I suppose emmanuelworship would eventually have to do a song called “Emmanuel”. It is written by Dom Dougherty and is an Advent song that rightly looks forward to Easter. It is in the form of a slow burn praise and worship song.
I would like to have a look at more recent emmanuelworship music. Their most recent album, “He Is Moving” only has chords posted, which makes it a lot more work, so I’ll go back to 2019’s “Glory” for which they have kindly provided lead sheets.
This song is a praise and worship song by Liam Desic. What he somewhat lacks in coherence lyrically, he more than makes up for in passion. The music makes for a healthy exercise in syncopation and goes awfully high in places.
I’ve made a backing to sing along with to learn the song.
1 I’m in the deep, under the stars.
My heart is desperate to hear your call.
And when I hear, your voice oh God,
I’d best be present, step out into You.
Prechorus
You’ve won my heart, taught me to love.
Oh Lord your mercy changes me
Chorus
I am new now, just want to draw close to You
and I, find rest in your holy name.
I am new now, just want to draw close to You
and I, find rest in your holy name.
2 For I have turned my back on him,
But to you Father, I’m welcomed home.
It don’t make sense, It’s not cautious love,
Oh Lord your mercy, It changes me.
Prechorus
Chorus
Bridge x4
Celebrate his goodness, God the Lord most high,
Pulled me out of darkness, now I’m walking in the light.
3 Now I have seen, what love can do.
I’ve seen my mountains, they crumble down.
I’ll bear my heart, step in to light,
And now I declare, I’ll give it all.
Prechorus
Chorus
Ⓒ 2019 emmanualworship
They have very generous licensing arrangements at emmanuel worship, which I think are worth looking to as a model.
EMMANUEL WORSHIP LICENSING INFO Our aim is to make licensing Emmanuel Worship music as simple as possible.
CHORD CHARTS • Chord Charts for songs off of our albums (not including Mass Settings) are free to download, make copies of and distribute. You can download our Chord Charts on our Music page
• Chord Charts for our Mass Settings (Rivers and Rivers Youth) must be purchased and used within a single ministry context, such as a single school, parish or ministry. However, within that ministry digital and physical copies can be made and sent to musicians as many times as you like. It’s not appropriate to share the chord charts with someone outside of that ministry context for their use somewhere else.
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE • Public performers of Emmanuel Worship music will need to hold a music license, such as CCLI or OneLicense.
• Every performance of Emmanuel Worship music, including the Mass Setting, will need to be reported through the reporting system of whatever music license you hold. This is really important because it’s what determines the royalties that go to our songwriters.
This was the other tune used in the youth mass posted here from Emmanuel Worship. It is from the collection “fifteen”. It’s not really a praise song, more a song of relief to have found a place to belong and acceptance. It was written by Liam Desic and is a stomper.
As a bit of a change in pace I will continue looking at Australian Catholic music, but this time from Emmanuel Worship. They have been around for twenty years or so and have created a lot of music. Some of it is now out of print, but a lot is available at their website to download for free. I was reminded of them by a correspondent posting that their youth mass had used two of their recent songs, so I will start with those. An early version of Emmanuel visited our church back in the 2000s and I even attended an Ignite conference, although I was already much too old really. We used some of their songs and a mass that they wrote. They made two new masses when the texts changed that are still available to purchase.
“Together” was written by Madeleine Luciani and is from their collection He Is Moving. The chord chart can be downloaded from here.
Despite it’s heavy rock style it is a Eucharistic song of praise. There is a lot of repetition to encourage participation.
I made a backing lacking sheet music beyond the chord chart, so I did the best I could for the notes.
Chorus
Let’s praise the Lord together, we’ll praise the Lord forever.
We’ll sing your praise forever more. x2
1 The bread of heaven, the cup of salvation,
The body and the blood of Christ
who offered His life in bread and wine.
Chorus x2
2 Though we’re not worthy, though we’re not perfect,
An invitation to his banquet is what we receive.
Chorus x2
Bridge
He can do great things , let’s welcome him gathered here together.
He can do great things, let’s welcome Him, gathered here as one.
This is another of Peter Grant’s lovely tunes to a useful text that names and praises aspects of God. He uses Matt 16 and Micah 6 as his inspiration. The chorus melody is especially memorable.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow and the transaction process is very simple leading to the download. They also provide a nice instrumental backing.
… which didn’t stop me making my own.
Refrain
You are the Christ, the Son of God, Lord of all that is, God beyond all time.
And we proclaim you as our Lord: your are the Saviour, Jesus the Christ.
1 “But, who do you say that I am?” This question, now Jesus asks of you.
Another prophet? Just a man? Or God’s promised One revealed to you?
2 What more does Jesus ask of you? The answer was written long ago:
“Act justly, and love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God.”
I’m doing a few more Peter Grant songs at present and have come across his adaptation of Psalm 103. The text has uses beyond the specific weeks it is the Psalm – Lent, evening prayer, praise, etc.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow where there is an instrumental snippet to listen to as well.
