Lord, Today

Time to see if the waters of collaboration and comment on liturgical music are poisoned or something. Try this:

Lord, Today

I wrote this in 1992 and used the text of the common Christmas psalm refrain and the ICEL Psalter’s 98th. We all probably know what happened to that edition, so I went with a personal adaptation of the psalm text. Feel free to take the link to a more amenable forum, if you wish. For courtesy’s sake, just let me know if you do.

I’m not sure I’m using this setting this year. My wife likes it a lot, and my old friends in Kansas City too. But some things just don’t travel well.

 

Wonder Wonder Wonder

Before you get to the tunes in the Sacred Harp, there is a chapter on “Rudiments of Music.” One of the illustrative pieces there is THE YOUNG CONVERT from 1805′s Christian Harmony. I’ve always liked that little tune, and with its repeated refrain “Wonder, wonder, wonder,” thought it would be perfect for a Christmas piece. After working on it on and off for eleven years, I finally finished a preliminary five-verse text. I can’t say I’m happy with the words, really. But after a decade-plus, it’s time to put it to use. Here’s a pdf:

Wonder, Wonder, Wonder

If you have a better text, I’d be happy to revise and share credits. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a liturgical stocking stuffer, feel free to use the piece, and copy as many as you need.

Update: I think John Ellerton’s translation of the Christmas Lauds hymn is a pretty neat fit:

From east to west, from shore to shore,
let every heart awake and sing
the holy child whom Mary bore,
the Christ, the everlasting King.

Behold, the world’s Creator wears
the form and fashion of a slave;
our human flesh the Godhead shares,
a human race God comes to save.

He shrank not from the oxen’s stall,
he lay within the manger-bed,
for he who feeds and cares for all,
at Mary’s breast himself was fed.

And while the angels in the sky
sang praise above the silent field,
to shepherds poor the Lord Most High,
the one great Shepherd, was revealed.

All glory be to God above
and on the earth let there be peace
to all who long to taste God’s love,
till time itself shall come to cease.

The Hymnal of the Hours recommends verses 1-2, and 5-7 for Christmas. Unfortunately, I’ve lost one of my best singers to Christmas Day, so it doesn’t look like I’ll get to test this out this year.

Update 2

But if you want to test it, here it is: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4281211/From%20East%20to%20West%20Wonder%20Wonder%20Wonder.pdf

 

Sweet Prospect Gloria, Draft 4

Liam suggested I turn to soprano harmony for the middle section of the MR3 Gloria. So here’s the first draft of the whole hymn, and comments are welcome:

I’m a believer that the best church music should come easily to the assembly’s a cappella rendering. The plan for this piece is to refine the melody, then settle on a final key and arrange the accompaniment.

 

MR3 Lab: More of the Sweet Prospect Gloria

I was feeling blocked on the central portion of the MR3 Gloria, so I jumped ahead to the end:

As I said before, my goal is to get the whole Gloria set to “Sweet Prospect” before settling on a final key and tackling the accompaniment. On the last post, Jonathan commented the high e’s might not be ideal for a congregation. I tend to agree.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering about that middle section acclaiming Christ. Is the Sweet Prospect melody sturdy enough to use? Or perhaps there should be a different melodic theme? Weigh in with your opinion and suggestions.

 

More MR3 in the Lab

With some helpful input from Liam, I’ve adjusted the awkward spots in the first stanza and felt emboldened to progress to the second:

I mentioned Wednesday that I wasn’t happy with the prospect of setting the five acclamations in stanza 2 to quarter notes, but I was concerned with the energy lagging if I adapted them to the melody as I did above. I’m also not convinced I have the best solution for the text in measures 13 through 16. I thought the direct address to God should be on the downbeats in those measures. I had to extend the melody to fit “almighty Father.” Not sure about the new melodic fragment there. I thought of using the b-a-f# figure again, but that seemed repetitive.

I like working on this without benefit of piano or guitar. One of my favorite liturgical musicians thinks as I do: great sacred music should be able to stand unaccompanied.

 

MR3 in the Musical Laboratory

My friends and a few students have asked me if I’ll be composing a Mass setting to the new texts of the Roman Missal. I’ve actually felt a bit inspired to work on it the past few days. I reworked my old (2005) Olive Leaf Mass. The Sanctus is here, and I’ve taken Liam’s advice on setting the triple “Holy” on a phrase apart from “Lord God of hosts.” Memorial acclamations B and C weren’t bad. Acclamation A just doesn’t fit. It’s more difficult to have the music ready-made and try to fit a required text into it, as you composers know. Save Us, Savior of the World is here.

The original tune is Patton, but I thought the source hymnal, The Olive Leaf, sounded better–no military overtones.

I thought it might be illustrative to reveal a bit of the arranging process I go through to adapt an existing tune for liturgical music. A great challenge will be the Glory to God. Long lines, short lines–it probably needs its own tune. And maybe it will come to that for me yet. I was noodling around with the magnificent shape-note tune, Sweet Prospect, and behold: the opening stanza of the Gloria fits it pretty well:

Excerpt from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2008, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

That phrase “and on earth peace” will be tricky for a lot of composers. But the two dotted half notes (common in shape note melodies) work better than I had hoped. That last measure in the original melody is a dotted whole note, changed to fit the text. However, the tune employs a AABA’ structure, so the initial melody here should be repeated–if it were a hymn. What should I do about that? Is it important to retain that?

One of the students I showed this to advised against trying to cram in the next section on quarter notes. I agree. But where to find the melody for the “We praise you, we bless you …” text? Should I look for inspiration in the harmony parts? Or develop this first musical idea a bit more? Suddenly, the 6/4 time feels awkward and there will be long stretches of this piece that will seem to go more slowly than this first section. By the way, I don’t plan to make this a responsorial Gloria.

Comments?

 

Draw Some Music

I haven’t posted links to music in some months. I have some recordings, but none are really in finished form. I have a rough take of a setting of Isaiah 12. The text of the verses is Rev Carl F. Daw’s adaptation of the canticle. The text is copyright © 1982 Hope Publishing Company and is used here with their permission. Rev Daw has also approved a slight adaptation, the addition of a refrain for easier use at the Easter Vigil.

Anyway, here is the audio version of “We Draw Water Joyfully.”

If, for some reason, you wish to “test” this, you will need to arrange permission to use the text with Hope. I’m only authorized to present the audio, as long as I don’t profit from it.

A few Taize-style refrains:

Arms Wide Open

Wings of Holy Zeal

And an old setting of Psalm 134 for Compline that attracted a bit of GIA attention many, many years ago:

Come Bless The Lord

As you can see from the manuscript, on the first one, I have a notion of setting parts of Jeremiah 1 as verses for this. No idea how that might unfold. I used it at Taize Prayer last weekend, and at first I thought it didn’t compare well to the other four pieces chosen. The only saving grace, I thought, was that “Arms Wide Open” was the theme of the retreat. But then people maintained the singing for it just as I thought it was flagging a bit. No comments thumbs up or down from anybody on it.

On the second one, I’ve always liked that quote since I saw it in a Claretian publication a few years ago. This setting has never been used in liturgy or even seen by anyone else. (My wife won’t like that, probably.)

Regarding “Come Bless The Lord,” this has been seen and done several times: at an NPM convention, in a few parishes, a few summer liturgy gatherings. It was meant for Night Prayer, or perhaps Evening Prayer at a stretch (the Collegeville Benedictines use 134 for Vespers) not for Sunday Mass. The three wind parts, choir parts, and verses are all stacked in the manuscript, but you know the drill for Taize, right? I would have a treble instrument state the melody, then the cantor intone, then as the assembly gets comfortable singing, add the voice parts. Instrument parts enter judiciously, probably not while the psalmist is singing. Verse one comes in several times later, choir and assembly maintaining the refrain (if they dare). Then a few refrains, then verse 2, then a few more refrains, then verse 3, then several refrains to take things back down to quiet simplicity.

Parishes have my express permission to use the three printed settings above for their own experimentation or liturgical use. My only request is to send a report back to me. If there’s any composer out there who would like to take a stab at verses for the first two Taize pieces, I’m willing to collaborate. Have fun.

 

Psalm 95: If Today

I had fun recording this setting of Psalm 95 with some friends last night. I can send a .sib file or a pdf of the score to anyone who wishes one; just e-mail me.

This is the third setting of this Psalm I’ve composed. The first was designed for morning prayer and I adapted the text to fit the music. That was back in the 80′s. Setting #2 was another adaptation for the Sunday liturgy. In this one, I used the 1986 Grail text–outdated in a few years: I know. But it’s what I had back in 2005. I’ve never used this setting in liturgy–another composer’s version has always been more popular in my parishes. In fact, the recording session last night might have been the first time anybody had ever heard this setting. Even my wife had never heard it.

Psalm 95 is one of the common psalms for ordinary time. It also appears prominently once in Lent, cycle A, third Sunday–that’s the First Scrutiny.

 

Lord Send Out Your Spirit

Lord%20Send%20Out%20Your%20Spirit.mp3

There’s a bit of a story about this one. There was a seminarian I knew almost twenty years ago who was in a spiritual support group with me. I’ve since lost touch with him, but we had a very challenging year. I was dealing with multiple issues: the usual young adult family-of-origin junk, and the very, very bitter end of a once-promising and intense relationship. It was a year through which I felt I was sleepwalking. But amazing things happen at times like that–if one is open.

Anyway, my friend asked me to set Psalm 104, Grail text, to music for the ordination Mass. As I recall he was specific about wanting simplicity: no choir parts; just psalmist and piano. Unlike many requests like this, the composing came very easy as I remember. Since then, I haven’t used this setting much. Most parishes seem to have their favorite Pentecost psalm. My wife mutters about that sometimes; she likes this setting. Too bad she was feeling under the weather when I recorded it last month. The young woman who intones the refrain and sings verse three is just a marvel, don’t you think?

If this piece is of interest to you, I can send you the score on a pdf file. Years later, I included a flute/violin part not heard on the recording. Just contact me through my parish e-mail which you can find here.

 

Let All Mortal Flesh

Let%20All%20Mortal%20Flesh.mp3

My brilliant friend and newly-minted ISU graduate Steve implanted some cool freeware on my computer that enables me to make sparkling recordings of music and other audio. I hope to offer music and some printed arrangements in the future, so here’s a sample of something I worked up for a friend’s wedding a few months ago and recorded more recently with some favorite singers.