Church Music

Continuing in Psalms for All Time Volume 3 from Paul Mason, is the psalm from the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, which sounds like a hymn for Eucharist too.

Response

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

1 The things we have heard and understood,

The things our fathers have told us,

We will tell them to the next generation:

The glories of the Lord and his might.

2 He commanded the clouds above,

And opened the gates of heaven.

He rained down manna to eat,

And gave them bread from heaven.

3 Man ate the bread of angels.

He sent them abundance of food;

He brought them to his holy land,

To the mountain his right hand had won.

… and the hits just keep on coming.

Psalms for All Time Volume 3, available at Liturgical Song, is packed with psalm settings and commentary and I doubt I’m even half way through yet.

This is the psalm for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A.

My backing is a little bit soul and if doesn’t want me doing that he shouldn’t write soul songs.

Response

Lord in your great love, answer me.

Lord in your great love, answer me.

1 It is for you that I suffer taunts,

That shame has covered my face.

To my own kin I have become and outcast,

A stranger to the children of my mother.

Zeal for your house consumes me,

And taunts against you fall on me.

2 But I pray to you, O Lord,

At an acceptable time.

In your great mercy, answer me, O God,

With your faithful salvation.

Lord answer for your mercy is kind;

In your great compassion, turn towards me.

3 The poor when they see it will be glad,

And God seeking hearts will revive;

For the Lord attends to the needy,

And does not spurn his own in their chains.

Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,

The seas and everything that moves in them.

… or you could sing it like this:

This is Paul Mason’s setting of Psalm 68 for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, from Psalms for All Time Vol 3.

It is a lovely tune and, as I have noted several times, these songs stand on their own if you wish to use them elsewhere in the Liturgy.

Along with his absoutely clear setting out of the sheet music, he has the sensible suggestion of capo 3 for guitarists to make our life easier. I’d make the singing easier by playing Capo 1 instead.

Response

God, in your goodness you have made a home for the poor;

A home for the poor.

1 The upright shall rejoice at the presence of God;

They shall exult with glad rejoicing.

O sing to God; make music to his name.

The Lord is his name; exult at his presence.

2 Father of orphans, defender of widows:

Such is God in his holy place.

God gives the desolate a home to dwell in;

He leads the prisoners forth into prosperity.

3 You poured down, O God, a genorous rain;

When your heritage languished, you restored it.

It was there that your flock began to dwell.

In your goodness, O God, you provided for the poor.

There’s a lot of psalms in Paul Mason’s three volumes of Psalms for All Times, and he has plans for volumes four, five and six.

This one is from Volume Three and is the psalm for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C and the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. It is also a praise and worship song for any occasion you like.

The response can be replaced with “Alleluia”s for Easter.

Buy the sheet music at Liturgical Song.

You can sing along with my backing to learn it.

Response

O God let all the nations,

All the nations praise you.

1 May God be gracious and bless us

And let his face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon the earth

And all the nations learn your salvation.

2 Let the nations be glad and shout for joy;

With uprightness you rule the peoples,

You guide the nations on earth.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

Let all the peoples praise you.

May God still give us his blessing

That all the ends of the earth may revere him.

Continuing with Paul Mason’s Psalms for All Time Vol 3, here is the Psalm for Mary, Mother of God, Years A, B & C.

Response

May God bless us in his mercy,

Bless us in his mercy.

1 May God be gracious and bless us

And let his face shed its light upon us.

So will your ways be known upon the earth

And all the nations learn your salvation.

2 Let the nations be glad and shout for joy;

With uprightness you rule the peoples,

You guide the nations on earth.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

Let all the peoples praise you.

may God still give us his blessing

That all the ends of the earth may revere him.

I am up to the Psalm for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, as set by Paul Mason in his Psalms For All Time Vol 3.

Each verse has a distinct melody for a change to keep your cantor alert.

Response

I will rise and go to my father.

I will rise and go to my father.

1 Have mercy on me , O God, according to your merciful love;

According to your great compassion,

Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me completely from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.

2 Create a pure heart for me, O God;

Renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence;

Take not your holy spirit from me.

