Church Music

I’ve blogged this twice before but I will look at it again, as John de Luca made his own arrangement.

The text is by Eleanor Farjeon and it is set to BUNESSAN.

1 Morning has broken like the first morning;

Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.

Praise for the singing, Praise for the morning,

Praise for them springing fresh from the word.

2 Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven,

Like the first dewfall on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.

3 Mine is the sunlight; Mine is the morning

Born of the one light Eden saw play.

Praise with elation, praise every morning,

God’s recreation of the new day.

John de Luca gave us three options for the Magnificat here in the New Living Parish Hymn Book.

I don’t think I can help much here, chant being the natural enemy of Band in a Box.

With that warning I go on …

The text for the first two chants is:

My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

He looks on his servant in her lowliness; henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy his name.

His mercy is from age to age on those who fear him.

He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud hearted.

He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.

He protects Israel his servant, remembering his mercy.

The mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

1 MAGNIFICAT Plainsong Chant Mode VIII as arranged John de Luca.

This is mode VIII in Latin but doesn’t look much like what is this hymnal.

2 VICTORIA MAGNIFICAT also Mode VIII by Tomas Luis de Victoria C16

This is one latin version:

3 GELINEAU PSALM MAGNIFICAT by Joseph Gelineau.

I did make a backing of sorts for this version:

Antiphon

The Lord has done marvels for me: holy is his name.

1 My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

2 He looks on his servant in her nothingness; henceforth all ages will call me blessed.

3 The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy his name!

4 His mercy is from age to age on those who fear him.

5 He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud hearted.

6 He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.

7 He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.

8 He protects Israel his servant, remembering his mercy.

9 The mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons forever.

10 Praise the Father and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

11 Both now and forever, world without end.

This is what it is meant sound like except it isn’t in English:

I don’t know if this has anything to do with these arrangements but I do like Voces8:

When this came up in OCP’s Guitar Accompaniment Book, I refused to make a backing as I thought it was too well known and was unsuitable for any liturgy I could think of.

The song is otherwise known as the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which was an adaption of the Civil War song, “John Brown’s Body” and has also been used for many a scabrous children’s chant.

While the text is by Julia Ward Howe, who was a real champion, I still don’t think it is a song suitable for liturgy. Some of the least objectionable stanzas are included in the hymnal, but there are a lot of verses and a lot of variations out there. The tune is American traditional.

I did make a backing this time:

1 Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

Refrain:
Glory! Glory! Alleluia!
Glory! Glory! Alleluia!
Glory! Glory! Alleluia!
His truth is marching on.

2 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat:
O be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

3 In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom, which transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,
while God is marching on.

4 He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave:
He is warning to the mighty and avenger of the slave;
So the world shall be his footstool, for he triumphed o’er the grave!
Our God is marching on.

There is an unfortunate tendency to use this song to glorify war. Not all these clips do, but spot the AI monstrosity.

This is a great and thoughtful poem by Frank E. Greene that is set as a hymn here to Thomas Tallis’s THIRD MODE MELODY.

I was struggling to find out anything about the author when I came across this obituary and it just might be him.

This hymnal says Tallis’s tune has had it’s rhythm modified. I got chords from Liturgy Share and had a go at a backing but the time shifts made it difficult. Since the hymnal says can be sung to KINGSFOLD, maybe it should be.

1 Mid canyons deep of brick and stone,
Where is your presence, Lord?
How may your purposes be known
In steel and painted board?
Not, surely, through the marks of greed
Or monuments of strife,
But through what serves our human need,
And dignifies man’s life.

2 In honesty of work and plan
Is your own truth expressed;
In harmony of earth and man
Is grace made manifest.
The leader with a social view,
The workman’s patient skill,
Speak eloquently, Lord, of you,
Whose purpose they fulfil.

3 Shine forth within our cities, Lord,
Not in just field and wood,
Till to our building is restored
A sense of common good.
May the embodiments of sin
In which we work and dwell
Become true temples, Lord, wherein
Your praises we may tell.

At last another Australian entry in this Australian hymnal.

This hymn for Lent has a text by James Phillip McAuley and is set, as usual, by the wonderful Richard Connolly.

It survived into CWB II, so I covered it here.

The sheet music can be purchased at Willow, where the text is in their preview.

I did a fake organ backing this time.

This Youtube clip wouldn’t embed so follow the link:

https://youtu.be/oMYRqkId_Ig?si=q45hJnZ9fMMD_LDS

This funeral song was in CWB II so I looked at it briefly here.

The text is In paradisum translated by James Quinn, based on the funeral liturgy and it is set to SONG 1 by Orlando Gibbons.

I made another fake organ backing on BIAB.

May flights of angels lead you on your way
To paradise, and heavens eternal day;
May martyrs greet you after deaths’ dark night,
And bid you enter into Sion’s light;
May choirs of angels sing you to your rest
with once poor Laz’rus, now forever blest!

I covered this in CWB I, but here in the New Living Parish Hymn Book they used the text by Fredrick William Wetherall a C19 minister in the Church of Ireland, rather than the alternate text by Mary Trainor. This site notes that being written by an Irish protestant minister, this hymn was too Catholic for a Protestant hymnal and Catholics in Ireland were hardly going to put an enemy’s hymn in their book, so it languished underused for some time.

