Church Music

We will still use the seasonal psalm, Marty Haugen’s “Be With Me”.

Entrance: The King of Glory (Jabusch) Ritual Song 628

Gifts: Jesus Remember Me (Berthier) AOV 1/152

Communion: Behold the Wood (Schutte)

Recessional: Holy Darkness (Schutte) AOV 2/24

I am still plodding through CWB II’s songs for Pentecost. I have done:

381 Come Down, O Love Divine

… and so to “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, Come”.

This is an anonymous translation of Veni Creator Spiritus attributed to Rabanus Maurus c8-9th set to TALLIS’ ORDINAL by Thomas Tallis. I have previously blogged this set to LAMBILOTTE.

I foolishly guessed the chords here for my backing (not provided by CWB II) when I should have looked in Together in Song, where they provide chords and correct the archaicisms in the text. Such things were apparently possible in 1999.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come,
From thy bright heav’nly throne,
Come take possession of our souls,
And make them all thy own.

Thou who art called the Paraclete,
Best gift of God above,
The living spring, the living fire,
Sweet unction and true love.

Thou who art sevenfold in thy grace,
Finger of God’s right hand
His promise teaching little ones
To speak an understand.

O guide our minds with thy blessed light,
With love our hearts inflame;
And with thy strength, which never decays
Confirm our mortal frame.

Far from us drive our deadly foe;
True peach unto us bring;
And through all perils lead us safe
Beneath thy sacred wing.

Through thee may we the Father know,
Through thee the eternal Son,
And thee, the Spirit of them both,
Thrice-blessed Three in One.

All glory to the Father be,
With his coequal Son;
The same to thee, great Paraclete,
While endless ages run.

CWB II gives three settings of the Pentecost Sequence. They all use Peter Scagnelli’s translation of Veni Sancte Spiritus a C13 sequence attributed to Stephen Langdon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or possibly Pope Innocent III.

378a/b is chant mode 1 arranged by Geoffrey Cox and goes into the Gospel Acclamation. 380 is essentially the same tune made metrical by Adriaan Engels. The text is here along with a vocal + guitar version of Engels’s arrangement.

I’ll leave those chant based ones alone because BIAB IS LOUSY AT CHANT.

379 is the setting by Samuel Webbe. Only verses 1,3,5,7 and 9 from the text noted above are used in CWB II.

This has a different but PD translation by Edward Caswell and the music is the same arrangement as CWB II..

I think we can knock this over in one blog post.

372 A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing

373 Clap Your Hands All You Nations

374 Glorious in Majesty

This one is an absolute delight. It is a relic from the 70s with a text by Jeff Cothran and set to SHIBBOLET BASEDEH a traditional Jewish melody. The text is here.

You can purchase the sheet music at GIA, but fair warning, it will suggest the use of a recorder and a triangle. I still think it is great but I didn’t use those instruments in my backing. BTW I found my first major typo in CWB II – in the third line there is a Cm that should be a Dm.

375 Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise

376 Let the Earth Rejoice and Sing

Like 375, this is set to the familar tune LLANFAIR by Robert William and has a text by Melvin Lloyd Farrell. The text is here.

377 Rejoice! the Lord is King

CWB II has found a couple of really good songs for this feast.

Rounding out the Easter songs in CWB II is this song associated with Lutheran worship, which according to CWB II has no author – they just say based on Rev 5. Other sources say it is a translation by John W Arthur of a Latin original called Dignus et Agnes and the copyright belongs to the Lutheran Church in America. You can find the stirring text here.

Its wonderful tune FESTIVAL CANTICLE, is by the late Richard Hillert and is copyright to him through OCP although the Lutheran Church of America claim copyright on their harmonisation. Then again Lutherans do sing better than Catholics so we give them some leeway.

OCP sell the sheet music here under the name “Worthy is Christ” and they certainly know who wrote it so there may be a potential copyright breach here. One Licence gives this number #07113 .

I had to redo my backing of the tune, because although it is used for another hymn I have already blogged it was a different arrangement.

