Church Music

Another song by Dan Schutte, but this one’s a masterpiece. You can hear it played properly here. By done properly, I mean slowly for the refrain and faster for Verses 1-3 then faster still for the new tune in v 4-5, not the style of singing, with which I struggle.

I can’t manage that so for my backing I do the whole thing at 68 bpm.

It can be purchased for download at OCP.

This version probably hurries a bit much, but this is more like it tempo wise.

We recorded the Tridium in 2003 and this is how our singers sounded back then:

 Refrain
Holy darkness, blessed night,
heaven’s answer hidden from our sight.
As we await you, O God of silence,
we embrace your holy night.

Verse 1

I have tried you in fires of affliction;
I have taught your soul to grieve.
In the barren soil of your loneliness,
there I will plant my seed.

Refrain

Verse 2

I have taught you the price of compassion;
you have stood before the grave.
Though my love can seem
like a raging storm,
this is the love that saves.

Refrain

Verse 3

Were you there
when I raised up the mountains?
Can you guide the morning star?
Does the hawk take flight
when you give command?
Why do you doubt my pow’r?

Refrain

Verse 4

In your deepest hour of darkness
I will give you wealth untold.
When the silence stills your spirit,
will my riches fill your soul.

Refrain

Verse 5

As the watchman waits for morning,
and the bride awaits her groom,
so we wait to hear your footsteps
as we rest beneath your moon.

Refrain

© Daniel Schutte 1988, 1993.

This is beautiful piece by Bernadette Farrell, which you can listen to here. I’m not at all sure it is able to be sung effectively by the assembly, but I’d love to hear otherwise. This UCC church gets around that by doing it as a solo.

It can be purchased for download at OCP.

I also wonder whether a church traditional enough to have the choral expertise for this, is likely to go for the challenging text. Who knows.

Verse 1

God, beyond our dreams, you have stirred in us a memory,
you have placed your powerful spirit in the hearts of humankind.

Refrain

All around us, we have known you;
all creation lives to hold you,
In our living and our dying
we are bringing you to birth.

Verse 2

God, beyond all names, you have made us in your image,
we are like you, we reflect you, we are woman, we are man.

Refrain

Verse 3

God, beyond all words, all creation tells your story,
you have shaken with our laughter, you have trembled with our tears.

Refrain

Verse 4

God, beyond all time, you are laboring within us;
we are moving, we are changing, in your spirit ever new.

Refrain

Verse 5

God of tender care, you have cradled us in goodness,
you have mothered us in wholeness, you have loved us into birth.

Refrain

© Bernadette Farrell 1990.

Another trial with a VST instrument:

Not my favourite Dan Schutte song I must say. Inspired by the Kingdom of God saying in Matt 13:44 the text depicts the longing for Christ and giving all for Christ but the music just seems too laid back for such a commitment.  The other problem is the the Reign of God is being described by Jesus in a succession of abstract metaphors with layers of meaning and challenge. Schutte’s song actually narrows the thought rather than opening it out. So much of his material is so good that I get picky about the merely OK ones. Nonetheless it gets selected a lot by our liturgists and is sung well by the assembly.

You can hear the delicacy with which it is meant to be sung in the snippet from AOV. You’d need a cantor for the verses to achieve that. I like this piano instrumental version.

Verse 1
Lord, to whom can I go?
You alone speak the words of life.
You alone on the earth
or in heaven above
are my Saviour and my Lord.

Chorus
I found the treasure in a field,
that neither time nor death can steal.
I will sell what I have,
give all that I am,
to hold this treasure as my own.

Verse 2
Jesus, Lord of my life,
I can ask for nothing more
than to see and believe
that my life lies in you,
in the kingdom of my Lord.

Chorus

© Daniel Schutte and New Dawn Music 1985.

Another VST melody line experiment:

A song based on Ps 51 from Digby Hannah. A chant from a Baptist – tremendous.

Hear what I mean here. My backing carries the usual warning that BIAB doesn’t do chant well.

 Create in us a clean heart, O God.

Renew within us a right spirit.

Cast us not away from your presence, O Lord,

and take not your Holy Spirit from us.

Restore to us fullness of joy,

the joy that springs from your salvation.

Lighten our minds, shelter out lives with your Spirit free.

Lighten our minds, shelter out lives with your Spirit free.

© Digby Hannah 1984.

