Marty Haugen wrote this and we are still singing it thirty years later. It even got a yes from the NLCMB. I suppose folk is OK if the words adapt St Francis of Assisi.
Haugen is, however, the boogy man for those who dislike every thing musical in catholic circles. I suspect this is because his songs have had wide appeal and are therefore widely used and are therefore regularly mangled to the extent that they form the worse nightmares of some peoples’ being. This is unfair on Haugen, and his work seems to upset people out of all sensible proportion. After all, if a parishioner really thinks this music is unworthy of their liturgy, then they become liturgists and musicians in their parish and influence and educate their fellow parishioners to use something else …or be influenced by those who see the merits of this music in that process and calm down.
This is not my favourite Marty Haugen song and I was surprised when it turned up again to be sung the other week in our parish, but it is well enough remembered to have had the assembly singing and is a fair enough song of praise. When you listen to it here you will hear what I do get upset by though, the weird ensemble singing – I don’t mind the soloists that much, but I have no idea how the choir gets that nauseating sound. I figure it must be what American church singing aspires to, because you hear it all over the place. I don’t have the musical knowledge to know why it sounds odd, but it sounds like no choral work I’ve ever heard in any other context – I probably need someone to explain it to me. When sung by an ordinary assembly this song has far more charm, so I think it means folk idiom music should not be sung with any compromised vocal style to appease those who hate folk music.
Now this is odd – this is a GIA song and here are the lyrics at spiritandsong. There are minor differences between these lyrics and those in “As One Voice.”
Verse 1 – “Sing to the sun” replaced by “Praise for the sun.”
Verse 5 – “Sing to the earth” replaced by “Praise for the earth.”
Verse 6 – “Praise to our death” replaced by “Praise for our death.”
This site has a translation of the poem upon which the lyric is based.
- NB The lyrics link is dead I fear – try this one.