Some Lutherans belting it out:

Some Catholics surprisingly doing just as well:

369 This Day Was Made by the Lord

“Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow” is an Easter text by Herman G. Stuempfle Jnr set to HOLY MANNA by William Moore. The text is here and it is more usually set to JEFFERSON.

CWB II use an arrangement of HOLY MANNA by Kelly Dobbs-Mickus that is copyright to GIA, but there are numerous PD versions at Hymnary in various keys including F as used here. GIA don’t seem to have her arrangement anyway but do have a choral version by Nicholas Palmer.

This is the right tune for another text – it has a lot of verve.

I’m still in CWB II’s Easter section and have done:

367 The Day of Resurrection!

The next song is by Swiss hymn writer Edmund Louis Budry and translated by Richard Birch Holye and set to MACCABEUS which is adapted from George Frederick Handel. It appears they all have dead for long enough now for this to be public domain.

I used chords from Together In Song to make the backing.

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son; 
endless is the victory, thou o’er death hast won; 
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, 
kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay. 
Refrain: 
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son, 
Endless is the vict’ry, thou o’er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb; 
Lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom; 
let the Church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing; 
for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting. 
Refrain: 
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son, 
Endless is the vict’ry, thou o’er death hast won.

No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life; 
life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife; 
make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love: 
bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above. 
Refrain: 
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son, 
Endless is the vict’ry, thou o’er death hast won.

Interestingly in 1999 TIS used modern English – “Yours be the glory”, “See, Jesus greets us” – whereas CWB II reverts to archaic English.

Throughout Lent we will use a seasonal psalm, Marty Haugen’s “Be With Me”.

Entrance: We Are Called (Haas) AOV 2/60

Gifts: God of Second Chances (Haas)

Communion: Tree of Life (Thompson) AOV NG 138

Recessional: Though the Mountains May Fall (Schutte)  AOV 1/182

LASST UNS ERFRUEN is a very frequent Easter tune, here setting John Mason Neale’s translation of Claro Paschali Gaudio C5 Latin. It seems to be more usually set to PUER NOBIS NASCITUR.

The text is public domain so I’m putting up the version in CWB II. It has an extra verse and some rearrangements of lines compared to other versions I have seen and lots of alleluias.

1 That Easter day with joy was bright,
the sun shone out with fairer light, Alleluia, allelulia!
when, to their longing eyes restored,
the glad apostles saw their Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, allelulia!
Alleluia, allelulia!

2 His risen flesh with radiance glowed,
his wounded hands and feet he showed, Alleluia, allelulia!
those scars their solemn witness gave
that Christ was risen from the grave.
Alleluia, alleluia, allelulia!
Alleluia, allelulia!

3 O Jesus, strong in gentleness,
who with your grace our hearts possess, Alleluia, allelulia!
that we will give you all our days
the willing tribute of our praise.
Alleluia, alleluia, allelulia!
Alleluia, allelulia!

4 O lord of all, with us abide
in this our joyful Eastertide; Alleluia, allelulia!
from every weapon death can wield.
your own redeemed forever shield.
Alleluia, alleluia, allelulia!
Alleluia, allelulia!

5 All praise to you, O risen Lord,
from death to endless life restored; Alleluia, allelulia!
to God the Father equal praise,
and Spirit blest, our songs we raise.
Alleluia, alleluia, allelulia!
Alleluia, allelulia!

OK, this is another good song in CWB II that I haven’t come across before in their songs for Easter, so I should cease my complaining.

This is a Taize song by Jacques Berthier where the assembly sings “Surrexit Christus” and “Cantate Domino” instead of “Christ is Risen” and “Sing to the Lord” because they may sing the verses in many possible languages and they can all sing Latin together.

The cantor sings the verses in their own language, while the assembly hums. Cantus Mundo has the English text.

It is available in this collection from GIA.

CWB II gave me chords for a change so making a BIAB backing was a bit easier this time. It’s meant to be lively.

This isn’t in English.