This is another Ricky Manalow song, this time with a Japanese/Asian style in a setting based on the Pentecost sequence.
The text is here and it can be purchased for download at OCP. Perhaps it could be used as a gentle gathering him during the Fifty Days of Pentecost with different verses chosen each week. The verse gets pretty high and might need a cantor. I’m not convinced by the idiom and it strikes me as being at risk of being patronising and cringeworthy.
My backing puts the counter melody/harmony in from the second verse. The lines are separated in the stereo mix to assist learning the tunes.
For this gospel tune Christopher Walker used a nineteenth century refrain by Caroline Noel and adapted the verses from Phillipians 2. I’m still in the gathering and sending songs in Spirit & Song Vol 1.
The text is at spiritandsong and it can be purchased for download at OCP, where you can hear a snippet that has the first chorus done very effectively as solo acapella. The verses have subtle variations and the music notes that the first two verses are quiet with a crescendo in the third and the final verse loud. My backing has none of that subtlety.
This is a P&W setting of an old anonymous American text from the nineteenth century written by Timothy R. Smith.
The text and links to purchase for download are at spiritandsong.
It might work as a recessional at Easter Vigil or other joyful occasions, but its triumphalist nature would require discernment at other times, esp in P&W format. My backing has guitar solos where they are indicated in the music but not the written ones. As that would have taken work I just asked BIAB for solos and it obliged.
The main purpose of this blog is for musicians of modest talents, like myself, to have an idea how a song goes according to the actual music, so they can learn to play it. Many strummers like myself can’t just look at all those notes and figure it out, so I’ve always made a backing on Band in a Box to get the idea. I’m wary of the recorded versions which have solo embellishments and the YouTube clips of other parishes attempts where I might learn their mistakes. I know I have played many songs with the wrong feel I learnt over the years in my parish and was often surprised when I had a good look at the music and entered in the actual notes.
I’ve done all the As One Voices (except the Kids) and miscellaneous songs I’ve been asked to play over the years or had requested, and now I’m going to teach myself some songs that are new to me. I’m starting with Spirit and Song Vol 1 published in 1999 by OCP. I’m using it because OCP really have their act together with downloadable sheet music so that if you hear something you like you can buy it cheaply from them. The whole paperback book cost me all of $A20 some years ago. It is roughly contemporaneous with the first two AOV collections and so there are overlaps that I will leave out, as Willow leant heavily on OCP for AOV. The Mass settings are of course redundant and while there are excellent psalm settings I’ll leave them for another time. The first tranche of songs are gathering and sending forth songs.
Janet Vogt was not a composer with which I was familar. You can hear her song “Age to Age” at MySpace. I think there is a good song under the American style of church music recording that I find hard to take. This version is better:
The text is here (scroll down). It can be purchased for download at OCP.
Vogt uses passages from Isaiah and Matthew in her song that could also be used for Eucharist, mediation and healing applications. It probably needs a lighter touch than I give it. The tune has delightful subtlety but the verses have just enough variation to cause concern and slow the learning process.
The sheet music of this piece was in a sample bag given away at one of the As One Voice conferences. “Take,Lord” is a choral piece written by Matt Wessel using the prayer Suscipe attributed to St Ignatius of Loyola. It is a beautiful meditative piece.
I’m renovating old posts, looking for bad links etc, and I’ve found that I never blogged this song by Christopher Willcock SJ. I made a backing and forgot all about it I’m afraid.
It is a setting of Psalm 102 in his distinctive grand style.
BIAB is not really the right program for Willcock’s music but they are meant for learning purposes only.
Antiphon
Let all the peoples praise you, O Lord,
Let all the peoples praise you. (Rpt)
1. Nations shall fear the name of the Lord
and all the rulers of earth your glory,
when the Lord shall build Sion again,
coming in glory. Alleluia!
2. Let this be written for ages to come,
peoples unborn may praise the Lord,
who has come down from the sanctuary on high
to set the prisoners free. Alleluia!
3. Sion shall hear the name of the Lord,
and God’s praise in the heart of the city.
Peoples and nations shall gather to praise,
worshipping God our Lord: Alleluia!
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
