Church Music

I still have a couple of songs from the Living Parish Hymn Book that made their way into the Praise to God hymnal.

This is another Richard Connolly song for which he wrote the words for as well as the lyrics – OK Jennifer Connolly wrote the refrain. It is a fine song for Gifts, with his usual inventiveness in the tune.

Luckily this one is still in print and available from Willow. You might actually have it already as it is in the Australian Hymn Book 586, and that is easily obtainable second hand.

I got the chords to make a backing by putting the notes in the sheet music through a chord identifier on the internet – tedious.

Antiphon

From many grapes and grains of wheat

One host we offer at your feet.

1 Great Lord of lords, eternal King,

Accept the lowly gifts we bear;

Pure bread your holy people bring

And with it daily work and prayer.

2 O God supreme, who stooped to share

With sinful men your love divine,

Accept the tears and joy and care

Enchaliced with the holy wine.

3 Father, we know full well our sin,

From birth we tread a shameful way;

But let Christ’s precious offering

Remove from us our sad decay.

4 As incense rising in your sight,

Accept the homage of this day;

And bless your church, O Lord of light:

For this your holy people pray.

This is another song from the Living Parish Hymn Book that was also used in the Praise to God parish hymn book. The text is C19 by Frederick William Faber and set to the C18 German tune PADERBORN.

“O Purest of Creatures” is a sentimental Marian hymn that is not my cup of tea at all – Presbyterian upbringing etc – but I’m sure has its fans. Then again Faber was raised a strict Calvanist and was a late onset Catholic, so we have that in common. I have found several variations on the words, so below is that found in PTG.

1 O purest of creatures! sweet Mother, sweet Maid;
The one spotless womb wherein Jesus was laid.
Dark night hath come down on us, Mother, and we
Look out for thy shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

2 Deep night hath come down on this rough-spoken world,
And the banners of darkness are boldly unfurled;
And the tempest-tossed Church, all her eyes are on thee;
They look for thy shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

3 He gazed on thy soul, it was spotless and fair;
For the empire of sin it had never been there;
None ever had owned thee, dear mother, but He,
And her blessed thy clear shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

4 Earth gave Him one lodging; ‘twas deep in they breast,
And God found a home where the sinner finds rest;
His home and His hiding place, both were in thee;
He was won by thy shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

5 Oh! blissful and calm was the wonderful rest
That thou gavest thy God in thy virginal breast;
For the heaven He left He found heaven in thee;
And He shone in thy shining, Sweet Star of the Sea.

My plan for looking through the Praise to God hymnal, was to concentrate on the smaller collections it sourced for hymns, but as I don’t have a copy of the Living Parish Hymnal, I had a look at the very few songs from that collection not already covered here from other places.

I have blogged the tune by John Goss before, and even a form of the words when looking at CWB II, but the words here are somewhat different. In PTG they note their verses one and two as G W Russell, alt, and a third verse by Anthony Newman, the editor of LPH. Godsongs cites other sources that say the text is anonymous and CWB II and the Pius X hymnal agree.

Oddly, the editors of PTG leave the “thee” alone, whereas they usually stripped out archaisms. The language is rather triumphalist, but that comes with the era I supppose.

I made a less strident, but still fake organ backing on BIAB:

1 Thee, O Christ, the prince of ages,

Thee, the nations’ glorious king,

Praise we now with exultation,

Saints and angels answering,

And to thee with meek devotion,

Hearts and minds and senses bring.

2 Come, O Lord, assume thy kingship,

Rebel hearts thy pow’r can gain;

Bend the stubborn will of rulers,

Who from homage still refrain:

In the home as in the city

Be supreme, O Christ, and reign.

3 Unity as thou intended

All thy people long to see,

That one holy church united

May adore and worship thee,

Who upon the cross uplifted

Draws us all in charity.

The original third verse from the PIUS X Hymnal is a hoot:

From our own dear land Australia,

Drive the night of heresy.

That, in holy church united

All may love and worship thee,

Who upon the cross uplifted,

Drawest all in charity.

I think Anthony Newman did a fine job fixing that.

Because I am now looking at the songs the Praise to God hymnal sourced from the original Living Parish Hymn Book, I have come across some old Catholic hymns that have escaped my net to date.

This one is a C19 translation by Edward Caswell of a C18 Latin hymn, Quicumque certum quaeritis. The tune is ST BERNARD a C19 adaptation by John Richardson of a C18 tune by H. Lindenborn. The sheet music is at Hymnary. If your assembly sings older music this would be timely now in Lent. I note it also can be sung to KINGSFOLD.

I used BIAB’s wind up organ to make a backing and I was able to source the chords from the ever wonderful Together In Song. There are variable texts available for this one – I have used it as in PTG.

1. All you who seek a comfort sure
   In trouble and distress,
   Whatever sorrows vex the mind,
   Or guilt the soul oppress,
2. Jesus, who gave Himself for you
   Upon the cross to die,
   Opens to you His sacred heart;
   Oh, to that heart draw nigh.
3. You hear how kindly He invites;
   You hear His words so blest;
   “All you that labour come to me,
   And I will give you rest.”
4. What meeker than the Saviour’s Heart?
   As on the Cross He lay,
   It did His murderers forgive,
   And for their pardon pray.
5. Chtist Jesus, joy of Saints on high,
   The hope of sinners here,
   Attracted by those loving words
   To You I life my prayer.
6. Lord, wash our wounds in that dear Blood,
   Which drom your heart did flow;
   New grace, new hope inspire, a new
   And better heart bestow.

