I will get back to Australian music but for the moment I am going to cover the new additions to OCP’s Breaking Bread for 2024.
This one is timely, as it’s Advent next week and a commonly used set of acclamations for this season is no longer being used. It is a bit chant in the verse, but since the tune is adapted from “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by Michael Prendergast and Joseph Sullivan it is probably manageable.
The sheet music can be purchased at OCP, where you can hear it done properly as well. The text is in their preview.
I wasn’t going to do a backing because, you know, BIAB and chant, but some of it is metrical and the bits that are chant you know are going to be approximate.
Things are changing at our church for music – we actually had a meeting of the musicians and our priest about how to approach a season!
It was decided that music would be low key for Advent and we would have restrained music and silence after communion.
We will use the Advent Chant for the lighting of the candle.
For the Vigil where I usually play, we will use “To You O Lord I Lift Up My Soul” as a seasonal psalm. Since we usually have instrumental music during communion from a backing I prerecord, we will just let that run and leave it at that.
I now have to find restrained Advent music. In preparation for the meeting I jotted down some Advent songs:
Advent Chant
Like a Candle
A Voice in the Wilderness
Prepare the Way of the Lord (Boniwell)
O Emmanuel (Mangan)
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Emmanuel (Angrisano)
At the Turning Point of Time (MacGregor)
Maranatha ( Smith)
Maranatha, Lord Messiah
Advent Song
Advent Alleluia
Maranatha Come (O’Brien)
Joyful in Hope (Herry) – has an extra verse for Advent.
Dyball and Whelan didn’t get to funerals in their talk, but since there was really already far too much for an hour in their presentation, that is understandable.
Let’s see how we go without their guidance:
Starting with CWB II, which I have previously described as a marvellous work of scholarship and a great resource for liturgical advice but a poor hymn book. However, when it comes to funerals they don’t stint:
140 Guidelines on funerals, especially the choice of music, which is sure to upset some people, no football songs being recommended. Funerals seem to me to be only peripherally for the deceased and mostly for the bereaved, and I’m sure pastoral needs can be met while keeping funerals liturgically and symbolically functional.
149 When human voices cannot sing (text Shirley Erena Murray, ST COLUMBA) If it isn’t John Bell it’s Shirley Murray isn’t it. It is also in GA 236 and TIS 682.
153 Saints of God, come to his/her aid (text ICEL, music Phillip Duffy)
This is chant, so you are on your own, apart from this recent clip from Drew Wilson – many thanks. (By the way if you google funeral songs, you start to get ads for funeral insurance – what a wonderful world we live in.)
This was the last section of Fiona Dyball and Damian Whelan’s talk at the recent APMN conference. Funerals must have been too much, even working quickly, but I suspect in parishes we are all more likely to play at a funeral than an ordination – that is cathedral business and people are paid for that sort of thing.
Nonetheless we are pointed to CWB II 130-133:
130 notes of celebrating an ordination
131 Litany of the Saints you know this from the Easter Vigil, except this is even longer. It is not something I will touch with Band in a Box.
This tune is now best known for it’s appearance in “Bluey”.
133 notes on religious profession
Dyball and Whelan map out their music liturgy for holy orders:
Responsorial psalm
Psalm 116/117 (Heagney) CWB I 375 sheet music – I am lucky enough to have an old second hand copy of Catholic Worship Book I from 1985. maybe you have some in an old box somewhere at church.
As I have said several times, the one hour presentation by Fiona Dyball and Damian Whelan was a conference on its own. By the time we got here, I think they were up to warp speed.
CWB II 134-139 has suggestions:
134 Short notes on the sacrament and the place of music in the sacrament.
NB the link in the handout isn’t correct – it takes you to a Marty Haugen setting. It doesn’t appear to be available as a download from GIA, but I also have it in a collection Songs & Prayers from Taizé.
Lead Kindly Light (Warner) sheet music Steven C Warner’s adaptation of John Henry Newman’s words, but you wouldn’t know from the cover. Now, you really want to be compared to the Notre Dame Folk Choir don’t you so why not give it a whirl. The refrain of this has umpteen melody lines for the choir – I picked one.
Lead Kindly Light (text John Henry Newman, music Maeve Heaney) The sheet music is available at Willow, despite the suggestion in the handout that it remains unpublished. Pitched very low and may need to be taken to a higher key for many, but her version is sweet cool water on a hot day. I couldn’t get what I wanted in a backing from the preview there, but here are three attempts:
There are a few very familiar tunes there, but that is fine – participation is enhanced by known tunes as powerful as these.
Apropos of nothing, I would like to propose a new text for KINGSFOLD that might lift some spirits at an anointing.
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden And his name is Wiggly Woo There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden And all that he can do Is wiggle all night and wiggle all day The people around here, they all do say There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden And his name is Wiggly Woo
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.
