Church Music

This is a c18 text by Thomas Olivers based an older Jewish original and Rev 4-5. There are many other verses and variations but the text below is as per CWB II.

Here it is set to LEONI by Meyer Lyon.

The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days
And God of love.
The Lord the great I AM!
By earth and heaven confessed;
We bow and bless the sacred name
Forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise,
Whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide us all our happy days
In all our ways.
He calls us each a friend;
He calls himself our God.
And he shall save us to the end
Through Jesus’ blood.

He by himself has sworn; 
We on his oath depend.
We shall, on eagle wings up borne,
To heaven ascend.
We shall behold his face;
We shall his power adore
And sing the wonders of his grace
Forever more.

The God who reigns on high
The great archangels sing,
And “Holy, holy, holy!” cry,
“Almighty King!”
Who was and is the same.
And evermore shall be:
the Lord, our Father, Great I AM!
Eternally.

Before the Saviour’s face
the ransomed nations bow,
all praising his almighty grace,
forever new.
He shows his wounds of love,
they kindle to a flame
and sound through all the worlds above
the slaughtered lamb.

The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high.
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
They ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God and mine!
I join the heavenly lays:
All might and majesty are thine
And endless praise!

This is a typical CWB II hymn. A text from c20, with a tune from much further back in time – here c18.

The text is by Bryn Rees and will suit any liturgy with a focus on the Reign of God. Godsongs has background on the author and the hymn. The text is here.

CWB II chooses to set it to HANOVER by William Croft. My backing is more fake organ from BIAB.

Back in CWB II is a Delores Dufner text set to MARTYRDOM.

GIA have Michael Joncas’s setting and her text is in their preview.

This is my backing for the tune used here.

There is no misprint in the title, this is from Catholic Worship Book I. It is also in The New Living Parish Hymn Book 269.

It is a charming 70s song for Eucharist from Mark Arnold. Brett was looking into copyright for it and it resides with the author whom we don’t know how to find. I’ll put it out there for anyone who might know a bit more about the song and its author. Being in the two hymn books noted suggests an Australian songsmith.

The text is here (scroll down).

I’m nearly in the home stretch covering Catholic Worship Book II.

This is a social justice text from the seventies by Fred Pratt Green and set to WAREHAM, an c18 tune by William Knapp.

Both the text and sheet music are freely available at Hope Publications. for which I am grateful.

Entrance: Table of Plenty  (Schutte) AOV 2/20

Psalm 67 (McKenna)

God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

Gifts: Come To Me  (Norbet) AOV 1/37

Communion: Gift of Finest Wheat (Westendorf/Kreutz) CWB II 651

Thanksgiving: Sing of the Lord’s Goodness  (Sands) AOV 1/131

Recessional: City of God  (Schutte) AOV 1/57

I have already looked at this song here as set to OLD HUNDREDTH.

The text by Charles William Everest is here set to ERHALT UNS HERR.

1 “Take up your cross,” the Savior said,
“if you would my disciple be;
take up your cross with willing heart,
and humbly follow after me.”

2 Take up your cross; let not its weight
fill your weak spirit with alarm;
Christ’s strength shall bear your spirit up
and brace your heart and nerve your arm.

3 Take up your cross, heed not the shame,
and let your foolish heart be still;
the Lord for you accepted death
upon a cross, on Calv’ry’s hill.

4 Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength,
and calmly ev’ry danger brave:
it guides you to abundant life
and leads to vict’ry o’er the grave.

This is Michael Herry’s setting of the same test for Psalm 34 from The Grail That was in yesterday’s post.

He provides the full text and sheet music for free here, although it is in C rather than D as in CWB II. He sings the refrain here (19B). The verses are chanted.

The first line of the antiphon in CWB II is all that is needed. There is a second line there not in Herry’s online version, that instead of repeating “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” adds “Come receive the living bread of God,” which would make it unsuitable for the Psalm but fine for Eucharist as a mantra I suppose.

My string band backing is just the chorus because BIAB can’t do chant.

As promised, more settings of Psalm 34. This time it is by Christopher Willcock, setting the text from The Grail. The refrain is singable by an assembly, if you drop the key somewhat, and the verses will test your cantor.

The sheet music is at OCP where they do lower it from Eb to D. This version of the text is in their preview.

In my survey of Catholic Worship Book II, I have come to a series of “Taste and See” songs that are new to me. These are based on Psalm 34.

This one is by Stephen Dean.

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