A baptism at our place today (Great-nibling #13, in fact), as well as good-bye to someone moving away, who has often played banjo in church. The hymns were chosen with baptism in mind, as well as with an aye (ear?) to making sure a banjo could join in on a few. They were:
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”/NETTLETON
“I’ve Got Peace Like a River”
“Crashing Waters At Creation”/CRASHING WATERS
“Just a Closer Walk with Thee”/CLOSER WALK
There was also a “homegrown” baptismal hymn, originally written for the cousin of the baptizand’s mother.
My wife and I always get a chuckle at the beginning of the second verse of “Come, Thou Fount.” Her mother always referred to her walker (Zimmerman frame), and later her rollator, as “Ebenezer,” because “hither by thy help I’m come.”
... good-bye to someone moving away, who has often played banjo in church ...
Every cloud has a silver lining ... 😈
Not silver at all, I’m afraid.
I can definitely understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but remember I’m in the American South, and in a congregation with very wide—dare I say “catholic”—musical tastes. It is a cup of tea we love. We have a regular group of “strings” (banjo, guitar, occasional fiddle) that plays in church from time to time.
It’s very much part of the woof and warp of what makes up our particular community at church.
BTW: Sorry I didn’t catch that “Zimmer frame” above autocorrected to “Zimmerman frame.”
Hail thee festival day
Mass of the quiet hour (Oldroyd) and Merbecke
Psalm 47
O Christ our hope our hearts desire (Metzlers)
Hail the day (Llanfair)
The golden gates are lifted up (St Stephen)
See the conqueror mounts in triumph (In babilone)
A rather traditional high church service with good strong singing especially in the Processional hymn which I doubt many people have or even know these days 🤔
I don't know what hymns (if any) were attempted at Our Place on Ascension Day, as the attendance was in single figures - spread over two Masses, one at 10am, and the other at 730pm.
Tomorrow's selection continues the Ascensiontide theme:
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata) The head that once was crowned with thorns (St Magnus) Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol) See, the conqueror mounts in triumph (Rex Gloriae is the tune in the book, but they may sing Austria or some other 87 87 D tune instead...)
Anglican church life is presently at a very low ebb in Our Town, for various reasons, and a combined Ascension Day service might have been a Good Idea, at least for those who would naturally prefer a Eucharist.
Hymns
Praise with joy the world’s creator, / Praise my soul
Now to Him who loved us, / Triumph
Father all-loving and ruling in majesty, / Was lebet
Break now the bread of life, / Bread of life
In Christ there is no east or west, / St Bernard
“Let the earth rejoice and sing” - Llanfair.
“King of kings, majesty” (Jarrod Cooper).
“There is a Redeemer” (Melody Green).
“The head that once was crowned with thorns” - St Magnus.
“At the name of Jesus” - Camberwell.
At our first Sunday in the month "Hymns of Praise" service we sang
Rejoice, the Lord is King! - GOPSAL
Shine, Jesus, shine - SHINE
Be still, for the presence of the Lord - BE STILL
Thou, whose almighty word - ITALIAN HYMN / MOSCOW
Facing a task unfinished - AURELIA
Come let us join our cheerful songs (Nativity)
All heaven declares
O Thou who at thy Eucharist didst pray (Song 1)
This is my body
Crown him with many crowns ( Diademata)
We didn’t get the last verse, as the priest leapt in with the Dismissal, having announced that he had to dash off to another service.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! (Nicaea)
How Firm A Foundation (Lyons)
Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation (Regent Square)
Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise (Easter Hymn)
I'll raise a banner (I believe) - without words as the projection system was having a funny five minutes Our God is a Great Big God - with actions We won't fear the battle, we won't fear the fight (Sing with joy now, our God is for us) Our Father everlasting, the all-creating one (I believe in God our Father) Father, let your kingdom come, Father, let your will be done Blessed be your name Be thou my vision
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
All hail the power (Miles Lane)
King of glory King of peace (Redland)
A man there lived in Galilee (Tyrol)
Jesus shall reign (Truro 😊)
Very good singing today including the Canticles, I enjoyed Mattins which is not my normal experience.
Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies (RATISBON)
Thou Who At Thy First Eucharist Didst Pray (SONG 1)
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
We are back where we are in the summers. Today, the hymns and songs were:
Pues si vivimos (“When We Are Living”)/SOMOS DEL SEÑOR
“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”/CWM RHONDDA
“Take, O Take Me as I Am”/TAKE ME AS I AM
“God Is Our Help, Refuge and Strength”/GOD IS OUR HELP
“Christ Be Beside Me”/BUNESSAN
We had:
All my hope on God is founded
Christ be beside me
Son of God, eternal Saviour
My life flows on in endless song
O for a thousand tongues to sing
I've had a simply wonderful weekend of singing in Madrid with Scottish Voices. This included a concert on Saturday night in what is probably the most amazing acoustic I've ever sung in - the German Catholic Church:
O sing joyfully - Batten Sicut cervus - Palestrina Crossing the bar - Parry Drop, drop slow tears - Gibbons
Sanctus, Benedictus & Agnus Dei from the Mass for Four Voices - Byrd Ascendit Deus - Phillips Rage, Wisdom and our souls inspire - Sal McDougall (who was the person who invited us to Spain in the first place) Rejoice, the Lord is King - Malcolm Archer
On Sunday, we sang the services at St George's Anglican Church:
Holy Eucharist
Introit - Ascendit Deus
Mass for Four Voices - as above but also with the Gloria Ave verum corpus - Byrd
The hymns were suitably ascendant, but can I remember now what they were? No, I can't.
I think one of them was Hail the day that sees him rise, to Llanfair
Choral Evensong:
Introit: Ascendit Deus again, but it just got better each time we did it.*
Responses: Ayleward
Psalm 47 - chant by Turle
Mag & Nunc - Brewer in D
Anthem: Rejoice, the Lord is King - Malcolm Archer
Hymns (which I actually remembered to write down):
The head that once was crowned with thorns - St Magnus Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour - St Helen
* A couple of years ago we had a disaster with Ascendit Deus when we were singing in Hexham Abbey, and it pretty-much fell to bits (the anthem, not the abbey). I think our conductor's been trying to slay the dragon ever since. I'm pleased to report that it's well and truly slain - he was well chuffed with everything we did. Apparently we've been invited to go and sing in Nice, where I hope the weather will be a bit less scorchio ...
My son, a Health and Safety consultant, worked at a mountain biking event in the Pyrenees last week. Even though they were 1000m up, it was still 29 degrees.
It depends on when@Piglet goes to Nice, of course, as it isn't always hot in that part of France. It's usually dusty and windy, though...or so I have found...
Pentecost with first holy communions
All over the world
Veni Sancte Spiritus (Walker)
Glastonbury Mass
This is my body, broken for you
Shine Jesus shine.
Pentecost with first holy communions
All over the world
Veni Sancte Spiritus (Walker)
Glastonbury Mass
This is my body, broken for you
Shine Jesus shine.
Lord, have mercy.
Not sure what Our Place is having tomorrow - I'll ask my Spy to let me know, but I hope Come down, O love divine (Down Ampney) will be included.
“Come all you people” - Uyai Moses.
“Come, let us join our cheerful songs” - Nativity.
“I am the church!"
“We turn to you, O God of every nation” - Perfect Love.
“There's a spirit in the air” - Lauds.
“O Spirit of the living God” - Duke Street.
For a church that doesn't really do the Church calendar - Pentecost!
O worship the King all glorious above (Lyons)
My Heart Is Full Of Admiration (Kendrick)
Spirit of the Living God (Iverson)
Send the fire! (Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame)
At 9 o'clock Pentecost communion:
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - LOVE DIVINE
Breathe on me, Breath of God - CARLISLE
Go Forth and Tell! - WOODLANDS
A very mixed bag at St Pete's this morning for Pentecost:
Angel voices ever singing - Angel Voices The King is among us - K*ndr*ck Come down, O Love divine - Down Ampney Abba Father, let me be - Dave Bilbrough (who he?) Shine, Jesus shine - bloody K*ndr*ck again
Two by K*ndr*ck and one by someone of that ilk, but possibly even worse, in the same service - give me strength!
