Church Music

The snippet at AOV of Christopher Walker’s song, “Jesus Lives!” has a childrens’ choir, organ and brass. I suspect all it really needs is the children. OCP lists Paule Freeburg as a co-author who is uncredited in AOV.

The sample music at OCP says it is a joyful march and that we are invited to make up more verses, the suggestions being: “Over death Jesus lives…” “Where there’s joy…” “We proclaim…”

1. Jesus lives, Jesus lives today.
He is Lord and he lives today.
Jesus lives to show us the way.
Jesus lives today.

2. Jesus lives, Jesus lives today,
in you and me, Jesus lives today.
Jesus lives to show us the way.
Jesus lives today.

3. Jesus lives, Jesus lives today.
Where there’s love, Jesus lives today.
Jesus lives to show us the way.
Jesus lives today.

© Daughters of Charity & Christopher Walker 1993.

When I get to songs by icons like Br Colin Smith, I acknowledge a degree of cheek in attempting his sort of music on Band in a Box. A portion of this stirring song can be heard at AOV here. He has taken elements of Ps 27 for the verses and possibly Ps 104 for the response.

 Response

I will sing and make music for the Lord,

make music for the Lord my God.

Verse 1

The Lord is my light and my help:

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

before whom shall I shrink?

Response

Verse 2

There is one thing I ask of the Lord;

for this I long:

to live in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life.

Response

Verse 3

O Lord, hear my voice when I call;

have mercy and answer me.

Of You my heart has spoken:

seek his face.

Response

Verse 4

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living.

Hope in Him, hold firm and take heart;

hope in the Lord.

Response

© Colin Smith 1994.

When I get a chance I’ll put up what is to be played each week at our local Catholic church.  We have four liturgy teams that put together music to match each Mass for each week. I’m part of one of the teams and so have input one week a month.  Last week they were pretty much all songs from As One Voice: the Next Generation, but this week they are more familiar songs.

We are currently singing the mass parts from the revised Mass Shalom.

Entrance – We Are Called (AOV 2/60)

Psalm response – If Today You Hear His Voice (AOV 2/72)

Gifts –  Beatitudes (Ducote)

Communion  – Blessed Be Our God (AOV NG 13)

                       – Table Song (Haas)

Recessional – All the Ends of the Earth (AOV 1/76)

A call and response song from Carey Landry that sounds like a childrens’ song in the AOV snippet. Each line is repeated.

It can be purchased in a collection at OCP.

My backing has the two melody lines at opposite ends of the stereo spectrum.

God is rich in mercy,

full of compassion.

Our God has mercy on us.

 

Jesus is forgiving,

full of compassion.

Jesus has mercy on us.

 

We must be forgiving

as we are forgiven.

Our God has mercy on us.

© Carey Landry and NALR 1986.

Gabriel Anthony Doheny’s setting of Ps 33 has a touch of the show tune about it, so I’m not sure it will necessarily work for the assembly. Listen for yourself here to a slice of it.

Refrain

Glorify the Lord with me.

Together let us praise God’s name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

from all my terrors I was set free.

Verse 1

I will bless the Lord at all times,

his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast,

the humble shall hear and be glad.

Refrain

Verse 2

Look towards God and be radiant;

let your faces not be abashed.

The helpless called; the Lord heard them

and rescued them from their distress.

Refrain

Verse 3

They call and the Lord hears them,

and rescues them in their distress.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted;

whose spirit is crushed, he will save.

Refrain

© Gabriel Anthony Doheny 1993.

Normally I don’t fuss much if the backing is pretty average but I trashed a couple of versions of this one.  Just for fun, listen to the train wreck:

Another folk tune from Fr Kevin Bates, which can be heard in part here. This is a good example of creativity using the voice of God that should not be discouraged. Like many items at AOV, this can be bought separately.

Verse 1

Come to my table, taste of my Word.

Bring me the life that you’ve lived.

Bring in the dancing. Bring in the pain,

Bring me the whole of your journey.

Verse 2

The parts of the story no-one’s ever heard.

The times on the road you were scared.

Bring me the gifts no-one wanted to share.

Let’s open the whole of your journey.

Verse 3

There’s nothing in you that can’t taste my Word.

There’s nowhere out spirit can’t fly!

I’ve laughed in the dancing and cried in the pain.

I’ve loved the whole of your journey.

Verse 4

I’ve lived in the desert where hearts have run dry.

I’ve loved in the gaol of your pain.

I live in the poor and I give you my name.

I live the whole of your journey.

Verse 5

Remember my arms open wide on the tree.

Remember the tears in my eyes.

Remember the wonder when death fell away

and love called you back to the journey.

Verse 6

Come to my table, taste of my Word.

Bring me the life that you’ve lived.

Bring in the dancing. Bring in the pain,

Bring me the whole of your journey.

© Kevin Bates 1991.

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.