse 3
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the Lord this has been done;
It is wonderful in our eyes!Refrain
© Michael Joncas 1981,1982.
A text written in the sixties by James Quinn SJ to a traditional Welsh tune, “Ar Hyd Y Nos” that I realised I had associated with the song “All Through the Night” after listening to the snippet at AOV. The lyrics vary on the net varied somewhat so I stuck with the version in AOV. A nice version on organ can be heard here and a solo voice + church acoustics version here. Just for fun you can hear the tune with Welsh lyrics here.
A free arrangement for guitar is available here at Score Exchange arranged by Jim Nailon.
Verse 1
Day is done, but love unfailing
Dwells ever here;
Shadows fall, but hope, prevailing,
Calms every fear.
Loving Father, none forsaking,
Take our hearts, of Love’s own making,
Watch our sleeping, guard our waking,
Be always near.Verse 2
Dark descends, but light unending
Shines through our night;
You are with us, ever lending
New strength to sight:
One in love, your truth confessing,
One in hope of heaven’s blessing,
May we see, in love’s possessing,
Love’s endless light!Verse 3
Eyes will close, but you unsleeping
Watch by our side;
Death may come, in love’s safekeeping
Still we abide
God of love, all evil quelling,
Sin forgiving, fear dispelling,
Stay with us, our hearts indwelling,
This eventide.
Text © James Quinn SJ 1969.