For all kinds of complicated reasons (mostly to do with the collapse of local churches in small South African dorps), I am now going to services in the Dutch Reformed Church, quite wonderful and very welcoming. It was Pentecost Sunday with communion (nagmaal) so we sang hymns of thankfulness for that, and for a Pentecost inspired by the Holy Spirit. I hope my notes below make sense, all this is still very unfamiliar to me.
Liedboek 370 My Gees, My Siel, My Liggaam (My Spirit, My Soul, My Body; My Alles op die Altaar)
193 Met hart en mond en lewe (Eberling: Du Meine Seele Singe)
439 O Heilige Gees (Ellecombe: Eternal God, Spirit of Truth)
599 As Hy Weer Kom (George Root; When He Cometh : Cushing 1823) Hemel Vader Ek Aanbid U (Adolph Vosloo) Strome van Seen uit die Hemel (Showers of Blessing: McGanaham 1834)
All-Age Eucharist for Pentecost at our place, so the usual fare:
Setting
Communion Service in F Darke Anthem
Ave verum corpus Byrd Hymns
Holy Spirit, come, confirm us All For Jesus
Rejoice, the year upon its way Herongate
Come, thou Holy Spirit, come Veni Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire plainsong
Come down, O love divine Down Ampney Voluntary
Fantasia super Komme, Heiliger Geist BWV 651 JS Bach
Rise, my soul, the Lord is risen God is so good to me Who am I that the highest king would welcome me? There must be more than this Set a fire down in my soul (I want more of you, God) Be still, for the presence of the Lord
A very mixed bag at St Pete's this morning for Pentecost:
Angel voices ever singing - Angel Voices The King is among us - K*ndr*ck Come down, O Love divine - Down Ampney Abba Father, let me be - Dave Bilbrough (who he?) Shine, Jesus shine - bloody K*ndr*ck again
Two by K*ndr*ck and one by someone of that ilk, but possibly even worse, in the same service - give me strength!
I feel your pain, to a certain extent.
Angel voices ever singing, though a lovely hymn, doesn't seem especially suitable for Pentecost, whereas Come down, O love divine (with the tune by RVW) most certainly is appropriate.
Abba, Father is another one that doesn't seem especially applicable to today - it was copyrighted in 1977, so I guess Dave Bilbrough was working round about that time - but it's a simple ditty, useful for singing during Communion. Not exactly modern, though, some 38 years on...
I don't think I've ever sung The King is among us (O lucky Me!), but the Shiny Song definitely belongs in the hottest and deepest part of Hell.
I still have no idea what they warbled at Our Place today, but I daresay the Shiny Song was on offer...they chuck it in at any opportunity.
Over in Other (Foreign) Places, I found some hymns (or at least tunes) that I know. Uppsala Cathedral had their girls' choir sing a Pentecost anthem by Nikolas Grundtvig (a Danish writer) to a tune which would be familiar to us - Jerusalem by Parry, no less. Their final hymn was to a tune known to some in this country as In Babilone - it's a traditional Dutch melody, and is sometimes sung to Michael Forster's Praise to God for saints and martyrs.
The Old-Catholics in Utrecht (NL) started off with a hymn to the German (?) tune Lobe den Herren, which we might sing to Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation. I haven't yet checked out their other hymns, which are usually unfamiliar to me, unlike many of those sung in Lutheran churches.
I have yet to check on two other Places I visit in Sweden - Sankt Ansgar, Uppsala, and Skara Cathedral - but I expect I'll know or recognise at least one or two of their hymns. There is a website which gives access to all the hymns - music and lyrics - in the Church of Sweden's standard hymnbook, so finding out if something is a paraphrase or a different hymn altogether is not difficult.
I quite like "The King is among us" and "Abba, Father" (not 38 years old but 48!!! - hardly modern). "Shine, Jesus, shine" was OK but has been done to death (it even appeared on today's "Songs of Praise"). It was of course originally linked to the "March for Jesus" movement which had some rather dubious theology behind it ("territorial spirits" and the like).