You can’t beat real organ.

I don’t have the Living Parish Hymn Book – I do have the New Living Parish Hymn Book, but not its older sibling – so I thought I’d look at the couple of hymns from the older collection not already covered elsewhere on this blog that were sourced for Praise to God.

Richard Connolly, well known for setting James McAuley’s texts also wrote his own words for some of his music, including this one on a Trinitarian theme. The refrain words are based on the chant, “Ite missa est“.

I can’t believe the sheet music is not available somewhere. I suspect you are more likely to find it an old copy of LPHB than PTG, but start searching the storerooms in the back of the hall and see if you strike it lucky.

Usually confronted with a mess of organ music to put into Band in a Box, I put the notes into a reverse chord site on the internet and put the resultant chords into BIAB. This time, for fun, I just entered all the notes on the page to see what would happen.

Antiphon

Praise to the Father and to the Son and to the Spirit, three in One –

Praise and glory forever.

1 Eternal Father, to whose might your creatures’ endless praise is due,

You we adore and thank and bless, we are your children made by you.

2 Eternal Son of God – the Word, through whom creation’s work was done –

We are your bretheren whom you saved, vanquishing death, our life you won.

3 Eternal Spirit, living Love, God’s gift, his Church to sanctify,

Dwell, as Christ promised, in our midst, clothe us with power from on high.

The next source that was used to find material for the Praise to God Hymnal was the collection, Lord of Light from NALR and was called “By Name I Have Called You” by Carey Landry. I have found no trace of that collection, but the song is also in Glory and Praise, and I think all the NALR copyrights wound up at OCP.

This one is still in print and the sheet music available at OCP, but I haven’t come across it before so I’ve done a backing. The text is in their preview, where I got the chords because in PTG it has only the melody line and no chords.

His vocal remains unique and an aquired taste.

Here it is as a guided meditation:

This soloist appears to be copying Landry:

This gentleman is better as he is using his own voice, which is considerably better than Landry’s.

A little fast but a nice voice:

It does sound better to me not as a solo, as in this snippet.

Another popular source for the Praise To God hymnal was the Weston Priory material from Gregory Norbet. This was before my time in the Catholic church, but they seemed unaccountably popular. A few have continued to popular and well known in Australia, likely due to their presence in As One Voice, but some, like this one, are new to me. The Dominican Fathers who made this hymnal were rather fond of this material and one of the collections they used was Listen, which also included “The Lord Jesus” still used for feet washing, “Hosea” (AOV 1/130) and “All I As of You” (AOV 1/150).

The sheet music is, amazingly, still available from the Priory.

It is a sung examination of conscience, which we could use as an individual mediatation during Lent. Text is available from Weston Priory’s website.

One of the delights of hymnal archeology in the nooks and crannies of the Praise to God hymnal, is finding a lot of early Brian Boniwell songs that are new to me but more than forty years old. Some of his songs are now sold through Willow, but not this one.

This is the other song off the The Lord Delights record by Father Paul Gurr that was selected by the editors of PTG, that didn’t become a mainstay of Australian parish music – unlike, “Prepare the Way”, “The Lord is My Shepherd” and “Will You Love Me?”.

This song is sung in the voice of Christ, which may be a problem, although it seems obvious enough. Both The Lord Delights and Praise to God are long out of print, although while looking for information about all this I came across a couple of Paul Gurr songbooks in an online second hand music shop, which I have purchased and are on their way.

1 Ask the Father in my Name. He will give you his Kingdom,

And you shall be blessed, and you shall have life.

I’ll give to you my Spirit each day to share your load.

A light and joyful burdem you’d have upon your shoulder.

In my love. In my love.

2 Ask the Father in my Name, He will draw you to his freedom.

For He is life forever, seeking out your love,

And you will know the answer that others do not seek.

My love will grow within you and you will run to me.

In my love. In my love.

© 1981 Spectrum Publications

With zero chance of finding a copy of the sheet music to this song, I am putting up the music, but I am happy to take it down if there are objections. You will note that chords are supplied on this one – it all seems a bit random in this hymnal whether you get melody line, lead sheet or hand written organ music.

For Vigil this year, I am pretty much copying what we did in 2023:

For Vigil we will use Tony Alonso’s Exsultet if the practices go well! The sheet music is available at GIA.

Here we use three psalms in the readings and we will sing the responses using Amanda McKenna’s settings.

Psalm 32

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,

The goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 15

Keep me safe O God; you are my hope.

Keep me safe O God; you are my hope.

Exodus 15

Let us sing to the Lord;

He has covered himself in glory.

We use Taylor’s Mass of St Francis as usual except we still use the Celtic Alleluia.

Sprinkling Rite: River of Glory (Schutte)

Gifts: Blessed be Our God (McKenna)

Communion: Glory in the Cross (Schutte) – Easter verses

After Communion: Alleluia! Love is Alive (Angrisano, Manibusan, Hart)

Recessional: Jesus is Risen (O’Brien/Ogilvie)

This is very quiet and low key as it should be, with no music except for Veneration of the Cross and Communion.

Behold the Wood (Schutte)

Holy Darkness (Schutte)

Jesus Remember Me (Berthier)