I enjoy playing this song by Dan Schutte and it makes a lively Eucharist song. You can hear the original here, but don’t expect it to live up to the instruction on the sheet music to be actually lively. A tour of Youtube versions will, however, show even more turgid, slow and most definitely NOT lively versions … what to do?

I general avoid changing a song that a talented songwriter has gone to so much trouble over, but here I made an exception.  I’ve upped the tempo to 180 bpm and removed the bar leading into the verse and I think it makes more sense musically and flows much better from chorus to verse. The chorus is joyful and yes, lively, and we sing the verse more quietly building up through the last line back to the chorus. When we play it like that it is just about my favourite communion hymn.

It can be purchased for download at OCP.

Refrain

Come to the feast of heaven and earth!

Come to the table of plenty!

God will provide for all that we need,

here at the table of plenty.

Verse 1

O come and sit at my table

where saints and sinners are friends.

I wait to welcome the lost and lonely

to share the cup of my love.

Refrain

Verse 2

O come and eat without money;

come to drink without price.

My feast of gladness will feed your spirit

with faith and fullness of life.

Refrain

Verse 3

My bread will ever sustain you

through days of sorrow and woe.

My wine will flow like a sea of gladness

to flood the depths of your soul.

Refrain

Verse 4

Your fields will flower in fullness;

your homes will flourish in peace.

For I, the giver of home and harvest,

will send my rain on the soil.

Refrain

© Daniel Schutte 1992.

More learning curve material adding VST instruments to BIAB:

David Gagnon wrote this song but I can’t find any biographical information about him on the net. We’ve never used this one locally but it is a Eucharist song and they are always welcome.

There is a snippet at AOV to give you the idea. My backing is at 85 bpm and sounds rather different.

Refrain

In the bread may we be broken.

In the cup may we be out poured.

May we come to know the healer,

may we come to know the Lord.

Verse 1

Though many are we, we are one in the Lord.

We are all welcome to his table of new life.

Refrain

Verse 2

We come to the table to remember the Lord,

who gave his life that we might live for ever more.

Refrain

Verse 3

In breaking the bread, in sharing the cup,

may we be filled as we come to know the Lord.

Refrain

© OCP Publications 1988.

This is a very good song by Monica O’Brien and Trisha Watts that I have already blogged because I made a very wrong backing for it.

It can be purchased for download at As One Voice.

I’ve had yet another go with hopefully improved results.

This another song I don’t look forward to playing. I’m sure there is a Village People song that sounds a bit like it (?Go West), although this was probably written first.  You can hear Henry Smith himself sing it here or a much schmaltzier one here. You can read more about the song in this book excerpt at Google.

It can be purchased for download at musicnotes.

My backing is at 91bpm.

A song for Ash Wednesday by Tom Conroy, that we sing once a year I suppose. This version is about as spirited a rendition as you are likely to hear. It isn’t my favourite song to play or sing, so I can use that as a penance. That’s not due to it being called heretical, I just think it mistakes dreariness for solemnity – but lots of people love it and we are going to sing it every Ash Wednesday forever, so I best just get over myself. The text evokes a northern hemisphere Lent, which is mildly annoying in the southern hemisphere.

It can be purchased for download at OCP.

We rise again from ashes, from the good we’ve failed to do.
We rise against from ashes, to create ourselves anew.
If all the world is ashes, then must our lives be true?
An offering of ashes, an offering to you.

We offer you our failures, we offer you attempts,
The gifts not fully given, the dreams not fully dreamt.
Give our stumblings direction, give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes, an offering to you.

Then rise again from ashes, let healing come to pain.
Though spring has turned to winter, and sunshine turned to rain.
The rain we’ll use for growing, and create the world anew,
From an offering of ashes, an offering to you.

 

An extra verse not in AOV:

Thanks be the Father who made us like Himself,
Thanks be to His Son who saved us by His death,
And thanks be to His Spirit who creates the world anew,
From an offering of ashes, and offering to you.

© New Dawn Music 1978.

A hymn by Patrick Matsikenyiri from Zimbabwe. AOV also gives texts in Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, French and English and you can hear their snippet here.

Jesu tawa pano;

Jesu tawa pano;

Jesu tawa pano;

Tawa pano, mu zita renyu.

© Patrick Matsikenyiri 1995

Alternate version with VST instruments: