Church Music

Lucien Deiss wrote this song of praise with the antiphon based on 1 Peter 2:9.

I’ve seen up to seventeen potential verses and CWB II picks seven.

I’ve found a text here but they pick a different six. The sheet music can be purchased for US$1 at WLP.

Back in Catholic Worship Book II, we have this fine song of praise with a text by Rusty Edwards and here set to NETTLETON.

The text and sheet music are available from the wonderful people at Hope Publishing.

You could also sing it to BEACH SPRING.

Entrance: All Are Welcome (Haugen)

Psalm 32 (McKenna)

Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Gifts: We Walk By Faith  (Haugen) AOV 1/63

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

Thanksgiving: Without Seeing You  (Haas) AOV 2/158

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

This is an anonymous c18 text based on Psalm 148, although the third verse is by Edward Osler.

The triumphant nature of texts like this give me pause. The Psalms rarely come from a position of power, so they work there. When Christianity is a persecuted sect they make sense as an apocalyptic statement. When they originate in Christendom or empire they are problematic.

Further, when set to Haydn’s AUSTRIA, it is a major concern. I know this was a hymn tune used for this text before it was associated with Nazi Germany, but you can understand why for some years post WW2 it was set to HYFRYDOL and HYMN TO JOY instead. This post covers some of the issues of AUSTRIA as a hymn tune.

The text below is the version from CWB II, where “ye” is modernised and a few textual tweaks are introduced. It may be that the editors of CWB II just picked idiosyncratic texts for a lot of these old hymns, but I suspect their new editorial influence from the frequency with which there are small variants on the most commonly available versions. This is probably a good thing.

Praise the Lord: you heav’ns, adore him;
Praise him, angels in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him;
praise him, all you stars and light.
Praise the Lord, for he has spoken;
worlds his mighty voice obeyed.
Laws which never shall be broken
for their guidance he has made.

Praise the Lord, for he is glorious;
never shall his promise fail.
God has made his saints victorious;
sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation.
hosts on high, his pow’r proclaim.
Heav’n and earth and all creation
praise and glorify his name.

Worship, honour, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer as our gift.
Young and old, your praise expressing,
Our glad songs to you we lift.
All the saints in heav’n adore You;
we would join their glad acclaim;
As your angels serve before you,
so on earth we praise your name.

This is a song of praise with a liturgically useful trinitarian verse. A c9 latin text Christe cunctorum dominator alme, translated by Maxwell J. Blacker and fiddled with by others, it is set to ISTE CONFESSOR. Let’s hope our voices are “tuneful”. Is “as we throng your temple,” English?

I’ve used the CWB II text.

1 Only-begotten, Word of God eternal,
Lord of creation, merciful and mighty:
hear us, your servants, when our tuneful voices
rise to your presence.

2 Holy this dwelling where the Lord is present;
this is none other than the gate of heaven.
strangers and pilgrims, seeking homes eternal,
pass through its portals.

3 Lord we beseech you, as we throng your temple.
by your past blessings, by your present bounty,
smile on your children, and with tender mercy
hear our petitions.

4 God in three persons, Father everlasting,
Son co-eternal, ever blessed Spirit:
yours be the glory, praises and adoration,
now and forever.

When I blogged this text by William Henry Turton here, I noted three variant titles. Here’s a fourth. I found a fifth with “Christ” for “Lord” as well. That a song praying for Christian unity has been tweaked into so many variants, probably means we should sing this prayer more often.

CWB II sets this to SONG 1 by Orlando Gibbons. This is the modernised variant text from CWBII.

1 O Lord, at your first Eucharist you prayed
that all your Church might be for ever one;
grant us at every Eucharist to say
with longing heart and soul, ‘Your will be done’:
O may we all one bread, one body be
through this blessed sacrament of unity.

2 For all your church, O Lord, we intercede
make all our sad divisions soon to cease:
draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
by drawing all to you, O Prince of Peace.
Thus may we all one bread, one body be
through this blessed sacrament of unity.

3 We also pray for wand’rers from your fold:
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep
back to the faith which saints believed of old,
back to the Church which still one faith does keep.
Soon may we all one bread, one body be
through this blessed sacrament of unity.

4 So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
may we be one with all your Church above;
one with your saints in one unbroken peace,
one with your saints in one unbounded love:
more blessed still, in peace and love to be
one with the Trinity in unity!

A c12 Latin text by St Bernard of Clairvaux and paraphrased by Ray Palmer. I have no Latin but it seems clear that it is not meant to be an actual translation. Even with this version I have found variant texts that do not limit the light of Christ to being “our true light”.

It is set to JESU DULCIS MEMORIA a tune I blogged badly here because BIAB CAN”T DO CHANT.

This site has recordings of the Latin chant and a very different English translation.

This is the text from CWB II.

O Jesus, joy of loving hearts,
the fount of life, and our true light;
we seek the peace your love imparts
and stand rejoicing in your sight.

Your truth unchanged has ever stood;
You save all those who heed your call;
To those who seek you, you are good;
To those who find you, all in all.

We taste you, Lord, our living bread,
and long to feast upon you still;
we drink of you, the fountainhead;
our thirsting souls to quench and fill.

For you our restless spirits yearn,
until your face we see at last;
glad, when your presence we discern,
blest, when our faith can hold you fast.

O Jesus, ever with us stay!
Make all our moments calm and bright!
O, cast the night of sin away!
Shed on the world your holy light.

This version in English is from OCP and it seems a bit hurried, with insufficient gaps between lines to catch your breath.

This is more singable:

I’m having a break in Tasmania, but I’ll post occasionally while here.

In my seemingly never ending survey of Catholic Worship Book II, I am skipping songs I have already looked at, which have often been from the more recent repertoire (1980s and onwards – AOV etc). This means the songs that are new to me fit under the category of more traditional hymnody. Often in CWB II there are fairly recent texts to old tunes, as with this hymn by Jane Parker Huber set to LEONI, a c18 Hebrew synagogue tune.

Some of the texts I’m finding seem obvious and banal, but perhaps rescued in the singing. This one though, has enough sparkle in the words alone to be worth mention and the gall to rhyme “prod” and “God”!

The text is here.

I got the chords from TIS to make a backing.

I’m back in Catholic Worship Book II, for this gathering song by Anthony Nye.

The text is here and I suspect it sings better than it reads. It is set to CRUGER.

CWB II sets it in Eb , which is more singable than this:

This is a song based on Psalm 118 by Ed Bolduc from Voices As One 2. The refrain is call and response and the verses are for a cantor who can hit an F. The tune is quite lively and lovely.

This sheet music can be purchased at WLP and the text is their sample.