Church Music

When the editors of the Praise to God parish hymnal, stepped away from the major prior hymn books for inspiration, they frequently turned to the Weston Priory and Gregory Norbet.

From their collection Locusts and Wild Honey they found four songs. I’ve blogged the title track here, and this Christmas song is one of the other three. The songbook is still in print and available from the priory. The lyrics, which I got from their site, have a fifth verse not in PTG.

Refrain:
A child is born for us today, alleluia.
He is our Saviour and our God, alleluia.

1. Let our hearts resound with joy
   and sing a song of gladness
   for the Lord our brother is come
   and we are redeemed.
2. Tell the world of our good news:
   Jesus the Christ is among us,
   and his presence we celebrate
   offering peace and our joy to all.
3. Christ is born, the Christ has come!
   Sing everyone: Alleluia!
   Caught in wonder at this birth
   we worship God become man for us.
4. Glory to God, born today
   of the Virgin Mary,
   in a cave at Bethlehem.
   Is there room in our lives for him?
5. His name shall be Emmanuel:
   God who lives among us.
   Angels sing and shepherds cry:
   born is the savior our Lord.

Copyright © (1971), from the recording “Locusts and Wild Honey”,
The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc.,
Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont.

The instructions on the music say “lively”, and I’ll leave you to decide if they measured up to that in any of the versions they performed:

OK this is an oddity.

There was a record in the 1960s called “Let’s Sing a New Song” from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Hobart, recorded at the studios of radio 7HO under the name, The Canician Folk Singers, with solo and guitar by “Sister Philip”. PTG took “Today Our Hearts” from this album for their hymnal. The words are noted to be by Sister Philip – so far so good. The tune is uncredited. The tune is in fact the tune of “The Little Drummer Boy” written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was certainly in copyright in 1969 and I suspect still is, hence the lack of credit for the music, which seemed to have written itself.

Which is a pity, as the Eucharistic text is fine, although it doesn’t really fit the tune that well, so may it needs to be reset – the third verse I have rearranged with my best guess as to how it fits the music. I can find no details about the mysterious Sister Philip from Hobart.

1 Today our hearts O Lord we offer anew.

Together with the bread and wine to you.

Today our sep’rate lives will join in One.

As with the bread we break, we will become,

Many will be the Body of One, Christ your Son.

2 Almighty Father, take the joy and care.

We have united to your Son’s great prayer.

Help us to take you to the world again,

That men might come to You, might come and live,

The life your Son died to give, died to give.

3 O loving Father as the rising dispels

The darkness, may the life Christ won shine more,

Resplendently, throughout our lives and lift

The darkness which around us lies,

That living for Thee, may all we other Christs be, other Christs be.

The last song I will look at that the Dominican Fathers who put together the Praise To God parish hymn book sourced from The Living Parish Hymnal is this setting of part of the Breastplate of St Patrick.

They give two settings, both old Irish tunes, GARTAN (arranged by C.V. Stanford) and DEIRDRE, which is the setting also found in the the Australian Hymn Boook (454) and Catholic Worship Book I (638)

GARTAN:

DEIDRE:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

GARTAN

DEIDRE:

Going down the rabbit hole of hymnal archeology in the Praise to God collection has led me to this song they sourced from the Living Parish Hymn Book. It is another gorgeous Richard Connolly setting, but this time with his usual poet and wordsmith James P McAuley.

It really is a lovely poem set to music with themes suitable for Gifts. It is still in print, too, at Willow, where you can buy the sheet music. Better still they have the whole collection, Year of Grace. Looking at the sample at Willow, it is much better set out than the sheet music in PTG. The hymn is also in the Australian Hymnbook 587.

I got sick of organ and just did BIAB guitar for a backing, using chords manufactured from the organ music:

Antiphon

Our lives, O God, and all that we own we give;

Give us Your Son, by whom alone we live.

1 The fruits of earth, the bread and wine,

We lay upon the altar stone;

With them we offer and consign

All that we are and all we own.

2 God takes our whole created good,

Presented with the bread and wine;

Our human selves of flesh and blood,

Transformed in Christ, are made divine.

3 How poor the gift, how great the gain,

Ourselves we give, and Christ receive;

The Word who speaks no word in vain

Has promised this, and we believe.

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.