3 O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

My sacrifice to God, a broken spirit:

A broken and humbled heart,

You will not spurn, O God.

I’m looking at Psalms for All Time Vol 3 by Paul Mason. I’m up to this psalm for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C.

The sheet music can be purchased at Liturgical Song.

There is a YouTube clip for this one so you can hear how good it is.

It still made my own backing:

Response

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

1 I will bless the Lord at all times,

Praise of him is always in my mouth.

In the Lord my soul shall make its boast;

The humble shall hear and be glad.

2 The Lord turns his face against the wicked

To cut off their remembrance from the earth.

When the just one cries out, the Lord hears,

And rescues him in all his distress.

3 The Lord is close to the broken hearted;

Those whose spirit is crushed he will save.

The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.

All who trust in him shall not be condemned.

Psalm 33 again, but this time for The Most Holy Trinity as set by Paul Mason. The response is the same but the verses are different.

It is from Psalms for All Time Volume 3 and if you go to Liturgical Song you can not only buy the sheet music collection but also listen to his instrumental rehearsal track.

Trinity Sunday is always hard to pick a hymn for, so this psalm might be useful.

I made my own backing:

Response

Blessed the people the Lord has chosen,

Chosen to be his own.

1 The word of the Lord is upright,

And all his works to be trusted.

The Lord loves justice and right,

And his merciful love fills the earth.

2 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

By the breath of his mouth all their host.

He spoke, and it came to be.

He commanded, it stood in place.

3 Yes, the Lord’s eyes are on those who fear him,

Who hope in his merciful love,

To rescue their soul from death,

To keep them alive in famine.

4 Our soul is waiting for the Lord.

He is our help and shield.

May your merciful love be upon us,

As we hope in you, O Lord.

This is also Psalm 33 but with a different response and altered verses. It is Paul Mason’s setting for the Psalm for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C from his Psalms for All Time Vol 3. You can purchase the collection at Liturgical Song.

The tune for the verses is much the same as yesterday’s psalm with accomodations for the change in text, but you can see how it would help an assembly having familar themes repeat over the weeks, especially when they are as interesting as this.

Response

Blessed the people the Lord has chosen,

Chosen to be his own.

1 Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;

For praise is fitting from the upright.

Bles’d the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people ha has chosen as his heritage.

2 Yes the Lord’s eyes are on those who fear him,

Who hope in his merciful love,

To rescue their soul from death,

To keep them alive in famine.

3 Our soul is waiting for the Lord.

He is our help and shield.

May your merciful love be upon us,

As we hope in you, O Lord.

This is Paul Mason’s setting of Psalm 33 for the Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A (ie soon) from Psalms for All Time Volume Three – buy the sheet music from Liturgical Song. There are samples of the some of the psalms there, but not this one and also some at his Youtube page but not this one either.

The notes for this psalm are, of course, in Volume Two. I blogged the same tune, same psalm response, but for for the Second Sunday of Lent and the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time when I looked at Volume two.

I should comment on the layout of the sheet music. He has chosen absolute clarity so the pages are very uncluttered – in other words your organist will need a willing page turner. A tech nut like Mason would have everything on his big Ipad with a foot switch to turn pages but otherwise the psalms spread over enough pages to be absolutely clear so be prepared. He provides chords to keep us guitarists happy but basic guitarists will have to look up the more esoteric ones, or more likely dumb the chords down, ignore the bass runs and fudge mightily. All I can say is there is beauty in his detail if you are up to it.

This psalm is a good example: response in Gm, verses in D, but enough accidentals everywhere so you aren’t sure which key you are in. Yet the tune flows and maintains interest.

My BIAB backing aspires to the prayerfully confident style suggested. It does not attempt his wonderful keyboard arrangement, it’s just Band in a Box. There is also no ten string lute settings on BIAB.

Response

Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

1 Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;

For praise is fitting from the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp;

With a ten string lute sing him songs.

2 For the word of the Lord is upright,

And all his works to be trusted.

The Lord loves justice and right,

And his merciful love fills the earth.

3 Yes the Lord’s eyes are on those who fear him,

Who hope in his merciful love,

To rescue their soul from death,

To keep them alive in famine.