The setting is the same as CWB I though, LEIBSTER IMMANUEL from the collection Himmels-Lust (1679) as harmonised by J.S. Bach.

This is a fake BIAB backing for which Bach can not be blamed.

1 Mary immaculate, star of the morning,
Chosen before the creation began,
Chosen to bring for thy bridal adorning,
Woe to the serpent and rescue to man.

2 Here in an orbit of shadow and sadness
Veiling thy splendour, thy course thou hast run;
Now thou art throned in all glory and gladness,
Crowned by the hand of thy Saviour and Son.

3 Sinners, we worship thy sinless perfection;
Fallen and weak, for thy pity we plead;
Grant us the shield of thy sovereign protection,
Measure thine aid by the depth of our need.

4 Frail is our nature, and strict our probation,
Watchful the foe that would lure us to wrong.
Succour our souls in the hour of temptation,
Mary immaculate, tender and strong.

5 See how the wiles of the serpent assail us,
See how we waver and flinch in the fight;
Let thine immaculate merit avail us,
Make of our weakness a proof of thy might.

6 Bend from thy throne at the voice of our crying,
Bend to this earth which thy footsteps have trod;
Stretch out thy hand to us living and dying,
Mary immaculate, Mother of God.

No hint of protestantism here, folks. This is a Marian hymn with words by Catholic priest, William Brian Foley, set to CHANCE by Catholic composer, Colin Mawby.

This hymnal notes that this song was commissioned for the New Catholic Hymnal, Gio’s favourite book.

Somehow, I was unaware of the concept of Mary’s Davidic lineage. Luke’s geneology is apparently used to justify this, although it does seem to be just tracing Joseph’s line to me. Let’s just say it is an early, if not Biblical, Catholic tradition, probably to deal with the competing ideas of a virgin birth and a Davidic line not completely lining up logically. Since both are theological, poetic, symbolic, metaphorical mysteries, it is a bit much to demand rational explanations.

The text runs out of nice things to say about Mary half way through and it becomes a prayer to Christ and praise to the Trinity.

I made up chords for a backing:

1 Mary, how lovely the light of your glory,

From David’s house, royal daughter you came,

Holier, higher than angels in heaven,

Holiest, highest through all God has done.

2 Blest of all women, both Virgin and Mother,

Favoured in grace for the Son whom you bore,

Christ is your Son whom all people must worship,

Christ is your Son whom all angels adore.

3 Pray for us, plead for us, exiles in darkness,

Pray with us, praying to Christ in our needs;

All pow’r is given him here and in heaven,

Christ ever lives for us and intercedes.

4 Father, the prayer of your Son interceding

Wins for us life and light for all our days;

Praise to you, Father, to Christ and your Spirit,

Glory, eternal God, glory and praise.

This is suitably penitent hymn for Lent and Good Friday with a text by Matthew Bridges and is here set to ABERYSTWYTH by Joseph Parry.

This is a fake organ backing using chords I found in TIS. The lyrics below are those from this hymnal, but I’ve seen up to six verses elsewhere. I wonder when “wrapt” stopped being used for “wrapped”.

1 Man of sorrows, wrapt in grief,
Bow thine ear to our relief;
Thou for us the path hath trod
Of the dreadful wrath of God;
Thou the cup of fire hast drained
Till its light alone remained.
Lamb of Love! We look to thee:
Hear our mournful litany.

2 By the garden, fraught with woe,
Whither thou to pray didst go;
By thine agony of prayer
In the desolation there;
By the dire and deep distress
Of that mystery fathomless –
Lord, our tears in mercy see;
Harken to our litany.

3 By the chalice brimming o’er
With disgrace and torment sore;
By those lips, which now would pray
That it might but pass away;
By the heart, which drank it dry,
Lest a rebel race should die
Be thy pity, Lord, our plea,
Hear our solemn litany.

4 Man of sorrows! let thy grief
Purchase for us our relief:
Lord of mercy! bow thine ear,
Slow to anger, swift to hear:
By the cross’s royal road
Lead us to the throne of God,
There for any to song to thee
Heav’ns triumphant litany.

Right tune, wrong text:

LiturgyShare have melody line plus chords here.

This song by the great Australian songwriter, Peter Kearney, is actually called “Born Anew”, but first lines rule in this hymnal. It was written way back in 1966, but he did not record it until 2003.

He has put that performance up on Bandcamp where the lyrics are as well. You can purchase the sheet music from his site.

In this hymnal are what I take to be the original lyrics that Kearney updated, so the first line, “Make me your brother, make me your friend”, becomes more inclusive: “Make me your brother, sister and friend.”

More interestingly the lines:

And then we will laugh, then we will sing,

Then the whole world to Christ we will bring.

becomes:

And then we will laugh, then we will sing,
Then like bells all the planets will ring.

I’m glad I found his version, because my version is too busy and too Irish. The sheet music in this hymnal is John de Luca’s arrangement but this backing is not his fault!