Category Archives: Liturgical Music

Gather IV Review: Easter

Posted on 18 April 2022 by catholicsensibility

What’s the next stage of our review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal? Easter, naturally. The season, not the day. Twenty seven entries are hymn-tune heavy. Here’s a breakdown for numbers 556-582: traditional organ + choir, 10 contemporary stanza … Continue reading →

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Gather IV Review: Good Friday

Posted on 15 April 2022 by catholicsensibility

In the pages marked “Good Friday” in GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal, we find seven entries specific to the day. As expected, “O Sacred Head” (549) and “Were You There” (554). I doubt you can have a serious … Continue reading →

Posted in Holy Week, Liturgical Music | 3 Comments

Gather IV Review: Holy Thursday

Posted on 14 April 2022 by catholicsensibility

By continuing a review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal, I wanted to offer a peek at songs listed by liturgical season. Numbered pieces 444 through 626 would be huge for a single post. So a little bit … Continue reading →

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Sister Thea

Posted on 30 March 2022 by catholicsensibility

My wife mentioned that Thea Bowman did a parish mission at the church where we met, many years before I arrived there. I wonder if she mentioned there her description of Black sacred song she put into words for the … Continue reading →

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Breastplate

Posted on 17 March 2022 by catholicsensibility

In hymnals, we get a portion of the whole of the prayer attributed to Patrick of Ireland. The full wiki thing is here, with commentary and notes. Did you know there’s an eleven-part structure? invocation of the Trinity. invocation of Christ’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Liturgical Music, Saints, spirituality | 1 Comment

Gather IV Review Part 5b: Service Music

Posted on 9 March 2022 by catholicsensibility

Continuing in this post with a review of GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. Complete Mass settings were reviewed here. The hymnal also includes fragments of Mass settings and single acclamations. One of the shifts in contemporary church music … Continue reading →

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Gather IV Review Part 4: Rites of the Church

Posted on 2 March 2022 by catholicsensibility

GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal features a substantial section for “Rites of the Church.” There’s a little something for everything here.  There are six acclamations for RCIA in numbered sections 118-127. Eleven musical bits for baptism of children … Continue reading →

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Forty Days

Posted on 2 March 2022 by catholicsensibility

Image credit of the modern Judean Desert: By David Shankbone – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3417044 Time to break out the big book in this collection. While most users are moving bookmarks from Pentecost to Ash Wednesday, I find … Continue reading →

Posted in Lent, Liturgical Music | 3 Comments

Gather IV Review Part 3: Psalms and Canticles

Posted on 20 February 2022 by catholicsensibility

GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal devotes many pages, and numbers 28 through 117, to Psalms and Canticles. Just because these settings are stuck in the “Psalter” a lot of music directors confine themselves to dropping them in the … Continue reading →

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Gather IV Review Part 2: Liturgy of the Hours

Posted on 19 February 2022 by catholicsensibility

Continuing a review of the newest edition of the Gather hymnal, let’s look at how it presents the Liturgy of the Hours.  Keeping with the tradition of the last three-plus decades of GIA hymnal editions, the chief celebrations are presented … Continue reading →

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Gather IV Review Part 1: Overview

Posted on 17 February 2022 by catholicsensibility

I posted twice last year on GIA’s newest edition of the Gather hymnal. Last May, I thought I might post a bit more. I had a cursory assessment of the Mass settings here. Now that I’ve pried my copy of … Continue reading →

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Easter Vigil and Sunday Compared

Posted on 7 February 2022 by catholicsensibility

For me, it’s down to the last minute for charting out Easter Vigil and Sunday. Other colleagues seem to be in a similar mode. On a sacred music site, this post and questions: I have a few questions about planning … Continue reading →

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Royalties For Spirituals

Posted on 2 January 2022 by catholicsensibility

I noticed the article with the headline “This church is paying ‘royalties’ when it sings spirituals composed by enslaved Africans,” used its acceptable term “Negro Spirituals” in the subtitle. I wasn’t sure of the acceptance of the term. This from … Continue reading →

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St Cecilia Days Past

Posted on 22 November 2021 by catholicsensibility

In my experience, observing the feast of the woman most cited as a patron saint of music has been an on and off thing over the years. In my last archdiocese, there were annual gatherings. I remember one on the … Continue reading →

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More 70s Thoughts On Psalms

Posted on 8 November 2021 by catholicsensibility

A social media contact made some inquiries some weeks ago about a well-known liturgical song, asking me my sense of it being a flashpoint between various musical camps in the Church. I think it’s a one-sided controversy, if that. I … Continue reading →

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