Music for Advent

Things are changing at our church for music – we actually had a meeting of the musicians and our priest about how to approach a season!

It was decided that music would be low key for Advent and we would have restrained music and silence after communion.

We will use the Advent Chant for the lighting of the candle.

For the Vigil where I usually play, we will use “To You O Lord I Lift Up My Soul” as a seasonal psalm. Since we usually have instrumental music during communion from a backing I prerecord, we will just let that run and leave it at that.

I now have to find restrained Advent music. In preparation for the meeting I jotted down some Advent songs:

Advent Chant

Like a Candle

A Voice in the Wilderness

Prepare the Way of the Lord (Boniwell)

O Emmanuel (Mangan)

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Emmanuel (Angrisano)

At the Turning Point of Time (MacGregor)

Maranatha ( Smith)

Maranatha, Lord Messiah

Advent Song

Advent Alleluia

Maranatha Come (O’Brien)

Joyful in Hope (Herry) – has an extra verse for Advent.

In this Time of Waiting

Feel free to add suggestions in the comments.

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4 Responses to Music for Advent

  1. Chris Wroblewski says:

    Looks like someone didn’t open CWB2! If you want something gentle, I think it’s hard to go past Marty Haugen’s “My Soul in Stillness Waits” (CWB2:237, and it even comes with chords!).

  2. Sam says:

    Regular Advent songs in my parish include “Come To Set Us Free” (GA-277), “Candles of Advent” (Carey Landry), “Prepare The Way” (GA-284), “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (AOV1-174), “Joyful In Hope” (AOV1-20), “The Whole World Is Waiting For Love” (AOV2-141) and “Waiting For The Child” (Michael Mangan).

    For the last few years, we’ve sung the chorus of “Christ, Circle Round Us” (Dan Schutte) while the Advent candles are lit.

    We’ve also always used Bernadette Farrell’s Advent “Litany of the Word” as the Gospel Acclamation – we use verses 1-4 for the 1st Sunday, verses 5-8 for the 2nd Sunday, 9-12 for the 3rd and 13-16 for the 4th.

    It’d be great if we added Marty Haugen’s “My Soul in Stillness Waits” into the mix.

    • admin says:

      Thanks, Sam.

      I don’t know the Landry one and I am ashamed I hadn’t heard the beautiful Mangan piece.

      “Waiting for the Child” makes up for hearing too much of “Mary said Yes!” when my children were at school I think.

      cheers

      Geoff

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