This is probably a bad idea, but I found a little book called A Hundredfold: A Contemporary Folk Hymnal second hand many years ago and it intrigues me, so I’m going to have a look at it.
It was published in 1978 by WLP and while GIA took over WLP I can only find two of the songs there, the rest are very out of print indeed. This book seems pretty rare even on the second hand market and, while this was well before my time as a Catholic, it strikes me that the backlash against folk mass style songs had already hit by 1978 and these songs may have been stuck in a dead end.
Nonetheless I find them interesting and perhaps worth another look after all these years. Where the sheet music is not available I have decided to post it, but would be thrilled to take down the material at the request of the authors, especially if they had a way to make it generally available.
This song is by Jack Miffleton. He went on to write a lot of music for young people but this is a wedding song, a solo I suppose.
I can find no recordings of this one anywhere, but I made a backing for learning purposes.
The concept of walking in tenderness is really touching. How did you match the music to the overall vibe of the ceremony?
For the most part these backings are musical sketches that I use Band in a Box to create so I can see how a song goes – especially like here where there are no versions on the web to give guidance.
I pick a likely style – here a folkish style – see if the tempo is comfortable with the melody and it’s there. I can change the style if it doesn’t suit, drop tracks in and out, add additional tracks and find a suitable voice for the melody, but often the style is fine as provided.
Band in a Box is a truly remarkable product but it is getting a bit over the top and I am happy to stay with the versions from 2021 and 2023 as my main resources.
cheers
Geoff