Church Music

This is a hymn of praise, which CWB say is a translation of an anonymous C16 work called Summa parentis filio, translated by Edward Caswell and further adapted by the editors. The particular theme of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a little watered down in CWB’s version of the text.

It is here set to NARENZA, itself a C19 adaptation of an earlier tune by William Henry Havergal.

I got the chords for a backing from the ever wonderful Together In Song, which is indispensible if you want chords for old hymn tunes.

To be fair to the editors there are a lot of variations in this text.

Hymnary use the text from Worship.

1 To Christ, the Prince of Peace
And Son of God most high,
The ruler of the world to come,
We lift our joyful cry.

2 Deep in his heart, for us
The wound of love he bore,
That love with which he still inflames
The hearts that him adore.

3 O Jesus, victim blest,
What else but purest love
Could make your sacred heart pour forth
God’s graces from above?

4 O fount of endless life
And spring of water clear,
O heav’nly flame which cleanses all
Who unto you draw near!

5 Enfold us in your heart,
O Jesus, Savior blest,
So shall we find your plenteous grace
And heav’n’s eternal rest.

It’s always fun to look for the firm hand of the CWB editors:

1 To Christ, the Prince of peace,
And Son of God most high,
The Father of the world to come,
We lift our joyful cry.

2 Deep in his heart for us
The wound of love he bore:
That burning love he kindles still
In hearts that him adore.

3 O Jesus, victim priest,
What else but love so fine
Could make your so to welcome us
Into your heart divine.

4 O fount of endless life,
And spring of water clear,
With flame celestial cleansing all
Who to your heart draw near!

5 Keep us in your dear heart,
For there we all would be,
To live in grace, and after death
Gain immortality.

6 Praise to the Father be,
And sole-begotten Son;
Praise, ever holy Paraclete,
While endless ages run.

This site gives the Latin and another translation. I’m not sure how “victim” becomes “priest” in CWB.

This is a Marty Haugen song that CWB says is based on Psalm 94 (95) and 95 (96). Psalm 118 is obviously involved as well for the refrain.

The verse goes into interesting melodic territory – B# in a song in E anyone?

You can still buy it at GIA where the text is in their preview.

I had more trouble than usual with BIAB for this song as it is in cut common time and my usual trick of entering everything and just reducing everything by half won’t work with chords on quarter notes – I worked around it.

I’m afraid this is another obscure one from CWB.

The text is by Don and Nancy MacNeill. The tune is by Daniel Moe and called OPENING HYMN. It was from a collection called Worship For Today and also was in the hymn book, Ecumenical Praise, and of course CWB.

I can’t find a trace of it on the internet and the music is kind of ornery with frequent changes to the time signature.

I guessed the chords and tried to make sense of the rhythm, so for those with CWB I, I made a strange backing.

I covered this James Quinn text while I was doing Gather Australia, but they used JESU DULCIS MEMORIA. CWB say they set it to EISENACH, but it is in fact set to JESU DULCIS MEMORIA as well.

The words are at Hymnary.

I made a simple backing this time with made up (ie wrong) chords, because I piked on the chant last time.

This is a setting of Psalm 26(27) from the Grail by Tobias Colgan OSB.

He is a Benedictine from St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana.

They have kindly posted a songbook that includes this song’s words and music on page 12.

… which helped a lot with this backing I made:

This is another song CWB sourced from the New Catholic Hymnal, and is a paraphrase by Anthony G. Petti of a song by Thomas Aquinas called Verbum supernum prodiens. It is both Eucharistic and Trinitarian.

CWB set it to Percy Buck’s GONFALEN ROYAL.

I got chords from TIS for a backing:

1 The word of God from heaven came,

But did not leave the Father’s side;

Fulfilled his mission here on earth,

And for mankind was crucified.

2 The very night before he died

And to his passion he was led,

He gave to his disciples life,

His own true self in form of bread.

3 His body and his precious bloood

He offered under either kind,

And in the fullness of his love

Gave food of life to all mankind.

4 Dear Saviour, victim for our sins,

To lead us to eternal life:

Protect and guard us in your grace,

And keep us from all earthly strife.

5 To your great name be endless praise,

O ever blessed Trinity;

We pray you, grant us perfect life

With you throughout eternity.

This is a Dutch hymn for confirmation by Huub Oosterhuis. CWB I sets it to a traditional Dutch tune, GELUKKIG IS HET LAND. The translation is by Anthony Barr.

The words and music are in this sample at Hymnary.

OCP retranslated the text slightly and used a setting by Timothy Smith.

This is some 60s folk mass goodness from Joe Wise and yet another update of Psalm 22 (23).

The original has an extra bar in verse 3 only but I note Marty Haugen’s arrangement for GIA smoothed things out with extra words to make all the verses the same length.

Hymnary has that version in a sample with words and music.

My first backing was too slow so I made another. They both have the Haugen adjustment.

The original:

This is a reimagining of Psalm 22 (23) by Christopher Idle. CWB used CRIMOND to set it, which is doubling down I suppose.

Jubilate have the text, Hope the sheet music and Praise the backstory. Job done.

Now to find a very old backing of mine:

Is this a Catholic song if written by an Anglican minister?

… sung in a reformed church?

… Calvinist?

Psalms are for everyone!

The is a bit of an orphan setting of Psalm 26 (27) by Marty Haugen. You would expect Haugen’s work to be available but he wrote a more useable setting later on and that appears to have superceded this one.

The text is a paraphrase of the Psalm and the editors of CWB have changed it as well, so it would be only be useful as a hymn rather than as a psalm, which is probably why it has disappeared.

That said, I made a backing with made up chords for anyone who has CWB and wants to know how it goes. I haven’t found it available anywhere else.