Before I was informed of Breaking Bread’s new songs, I was looking at the songs of creation in Wild Goose’s book “Heaven Shall Not Wait”. They follow that with songs of “God, Coming Among Us” – perfect for Advent – so I thought I’d take up the thread.
Just as the Australian composers available at Willow Publications lift me out of sameness of the OCP/GIA style, John Bell rewrites the book on what liturgical music might be able to accomplish. He is at once more blunt and more poetic than most lyric writers – I don’t know how he does it.
This song is set to the Scottish tune, AIR FALALALO, and is suggested for unaccompanied use. If the tune is familiar it would make a great processional.
I found this arrangement of the sheet music for the tune online arranged by Anne Bingham Goess.
A reminder that the whole book can be purchased for very little at Wild Goose Publications.
Unaccompanied doesn’t do much for BIAB, nor does 9/8 time, but I had a go.
1 The day of the Lord shall come as prophets have told,
When Christ shall make all things new, no matter how old;
And some at the stars may gaze, and some in God’s word,
In vain to predict the time, the day of the Lord.
Chorus
The desert shall spring to life, the hills shall rejoice;
The lame of the earth shall leap, the dumb shall find voice;
The lamb with the lion shall lie, and the last shall be first;
And nations for war no more shall study or thirst.
2 The day of the Lord shall come: a thief in the night,
A curse to those in the wrong who think themselves right;
A pleasure for those in pain or with death at the door;
A true liberation for the prisoners and poor.
3 The day of the Lord shall come and judgment be known,
As nations, like sheep and goats, come close to the throne.
Then Christ shall reveal himself asking all to draw near,
And see in his face all faces once ignored here.
4 The day of the Lord shall come, but now is the time
To subvert earth’s wisdom with Christ’s folly sublime,
By loving the loveless, turning the tide and the cheek,
By walking beneath the cross in step with the weak.
Words and Music © 1987 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH, Scotland
A comment about cheap books from overseas. I recently looked get a book or two from OCP, all at reasonable prices. Then , at the checkout, the postage came up: well over $100 Australian! As far as I know, there are no longer any distributors in Australia for physical books from overseas, so I won’t get anything that’s not (legally) downloadable now. GIA makes that difficult, as most of their downloadble material has a minimum purchase of ten copies. I wish I had a choir that size!
That’s dreadful, Chris.
I suppose the other option is used copies through AbeBooks. I’m pretty sure I got my copies of John Bell’s books second hand from that source, although I don’t know how postage is effecting them. I know Willow licences Wild Goose material and has at least some for download.
I have trouble getting my head around a world without physical music books.
Geoff