Continuing my survey of Patricia Smith’s essential resource for Advent and Christmas, And the Angels Sang, we come to this chant to the familar tune of O WALY WALY. There are minimal words and much repetition, which works very well. She changes key for the third verse from E to G and uses each line echoed.
The sheet music can be purchased at Willow.
1 Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come!
Maranatha, into our hearts.
Maranatha, Maranatha!
Lord Jesus, come! Lord Jesus come!
2 Prepare the way for the Lord to come!
Lift the valleys up, make the mountains low!
Maranatha, Maranatha!
Lord Jesus, come! Lord Jesus Come!
Verse 3 = verse 1 with echo
© 2018 P A Smith published by Willow Publishing.
See Chris’s suggestion below to use CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM as an alternative setting.
I’ve enjoyed most of the Patricia Smith material put up over the last little while, but I think this one is not good at all. Whenever a familiar hymn tune is used the lyrics need to consistently fit, or it becomes very difficult to sing. While the stress syllable in Maranatha is “na”, composers have got away with cheating, probably because its not English. I’m not a poet, and I’m sure someone who is could do better, but with some slight alterations, the text can be made to fit the melody and as a bonus, it can be sung to CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, a traditional Advent chant!
Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come!
Maranatha, into our hearts.
Maranatha, Maranatha!
Lord Jesus, come! Lord Jesus, come!
Prepare the way: the Lord will come!
Lift valleys up, make mountains low!
Maranatha, Maranatha!
Lord Jesus, come! Lord Jesus, come!
Great idea Chris.
I found a waltz arrangement of that chant, which I’ll put on the body of the post.
cheers
Geoff
Band in a box is a remarkable program. The main US publishers have made efforts to make the old tunes more palatable to younger folk by either turning them into music for bands (OCP / Spirit & Song) or adding loads of notes for the quality pianists (GIA / Tony Alonso’s “Revival” series). Both options, I suspect, are not achievable options at typical suburban parishes, but what you have done with Band in a Box sounds really nice in a contemporary style (though, perhaps, a bit fast), and I bet the average person in the pews would have no idea how old the tune is!