On a broader canvas, I think the tension between "good" and "populist" church music is hardly new - I believe that Luther experienced it, as did Moody & Sankey (and their ilk). The best writers in the Worship Song tradition certainly want to compose decent stuff but there is a lot of dross around - probably 'twas always thus!
I quite like "The King is among us" and "Abba, Father" (not 38 years old but 48!!! - hardly modern). "Shine, Jesus, shine" was OK but has been done to death (it even appeared on today's "Songs of Praise"). It was of course originally linked to the "March for Jesus" movement which had some rather dubious theology behind it ("territorial spirits" and the like).
On a broader canvas, I think the tension between "good" and "populist" church music is hardly new - I believe that Luther experienced it, as did Moody & Sankey (and their ilk). The best writers in the Worship Song tradition certainly want to compose decent stuff but there is a lot of dross around - probably 'twas always thus!
Yes, 48 years - my arithmetic was never any good, even at skool (though my speeling was OK).
A very mixed bag at St Pete's this morning for Pentecost:
Angel voices ever singing - Angel Voices The King is among us - K*ndr*ck Come down, O Love divine - Down Ampney Abba Father, let me be - Dave Bilbrough (who he?) Shine, Jesus shine - bloody K*ndr*ck again
Two by K*ndr*ck and one by someone of that ilk, but possibly even worse, in the same service - give me strength!
Dave Bilborough and his wife Pat have been involved in the charismatic worship music scene for years. Recently here at our Cathedral we had the funeral of a chap in his 40s who was an usher at Beaky daughter number two's wedding. Dave Bilborough is a family friend of the deceased and he sang at the funeral. He seems to be a lovely person.
Indeed. After all, Emperor Joseph II allegedly criticised Mozart for having "Too many notes". And J S Bach's employers at Leipzig didn't like the "weird tones" and harmonies he put into the chorales.
I'm hoping the sermon will shed some light on these choices for Pentecost.
It, dear reader, did not.
I am coming to the conclusion that our minister's "vocabulary" of hymnody is somewhat limited.
Given what we did have in the sermon, about waiting like the disciples waiting for Pentecost, I would have thought I waited patiently for God or Wait for the Lord would have been suitable, even if none of the obvious choices on the theme of the coming of the Holy Spirit were included.
I keep trying to frame in my head how I might approach offering to assist with hymn selection without making it seem that I think our minister isn't much good at it, which is hard because that is what I think even those it's impolite to say so.
Indeed. After all, Emperor Joseph II allegedly criticised Mozart for having "Too many notes". And J S Bach's employers at Leipzig didn't like the "weird tones" and harmonies he put into the chorales.
At least Herr Mozart probably put the notes in the right order.
Indeed. After all, Emperor Joseph II allegedly criticised Mozart for having "Too many notes". And J S Bach's employers at Leipzig didn't like the "weird tones" and harmonies he put into the chorales.
At least Herr Mozart probably put the notes in the right order.
He certainly did for the Mass setting we had at our Cathedral this morning, it was beautiful 😍
Indeed. After all, Emperor Joseph II allegedly criticised Mozart for having "Too many notes". And J S Bach's employers at Leipzig didn't like the "weird tones" and harmonies he put into the chorales.
At least Herr Mozart probably put the notes in the right order.
I'm sure that Mr Previous, when conducting, ensured that they were.
Your “usual fare” sounds better than many @TheOrganist.
Choral Evensong in a church I occasionally attend when they have a visiting Consort of singers. Only four today, SATB, but impeccably sung psalm, canticles and settings, composers unnamed.
Hymns:
Come down O love divine -Down Ampney
Come Holy Spirit, come- Diademata
Go forth and tell- Woodlands
Love divine- Blarnwern
Indeed. After all, Emperor Joseph II allegedly criticised Mozart for having "Too many notes". And J S Bach's employers at Leipzig didn't like the "weird tones" and harmonies he put into the chorales.
At least Herr Mozart probably put the notes in the right order.
He certainly did for the Mass setting we had at our Cathedral this morning, it was beautiful 😍
His Masses always strike me as being entirely devoid of religious content - entirely secular.
Comments
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”/NETTLETON
“I’ve Got Peace Like a River”
“Crashing Waters At Creation”/CRASHING WATERS
“Just a Closer Walk with Thee”/CLOSER WALK
There was also a “homegrown” baptismal hymn, originally written for the cousin of the baptizand’s mother.
My wife and I always get a chuckle at the beginning of the second verse of “Come, Thou Fount.” Her mother always referred to her walker (Zimmerman frame), and later her rollator, as “Ebenezer,” because “hither by thy help I’m come.”
I can definitely understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but remember I’m in the American South, and in a congregation with very wide—dare I say “catholic”—musical tastes. It is a cup of tea we love. We have a regular group of “strings” (banjo, guitar, occasional fiddle) that plays in church from time to time.
It’s very much part of the woof and warp of what makes up our particular community at church.
BTW: Sorry I didn’t catch that “Zimmer frame” above autocorrected to “Zimmerman frame.”
And you can't cut any out, as each leads into the next.
Yes indeed it does - a rather neat bit of work on the part of the composer, no?
Indeed. That's what I meant - thanks for the correction.
This.
Solemn Eucharist
Hail thee festival day
Mass of the quiet hour (Oldroyd) and Merbecke
Psalm 47
O Christ our hope our hearts desire (Metzlers)
Hail the day (Llanfair)
The golden gates are lifted up (St Stephen)
See the conqueror mounts in triumph (In babilone)
A rather traditional high church service with good strong singing especially in the Processional hymn which I doubt many people have or even know these days 🤔
Tomorrow's selection continues the Ascensiontide theme:
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
The head that once was crowned with thorns (St Magnus)
Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
See, the conqueror mounts in triumph (Rex Gloriae is the tune in the book, but they may sing Austria or some other 87 87 D tune instead...)
Anglican church life is presently at a very low ebb in Our Town, for various reasons, and a combined Ascension Day service might have been a Good Idea, at least for those who would naturally prefer a Eucharist.
Hymns
Praise with joy the world’s creator, / Praise my soul
Now to Him who loved us, / Triumph
Father all-loving and ruling in majesty, / Was lebet
Break now the bread of life, / Bread of life
In Christ there is no east or west, / St Bernard
The choir is in recess until July.
“King of kings, majesty” (Jarrod Cooper).
“There is a Redeemer” (Melody Green).
“The head that once was crowned with thorns” - St Magnus.
“At the name of Jesus” - Camberwell.
Rejoice, the Lord is King! - GOPSAL
Shine, Jesus, shine - SHINE
Be still, for the presence of the Lord - BE STILL
Thou, whose almighty word - ITALIAN HYMN / MOSCOW
Facing a task unfinished - AURELIA
Mass of St Thomas
Come let us join our cheerful songs (Nativity)
All heaven declares
O Thou who at thy Eucharist didst pray (Song 1)
This is my body
Crown him with many crowns ( Diademata)
We didn’t get the last verse, as the priest leapt in with the Dismissal, having announced that he had to dash off to another service.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! (Nicaea)
How Firm A Foundation (Lyons)
Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation (Regent Square)
Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise (Easter Hymn)
Our God is a Great Big God - with actions
We won't fear the battle, we won't fear the fight (Sing with joy now, our God is for us)
Our Father everlasting, the all-creating one (I believe in God our Father)
Father, let your kingdom come, Father, let your will be done
Blessed be your name
Be thou my vision
Mattins
Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
All hail the power (Miles Lane)
King of glory King of peace (Redland)
A man there lived in Galilee (Tyrol)
Jesus shall reign (Truro 😊)
Very good singing today including the Canticles, I enjoyed Mattins which is not my normal experience.
Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies (RATISBON)
Thou Who At Thy First Eucharist Didst Pray (SONG 1)
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
Pues si vivimos (“When We Are Living”)/SOMOS DEL SEÑOR
“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”/CWM RHONDDA
“Take, O Take Me as I Am”/TAKE ME AS I AM
“God Is Our Help, Refuge and Strength”/GOD IS OUR HELP
“Christ Be Beside Me”/BUNESSAN
All my hope on God is founded
Christ be beside me
Son of God, eternal Saviour
My life flows on in endless song
O for a thousand tongues to sing
O sing joyfully - Batten
Sicut cervus - Palestrina
Crossing the bar - Parry
Drop, drop slow tears - Gibbons
Sanctus, Benedictus & Agnus Dei from the Mass for Four Voices - Byrd
Ascendit Deus - Phillips
Rage, Wisdom and our souls inspire - Sal McDougall (who was the person who invited us to Spain in the first place)
Rejoice, the Lord is King - Malcolm Archer
On Sunday, we sang the services at St George's Anglican Church:
Holy Eucharist
Introit - Ascendit Deus
Mass for Four Voices - as above but also with the Gloria
Ave verum corpus - Byrd
The hymns were suitably ascendant, but can I remember now what they were? No, I can't.
I think one of them was Hail the day that sees him rise, to Llanfair
Choral Evensong:
Introit: Ascendit Deus again, but it just got better each time we did it.*
Responses: Ayleward
Psalm 47 - chant by Turle
Mag & Nunc - Brewer in D
Anthem: Rejoice, the Lord is King - Malcolm Archer
Hymns (which I actually remembered to write down):
The head that once was crowned with thorns - St Magnus
Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour - St Helen
* A couple of years ago we had a disaster with Ascendit Deus when we were singing in Hexham Abbey, and it pretty-much fell to bits (the anthem, not the abbey). I think our conductor's been trying to slay the dragon ever since. I'm pleased to report that it's well and truly slain - he was well chuffed with everything we did. Apparently we've been invited to go and sing in Nice, where I hope the weather will be a bit less scorchio ...
A lovely selection of music though - thanks for sharing!
Reykjavik is possibly on the cards too (our conductor is half Icelandic) - now you're talking!!!
All over the world
Veni Sancte Spiritus (Walker)
Glastonbury Mass
This is my body, broken for you
Shine Jesus shine.
Lord, have mercy.
Not sure what Our Place is having tomorrow - I'll ask my Spy to let me know, but I hope Come down, O love divine (Down Ampney) will be included.
All things bright and beautiful
Lord of creation
Will your anchor hold
Make me a channel of your peace
Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah
I'm hoping the sermon will shed some light on these choices for Pentecost.
“Come all you people” - Uyai Moses.
“Come, let us join our cheerful songs” - Nativity.
“I am the church!"
“We turn to you, O God of every nation” - Perfect Love.
“There's a spirit in the air” - Lauds.
“O Spirit of the living God” - Duke Street.
O worship the King all glorious above (Lyons)
My Heart Is Full Of Admiration (Kendrick)
Spirit of the Living God (Iverson)
Send the fire! (Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame)
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - LOVE DIVINE
Breathe on me, Breath of God - CARLISLE
Go Forth and Tell! - WOODLANDS
Angel voices ever singing - Angel Voices
The King is among us - K*ndr*ck
Come down, O Love divine - Down Ampney
Abba Father, let me be - Dave Bilbrough (who he?)
Shine, Jesus shine - bloody K*ndr*ck again
Two by K*ndr*ck and one by someone of that ilk, but possibly even worse, in the same service - give me strength!
Liedboek 370 My Gees, My Siel, My Liggaam (My Spirit, My Soul, My Body; My Alles op die Altaar)
193 Met hart en mond en lewe (Eberling: Du Meine Seele Singe)
439 O Heilige Gees (Ellecombe: Eternal God, Spirit of Truth)
599 As Hy Weer Kom (George Root; When He Cometh : Cushing 1823)
Hemel Vader Ek Aanbid U (Adolph Vosloo)
Strome van Seen uit die Hemel (Showers of Blessing: McGanaham 1834)
Setting
Communion Service in F Darke
Anthem
Ave verum corpus Byrd
Hymns
Holy Spirit, come, confirm us All For Jesus
Rejoice, the year upon its way Herongate
Come, thou Holy Spirit, come Veni Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire plainsong
Come down, O love divine Down Ampney
Voluntary
Fantasia super Komme, Heiliger Geist BWV 651 JS Bach
Roderick Williams re-imagined it thus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlIsI3Lb2eM&ab_channel=ORASingers
God is so good to me
Who am I that the highest king would welcome me?