Refrain
The Lord is kind and merciful,
slow to anger and rich in compassion.
1 Bless the Lord O my soul,
and let all of my being praise the Holy name!
Bless the Lord O my soul,
May I never forget all God’s wonderful kindness.
2 God forgives all my sins, and heals all my ills,
God saves my life from the grave.
With compassion and love, the Lord blesses my days;
Gives me the strength of an eagle.
3 Just as far as the east is apart from the west,
God removes my guilt from sight.
Mother, father, God shows loving care and concern
To the faithful now and forever.
4 Praise the Lord mighty angels
Who obey God’s commands;
Praise the Lord ev’rywhere, all God’s creatures sing praise!
Peter Grant wrote this song based on Hosea 14, which is suitable for Lent. At As One Voice, they also note it would work for a second Rite of Reconciliation.
The sheet music can be purchased for download at Willow. Their preview shows enough of the sheet music to look at its suitability, but the musical snippet is rather short and doesn’t show the tune off to its best advantage.
My backing has the whole song to sing along to for learning purposes.
Refrain
Return to the Lord, my people, now your sins have made you fall.
Peter Grant has written a restrained and appropriately mournful setting for this text based on Psalm 42 and 43.
The sheet music can be purchased for download from Willow where there is a preview to listen to and enough of the sheet music in the sample to get the idea.
My backing has more percussion than his, which is questionable.
Refrain
Like a deer that longs for running streams my soul longs for you,
longs for you; my soul longs for you my God.
1 My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
When can I enter and see the face of God, see the face of my God.
2 Send forth your light and your truth; let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
3 And I will come to the altar of God, the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp, O God my God.
After a refreshing sojourn with songs from the Iona Community, it is time to return to Australian music. I have covered an awful lot of Australian music over many years, especially those collected in As One Voice Vol 1, 2 and Next Generation. I’ve also done Gather Australia and individual collections by esteemed songwriters such as Frank Andersen, Michael Mangan, Brian Boniwell, Leo Watt and Chris DeSilva.
There are those outside the AOV axis, like Emmanuel Worship, that I have barely touched upon, as well as those still being published in As One Voice’s digital platform. I have said repeatedly, a certainly unintended consequence of the excellence of selection of songs in As One Voice was a closure of the canon in many churches, who have not looked for anything new to sing since the 1990s. The death of the printed hymnal has also meant that there are numerous songwriters who would be justly famous, amongst Catholics at least, if there were still printed songbooks in which to be published.
Peter Grant is one of these who deserves more recognition. I have already blogged twelve of his songs (check by searching!) and I will start my return to Australian music with some more of his output. His “Communion Song” was included in As One Voice and “Christ Light Shining in the Darkness” brightened up the stodginess of Catholic Worship Book II. We were using the latter at St Peter’s, Rochedale before I moved to Tasmania and, while I am introducing new music cautiously down here, it will be a priority to add to the repertoire.
“Look to the Shepherd” would have been great for last Sunday (sorry) if you have done all your shepherd songs to death. It takes some guts to do yet another setting of Psalm 23, but he also was inspired by Isaiah 40:11.
The tune is all that we have come to expect from Peter. I love the held notes in the second last line of each verse.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow. Sometimes they don’t give enough of an idea of the tune in the preview, but in this case there is a lovely understated instrumental to listen to and a enough of a sample of the sheet music to get the idea. It would be better to have a sung snippet if that was feasible, and better yet if a church that was using this song could post it on YouTube. It would be a great aid to practice, as Chris suggested recently.
Despite the perfectly acceptable instrumental at Willow I made my own BIAB backing.
Refrain
Look to the Shepherd to lead you back home;
Follow his footsteps to safety.
Rest in his arms if your lost and alone.
Follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus.
1 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,
And gathering lambs in his arms.
He is longing to hold you close to his heart;
He is calling you home.
2 With the Lord, your shepherd you will not want;
In pastures of green you will lie.
He will lead you to waters so still and so clear
To refresh your tired soul.
3 From the Lord your shepherd you will not stray;
He keeps constant guard on his flock.
Surely goodness and kindness will follow your life
I've worked my way through the As One Voice books and other collections making backings on Band in a Box to help me (& you if you're interested) learn new songs for church. This is aimed at churches and musicians that own the collections but haven't exploited them fully. If you don't have them they are certainly worth buying. This site is educational, nonprofit and designed to enhance the commercial prospects of songwriters. This site does not distribute copyrighted sheet music.
Disclaimer
Any opinions expressed here are personal views and not the responsibility of any Church.
All music backings posted are created by myself and the intention is for them to be used to learn the songs. If any copyright holder wishes me to cease publicising and promoting their wares and directing people to where sheet music can be legally purchased please let me know.
Mason’s “Mass of Glory and Praise”
To access my backings for Paul Mason's mass go to Feb 2011 in the archive.
