Church Music

This song from A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal was collected from Lucien Deiss’s collection Sing to the Lord. Both are out of print and only available on the second hand market.

This is a mildy bonkers tune with a range that goes up to an F, full of triplets and isn’t sure what key it is in. Great for a choir, impossible for an assembly – even the antiphon. There is a suggestion drop it from C to A but the range is still difficult. The text is of exuberant praise to the Lord.

I made a backing:

I will take the sheet music down if requested or if I can be pointed to where it is still available.

I’m working my way through an old collection called, A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal from 1978.

A frequent contributor was Ken Meltz and his “Come to the Mountain” was a vigorous gathering song. I did find some memory of this track on the internet but the sheet music is well out of print.

Ken Meltz wrote this charming song based on Psalm 42.

It was in A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal from 1978 but now is wildly out of print.

Neil Blunt wrote this Marian hymn that is found in A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal.

I’m not sure how it was intended to be played as I can find no performances of this song. I imagine it as a folk country story song.

The sheet music is extremely out of print, hence it being posted here but I am happy to take it down especially if I can be pointed to where it remains available.

Going through A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal reveals quite a few songs where the songwriter and the song have left no trace after all these years.

This one is written by Donna Friewer and I can find no source for the sheet music nor performances nor biographical information of the songwriter.

The song is a call to the life of faith and pilgrimage.

Even this Lucien Deiss song from A Hundredfold is out of print. It is in his song book “Sing for the Lord”, which is available secondhand, but otherwise it appears unavailable.

I made a backing:

I’m working through a forgotten out of print hymn book that I found at a second hand sale years ago, called A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal from 1978.

This is a song for Eucharist and of mission from Jack Miffleton. I’m thinking about why some hymns endure and others don’t get much traction. This is singable enough. Maybe the text was too dense leading to metaphors that required a bit of thought. I think its quite poetic actually.

With nothing on the web to act as a guide I made the best I could of the sheet music to make a backing.

This is a wedding song by Angel Tucciarone that is in A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal.

It is a pleasant MOR song of its era that would be a suitable solo.

Finding no trace of it on the internet, I made a backing and have posted the very out of print sheet music.

This is a Marian hymn with a text by Willard F. Jabusch set to PROMISED LAND.

This was a WLP song in the 70s but has found a home at OCP of all places in their own arrangement by Paul French. They described the text as “newly composed”!

The sheet music can therefore be purchased at OCP, where the text is in their preview.

When I did this backings I used Rigdon M McIntosh’s C19 arrangement that is in A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal, as interpreted through Band in a Box.

This is the original lyrics but gives an idea of the unaccompanied shape note style the tune originally was meant to have.

One can only assume that a song called, “Brother Wind” is based on Franciscan spirituality and indeed the songwriter Susan Saint Sing has written books on that very subject … and also on rowing.

As far as the song itself, like many in this collection, A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal, it has disappeared. It is a lovely personal prayer for healing.

I made a folk style backing in case you want to learn the song:

This isn’t the song but it is her telling part of her story: