Father of heaven whose love profound (Riveaulx)
Not for our sins alone (Waltham)
Praise to the holiest (Gerontius)
Saviour again to thy dear name we raise (Ellers)
The first two were as dreary as dreary as the day is long 😩
TBH, I reckon the last one's a bit dreary too - definitely not in my top 50!
At least you'd have had a good gulder* in "Gerontius"!
* Northern Irish expression for singing lustily and with good courage.
@Piglet we did indeed have a very good "gulder" in that one, but the first two were dire. I know what you mean about "Ellers" and I suggested using the swoopy tune by Dykes (AMR 31j but they wouldn't have it so the service ended with what seemed like an anaesthetic 😏
Here I am Lord
Take our bread
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Amazing Grace.
Our weekly newsletter contained this gem "Today is a day of prayer for the unemployed. Please pray for our bishop who today celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination."
I couldn't possible comment.
Sunday before Lent at Our Place - I guess the Gospel was the passage about the Transfiguration:
Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria) Jesus shall reign (either Galilee or Truro - we know them both!) Be still, for the presence of the Lord (words & tune by D J Evans)
The final hymn was to have been from one of the sheets* produced and kept by our Lay Reader, but, sadly, he died unexpectedly last week, so they may have fielded a substitute hymn...
RIPARIG.
(*a selection of hymns and songs from various sources, and which are not in our default hymnbook)
I am a City on a Hill / Nick & Becky Drake
My Lighthouse / Rend Collective (Children & youth left for their own groups after these first two songs)
There is a Redeemer / Melody Green
Yet not I but through Christ in me / Robinson, Thompson & Farren
At the Name of Jesus / CAMBERWELL
Our theme was also very much that of Light, in keeping with the Gospel of the Transfiguration
Christ be our Light
Christ is our Light (Highland Cathedral)
Shine Jesus Shine
...and I can't remember the 4th (which was actually the first and, I think, more traditional!)!?!
Christ Alone, Cornerstone I just want to speak the name of Jesus Here I am, humbled by your majesty You Say (I keep hearing voices in my mind that say I'm not enough)
Bright the vision that delighted (LAUS DEO (Redhead))
The Lord’s my shepherd (BROTHER JAMES’ AIR)
Christ whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
Christ is the world’s true light (DARMSTADT) - not a tune I know well nor apparently did the congregation. The organ didn’t give the clearest melodic lead, so it was rather hard work.
To God be the Glory Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia, we'll praise the Lord (Well, that's the words we were meant to sing, as that's what's in the book, but we had a bit of a clash with those who insisted on singing off by heart what they knew... Praise ye the Lord.) Amazing Grace Be still for the presence of the Lord, Shine Jesus shine
We had a jolly good sing, We only do the last one occasionally. so for those of us who've oversung it in our pasts, it's OK, and as far as the young are concerned, I don't let them sing it nearly often enough. But, I keep a document which lists every hymn we've sung in my time as organist and use it to my advantage as I could point out when faces were pulled about the last hymn that we have sung To God be the Glory nearly three times more and Be still for the presence of the Lord is on the verge of going onto my "Let's have a year or two off that one" list.
A glut of 'Alleluia' hymns this morning before Lent drops.
Alleluia song of sweetness (Alleluia dulce carmen)
Tis good Lord to be here (Carlisle)
Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour (St Helen)
Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
Very enthusiastic bellowing in the final hymn and some bestial howling in "Lord enthroned" as the Alleluias were sung 🤣
Hymns
Christ is our cornerstone, / Harewood
Christ upon the mountain peak, / Feniton
I want to walk as a child of the light, / Houston
God, your glory we have seen in your Son, / Dieu nous avons vu ta gloire, Jean Langlais
Choir
Every pilgrim has a mountain, / Thurlow Weed, Michael Hudson
What’s seen is seen, / Kathryn Rose, Thomas Thurman
A glut of 'Alleluia' hymns this morning before Lent drops.
Alleluia song of sweetness (Alleluia dulce carmen)
Tis good Lord to be here (Carlisle)
Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour (St Helen)
Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
Very enthusiastic bellowing in the final hymn and some bestial howling in "Lord enthroned" as the Alleluias were sung 🤣
Yes, a good selection. Our Place's FatherInCharge mentioned in his weekend email that this was the last Sunday (until Eostre, of course) for any Alleluias!
'Tis good Lord to be here (to Carlisle) is an obvious (and well-known) choice if the Gospel is the Transfiguration narrative, but for some unknown reason it doesn't appear in our default hymnbook (Mayhew's Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New ).
Well, yes - given that TGLTBH is something of a standard for Transfiguration (and is definitely in the New English Hymnal...).
An odd omission IMHO, but perhaps something to do with copyright issues?
Ash Wednesday looms beckons, and Madam Sacristan will insist on the first hymn being the dreary Forty days and forty nights, even though the account of Our Lord's fasting in the wilderness is not actually the Gospel reading for the day.
Unless They have changed things since I last went to church on Ash Wednesday...
On Saturday afternoon, I sang with Scottish Voices in a service of "Evening Prayer - the light of Life". It was based on an RSCM service and had elements of Evensong and Candlemas.
Hymns:
God is here, as we his people - Blaenwern Longing for light, we wait in darkness - Bernadette Farrell Christ whose glory fills the skies - Ratisbon Christ is the world's true Light - Nun Danket
Choral bits:
O Nata lux - Tallis
Kyrie - Missa de Angelis When to the temple Mary went - Eccard
Nunc Dimittis - Frikki Walker Be thou my vision - Stephen Barber What wondrous love is this - Southern Harmony Melody, arr. John Bell O thou the central orb - Wood
It was rather fine, and the craic in the pub afterwards was excellent.
Did Master Tallis ever compose anything that wasn't?
I guess some of his work isn't exactly easy to perform, mind you, and needs a Really Good Quire to do it justice...
I could go on quite a rant about church choirs that attempt stuff that is way beyond their ability and expect people to gain some spiritual benefit as they listen while GBH is committed to the music.
Did Master Tallis ever compose anything that wasn't?
I guess some of his work isn't exactly easy to perform, mind you, and needs a Really Good Quire to do it justice...
I could go on quite a rant about church choirs that attempt stuff that is way beyond their ability and expect people to gain some spiritual benefit as they listen while GBH is committed to the music.
The Blessed Percy Dearmer thought much the same. If you can't do a complex piece without doing it badly, do a simple piece well.
Did Master Tallis ever compose anything that wasn't?
I guess some of his work isn't exactly easy to perform, mind you, and needs a Really Good Quire to do it justice...
I could go on quite a rant about church choirs that attempt stuff that is way beyond their ability and expect people to gain some spiritual benefit as they listen while GBH is committed to the music.
The Blessed Percy Dearmer thought much the same. If you can't do a complex piece without doing it badly, do a simple piece well.
That is why I prefer to go somewhere with a competent mixed group of musicians singing stuff that is within their abilities rather than somewhere that massacres traditional material for the sake of being traditional.
Mass for Ash Wednesday in Tenerife. A beautiful modernish church with just enough Spanish tat to give it a cultural reference. About 300 people. All ages. Only the response to the psalm and the Holy, holy were sung led by the priest. Ashes were given. It took a while. So did communion. A couple of people received only from a chalice reserved for them .... medical reasons? Coeliac disease? To be among so many people quietly worshipping was wonderfully uplifting. I used a wonderful piece of software, Universalis which provided the texts in English and Spanish so we were able to join in - one of the benefits of a set liturgy, I guess.
From ashes to the living font (Belmont)
Psalm 51
Lent Prose
Lord teach us how to pray aright (St Hugh)
With joy and by the spirit led (St Clement)
Jerusalem the golden (Ewing)
The first was new to me and they wanted swoopy old "Belmont" but it made a reasonable start. The hymn after Communion was also new to me and from a modern source I think, both that and the first hymn had very good words. I had to check the last one but was told they always had it due (in the English Hymnal version) to the words "Exult O dust and ashes".
My Spy hasn't yet told me what was sung at our evening Mass yesterday (there was a morning Mass, too, but I don't think there were any hymns), though I'm pretty sure they started off with 40 days and 40 nights...
AIUI, and given that Lent is a time of penitence, that's the first hymn next Sunday as well. That ensures that as many people as possible suffer this immeasurably dreary hymn - it's good for their Souls, I'm told.
(The best Ash Wednesday service around here is the 1pm Eucharist at the Cathedral. No hymns, no homily - they just let the liturgy speak for itself).
1st Sunday of Lent. Temptation in the desert.
Come back to me (Hosea)
Kyrie eleison (no Gloria in Lent so we sing the Kyrie instead.)
Return to God (Haugen)
Eagles wings
You shall cross the barren desert.
I am away and have missed playing some of my hot favourites.
... Our pianist became overexcited on the last hymn, and through in all the bells and whistles. We left with smiles on our faces.
During Lent?!?!?
At St Pete's, we were rather more restrained:
Forty days and forty nights - Aus der Tiefe Father, who in Jesus found us - Quem Pastores O love, how deep, how broad, how high - Hereford Lord Jesus, think on me - Southwell* Take up thy cross, the Saviour said - Breslau
* I love that tune; David used to channel the Britten arrangement from Noye's Fludde, with lots of growling pedal noises, whenever we got it. And yes, probably even if it was Lent ...
First Sunday in Lent at Our Place, and so the following selection was intoned by a miserable company of poor, perishing, sinners:
Forty days and forty nights (Aus der Tiefe) On Jordan's bank (Winchester New) Jesu, lover of my soul (probably Aberystwyth) Father, hear the prayer we offer (probably Sussex, because RVW)
I have no doubt that the congregation at Mattins (usually just FatherInCharge and Madam Sacristan) will have used The Litany, but said, rather than sung...
Come Set Your Rule and Reign I Raise A Hallelujah in the Presence of My Enemies - this was a new one to me The Blessing which we sang to each other and it was quite moving You Are Here Moving In Our Midst (Waymaker)
Come Set Your Rule and Reign I Raise A Hallelujah in the Presence of My Enemies - this was a new one to me The Blessing which we sang to each other and it was quite moving You Are Here Moving In Our Midst (Waymaker)
O dear - I don't recognise any of them...
I did recognise this when it was sung (in Swedish) as the entrance hymn at Sankt Ansgar, Uppsala, this morning:
“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” - Lobe den Herren.
“Who put the colours in the rainbow?”
“O Love that wilt not let me go” - St Margaret.
“Shades of purple, shades of blue” - Dix.
“Great is thy faithfulness” - sung with enthusiasm, it was great!
All ye wno seek a comfort sure (St Bernard)
Lent Prose
Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (Maryton)
My spirit lombs for thee (Quam dilexta)
Christian dost thou see them (St Andrew of Crete)
Wonderful to be spared the wail of "Forty days" 😊. Offertory hymn went well to "Maryton" the requested tune and the rafters were raised in the grand finale with lots of lusty bellowing 🤣
We had:
Jesus, lover of my soul (ABERYSTWYTH)
Lord teach me all your ways
Mark how the Lamb of God, self-offering (ST CLEMENT, doubled up, as I didn't know the tune given)
Before the throne of God above
God sent his Son / Because he lives
My choosings on this occasion, as I was (mostly) leading.
"Lord, who throughout these forty days" / ST. FLAVIAN
"Kind Maker of the world O hear" / A LA VENUE DE NOËL
"'Forgive our sins as we forgive'" / DETROIT
Choral: "Create in me a clean heart O God" by Carl F. Mueller
1 Lent:
"Now let us all with one accord" / BOURBON
"Lord, who throughout these forty days" / ST. FLAVIAN
"Forty days and forty nights" / AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH
"O love how deep how broad how high" / DEUS TUORUM MILITUM
Comments
Choir has returned after the summer holidays.
Hymns
Hark the glad sound, /Crediton
The God of Abraham praise, / Leoni
Be still my soul, / Finlandia
Dear Lord and Father of mankind, / Repton
Choir
Pleasure it is, / Cecil Cope
Fairest Lord Jesus, / arr. Martin How
TBH, I reckon the last one's a bit dreary too - definitely not in my top 50!
At least you'd have had a good gulder* in "Gerontius"!
* Northern Irish expression for singing lustily and with good courage.
Take our bread
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Amazing Grace.
Our weekly newsletter contained this gem "Today is a day of prayer for the unemployed. Please pray for our bishop who today celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination."
I couldn't possible comment.
“O send your light forth and your truth” - St Matthew (I prefer "Invocation" but only two people apart from myself know it).
!Be still, for the presence of the Lord”.
“How good, Lord, to be here!” - Venice.
“Jesus on the mountain peak”- St Albinus.
“Tell out, my soul!” - Woodlands.
Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria)
Jesus shall reign (either Galilee or Truro - we know them both!)
Be still, for the presence of the Lord (words & tune by D J Evans)
The final hymn was to have been from one of the sheets* produced and kept by our Lay Reader, but, sadly, he died unexpectedly last week, so they may have fielded a substitute hymn...
RIPARIG.
(*a selection of hymns and songs from various sources, and which are not in our default hymnbook)
My Lighthouse / Rend Collective
(Children & youth left for their own groups after these first two songs)
There is a Redeemer / Melody Green
Yet not I but through Christ in me / Robinson, Thompson & Farren
At the Name of Jesus / CAMBERWELL
Christ be our Light
Christ is our Light (Highland Cathedral)
Shine Jesus Shine
...and I can't remember the 4th (which was actually the first and, I think, more traditional!)!?!
I just want to speak the name of Jesus
Here I am, humbled by your majesty
You Say (I keep hearing voices in my mind that say I'm not enough)
The Lord’s my shepherd (BROTHER JAMES’ AIR)
Christ whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
Christ is the world’s true light (DARMSTADT) - not a tune I know well nor apparently did the congregation. The organ didn’t give the clearest melodic lead, so it was rather hard work.
To God be the Glory
Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia, we'll praise the Lord (Well, that's the words we were meant to sing, as that's what's in the book, but we had a bit of a clash with those who insisted on singing off by heart what they knew... Praise ye the Lord.)
Amazing Grace
Be still for the presence of the Lord,
Shine Jesus shine
We had a jolly good sing, We only do the last one occasionally. so for those of us who've oversung it in our pasts, it's OK, and as far as the young are concerned, I don't let them sing it nearly often enough. But, I keep a document which lists every hymn we've sung in my time as organist and use it to my advantage as I could point out when faces were pulled about the last hymn that we have sung To God be the Glory nearly three times more and Be still for the presence of the Lord is on the verge of going onto my "Let's have a year or two off that one" list.
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
Before The Throne Of God Above
Hallelujah! Sing To Jesus (Hyfrydol)
We had Psalm 98 as our responsive reading and Matthew 7:1-6 for the sermon. Judge not lest you be judged. So no comments on the selection.
A glut of 'Alleluia' hymns this morning before Lent drops.
Alleluia song of sweetness (Alleluia dulce carmen)
Tis good Lord to be here (Carlisle)
Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour (St Helen)
Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
Very enthusiastic bellowing in the final hymn and some bestial howling in "Lord enthroned" as the Alleluias were sung 🤣
Hymns
Christ is our cornerstone, / Harewood
Christ upon the mountain peak, / Feniton
I want to walk as a child of the light, / Houston
God, your glory we have seen in your Son, / Dieu nous avons vu ta gloire, Jean Langlais
Choir
Every pilgrim has a mountain, / Thurlow Weed, Michael Hudson
What’s seen is seen, / Kathryn Rose, Thomas Thurman
Yes, a good selection. Our Place's FatherInCharge mentioned in his weekend email that this was the last Sunday (until Eostre, of course) for any Alleluias!
'Tis good Lord to be here (to Carlisle) is an obvious (and well-known) choice if the Gospel is the Transfiguration narrative, but for some unknown reason it doesn't appear in our default hymnbook (Mayhew's Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New ).
Well, yes - given that TGLTBH is something of a standard for Transfiguration (and is definitely in the New English Hymnal...).
An odd omission IMHO, but perhaps something to do with copyright issues?
Ash Wednesday looms beckons, and Madam Sacristan will insist on the first hymn being the dreary Forty days and forty nights, even though the account of Our Lord's fasting in the wilderness is not actually the Gospel reading for the day.
Unless They have changed things since I last went to church on Ash Wednesday...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N29ZnwU4LM
Hymns:
God is here, as we his people - Blaenwern
Longing for light, we wait in darkness - Bernadette Farrell
Christ whose glory fills the skies - Ratisbon
Christ is the world's true Light - Nun Danket
Choral bits:
O Nata lux - Tallis
Kyrie - Missa de Angelis
When to the temple Mary went - Eccard
Nunc Dimittis - Frikki Walker
Be thou my vision - Stephen Barber
What wondrous love is this - Southern Harmony Melody, arr. John Bell
O thou the central orb - Wood
It was rather fine, and the craic in the pub afterwards was excellent.
I bunked off church on Sunday.
After singing that lot (a very fine selection), I think you can be forgiven for skipping church...
Did Master Tallis ever compose anything that wasn't?
I guess some of his work isn't exactly easy to perform, mind you, and needs a Really Good Quire to do it justice...
I could go on quite a rant about church choirs that attempt stuff that is way beyond their ability and expect people to gain some spiritual benefit as they listen while GBH is committed to the music.
I also remember going to a church on Christmas Eve which always essayed special music ... with most of the choir "away".
Isn't it just? And what BF said too - I've never come across a piece by Tallis that I didn't like.
I'd love the chance to sing Spem in alium again. ❤️
The Blessed Percy Dearmer thought much the same. If you can't do a complex piece without doing it badly, do a simple piece well.
That is why I prefer to go somewhere with a competent mixed group of musicians singing stuff that is within their abilities rather than somewhere that massacres traditional material for the sake of being traditional.
From ashes to the living font (Belmont)
Psalm 51
Lent Prose
Lord teach us how to pray aright (St Hugh)
With joy and by the spirit led (St Clement)
Jerusalem the golden (Ewing)
The first was new to me and they wanted swoopy old "Belmont" but it made a reasonable start. The hymn after Communion was also new to me and from a modern source I think, both that and the first hymn had very good words. I had to check the last one but was told they always had it due (in the English Hymnal version) to the words "Exult O dust and ashes".
AIUI, and given that Lent is a time of penitence, that's the first hymn next Sunday as well. That ensures that as many people as possible suffer this immeasurably dreary hymn - it's good for their Souls, I'm told.
(The best Ash Wednesday service around here is the 1pm Eucharist at the Cathedral. No hymns, no homily - they just let the liturgy speak for itself).
Hmm. I expect you're right. At Our Place, it drags...
Our music leader thinks that slow = deep and meaningful.
I keep telling him that it just = slow.
Be Still, My Soul (Finlandia)
How Deep The Father’s Love For Us (Townend)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus (Converse)
Our pianist became overexcited on the last hymn, and through in all the bells and whistles. We left with smiles on our faces.
Come back to me (Hosea)
Kyrie eleison (no Gloria in Lent so we sing the Kyrie instead.)
Return to God (Haugen)
Eagles wings
You shall cross the barren desert.
I am away and have missed playing some of my hot favourites.
At St Pete's, we were rather more restrained:
Forty days and forty nights - Aus der Tiefe
Father, who in Jesus found us - Quem Pastores
O love, how deep, how broad, how high - Hereford
Lord Jesus, think on me - Southwell*
Take up thy cross, the Saviour said - Breslau
* I love that tune; David used to channel the Britten arrangement from Noye's Fludde, with lots of growling pedal noises, whenever we got it. And yes, probably even if it was Lent ...
Come, let us join our cheerful songs / NATIVITY
We have a gospel to proclaim / GERMANY
Tell out, my soul / WOODLANDS
Forty days and forty nights (Aus der Tiefe)
On Jordan's bank (Winchester New)
Jesu, lover of my soul (probably Aberystwyth)
Father, hear the prayer we offer (probably Sussex, because RVW)
I have no doubt that the congregation at Mattins (usually just FatherInCharge and Madam Sacristan) will have used The Litany, but said, rather than sung...
Come Set Your Rule and Reign
I Raise A Hallelujah in the Presence of My Enemies - this was a new one to me
The Blessing which we sang to each other and it was quite moving
You Are Here Moving In Our Midst (Waymaker)
O dear - I don't recognise any of them...
I did recognise this when it was sung (in Swedish) as the entrance hymn at Sankt Ansgar, Uppsala, this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YllrVSlBF04
One of the most beautiful Eucharistic hymns ever written, and especially appropriate in Lent.
“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” - Lobe den Herren.
“Who put the colours in the rainbow?”
“O Love that wilt not let me go” - St Margaret.
“Shades of purple, shades of blue” - Dix.
“Great is thy faithfulness” - sung with enthusiasm, it was great!
All ye wno seek a comfort sure (St Bernard)
Lent Prose
Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (Maryton)
My spirit lombs for thee (Quam dilexta)
Christian dost thou see them (St Andrew of Crete)
Wonderful to be spared the wail of "Forty days" 😊. Offertory hymn went well to "Maryton" the requested tune and the rafters were raised in the grand finale with lots of lusty bellowing 🤣
(All done in love, of course).
Jesus, lover of my soul (ABERYSTWYTH)
Lord teach me all your ways
Mark how the Lamb of God, self-offering (ST CLEMENT, doubled up, as I didn't know the tune given)
Before the throne of God above
God sent his Son / Because he lives
My choosings on this occasion, as I was (mostly) leading.
"Lord, who throughout these forty days" / ST. FLAVIAN
"Kind Maker of the world O hear" / A LA VENUE DE NOËL
"'Forgive our sins as we forgive'" / DETROIT
Choral: "Create in me a clean heart O God" by Carl F. Mueller
1 Lent:
"Now let us all with one accord" / BOURBON
"Lord, who throughout these forty days" / ST. FLAVIAN
"Forty days and forty nights" / AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH
"O love how deep how broad how high" / DEUS TUORUM MILITUM
Choral: "A lenten walk" arr. Hal H. Hopson