There must be more than this
Set a fire down in my soul (I want more of you, God)
Be still, for the presence of the Lord
I feel your pain, to a certain extent.
Angel voices ever singing, though a lovely hymn, doesn't seem especially suitable for Pentecost, whereas Come down, O love divine (with the tune by RVW) most certainly is appropriate.
Abba, Father is another one that doesn't seem especially applicable to today - it was copyrighted in 1977, so I guess Dave Bilbrough was working round about that time - but it's a simple ditty, useful for singing during Communion. Not exactly modern, though, some 38 years on...
I don't think I've ever sung The King is among us (O lucky Me!), but the Shiny Song definitely belongs in the hottest and deepest part of Hell.
I still have no idea what they warbled at Our Place today, but I daresay the Shiny Song was on offer...they chuck it in at any opportunity.
Over in Other (Foreign) Places, I found some hymns (or at least tunes) that I know. Uppsala Cathedral had their girls' choir sing a Pentecost anthem by Nikolas Grundtvig (a Danish writer) to a tune which would be familiar to us - Jerusalem by Parry, no less. Their final hymn was to a tune known to some in this country as In Babilone - it's a traditional Dutch melody, and is sometimes sung to Michael Forster's Praise to God for saints and martyrs.
The Old-Catholics in Utrecht (NL) started off with a hymn to the German (?) tune Lobe den Herren, which we might sing to Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation. I haven't yet checked out their other hymns, which are usually unfamiliar to me, unlike many of those sung in Lutheran churches.
I have yet to check on two other Places I visit in Sweden - Sankt Ansgar, Uppsala, and Skara Cathedral - but I expect I'll know or recognise at least one or two of their hymns. There is a website which gives access to all the hymns - music and lyrics - in the Church of Sweden's standard hymnbook, so finding out if something is a paraphrase or a different hymn altogether is not difficult.
On a broader canvas, I think the tension between "good" and "populist" church music is hardly new - I believe that Luther experienced it, as did Moody & Sankey (and their ilk). The best writers in the Worship Song tradition certainly want to compose decent stuff but there is a lot of dross around - probably 'twas always thus!
Yes, 48 years - my arithmetic was never any good, even at skool (though my speeling was OK).
Dave Bilborough and his wife Pat have been involved in the charismatic worship music scene for years. Recently here at our Cathedral we had the funeral of a chap in his 40s who was an usher at Beaky daughter number two's wedding. Dave Bilborough is a family friend of the deceased and he sang at the funeral. He seems to be a lovely person.
That doesn't mean that everyone has to like all their work, of course.
It, dear reader, did not.
I am coming to the conclusion that our minister's "vocabulary" of hymnody is somewhat limited.
Given what we did have in the sermon, about waiting like the disciples waiting for Pentecost, I would have thought I waited patiently for God or Wait for the Lord would have been suitable, even if none of the obvious choices on the theme of the coming of the Holy Spirit were included.
I keep trying to frame in my head how I might approach offering to assist with hymn selection without making it seem that I think our minister isn't much good at it, which is hard because that is what I think even those it's impolite to say so.
At least Herr Mozart probably put the notes in the right order.
He certainly did for the Mass setting we had at our Cathedral this morning, it was beautiful 😍
I'm sure that Mr Previous, when conducting, ensured that they were.
Choral Evensong in a church I occasionally attend when they have a visiting Consort of singers. Only four today, SATB, but impeccably sung psalm, canticles and settings, composers unnamed.
Hymns:
Come down O love divine -Down Ampney
Come Holy Spirit, come- Diademata
Go forth and tell- Woodlands
Love divine- Blarnwern
The ‘sermon’ came from a different world.
His Masses always strike me as being entirely devoid of religious content - entirely secular.