Thursday, August 9, 2007

I'S ME GOTS ZE 2008 MUSIC ISSUE

Part 1 - Numbers 301-400

I have a copy of the 2008 music issue here at my desk. Here's the first part of my review. Mileage amongst readers, supporters, opponents, and even fellow CV snarks Nick and Jason, may vary.

STUFF WE SING AT HOLY GHOST, AND WILL CONTINUE TO SING (13):
313 All People that on Earth Do Dwell / 320 O Sacrament Most Holy
322 Gift of Finest Wheat / 328 Taste and See (Moore)
338 I Am the Bread of Life (a questionable tune with one of only two John 6-based texts in this book; unfortunately both are vox Christi in persona prima)
345 Eat this Bread (the other John 6-based text)
360 Panis Angelicus (Lambillotte) (The choir also does the Franck.)
363 Shepherd of Souls / 365 Lord, Who at Thy First Eucharist
369 Sent Forth by God's Blessing / 371 Lord, You Give the Great Commission
384 Be Thou My Vision / 389 Lord of All Hopefulness

STUFF WE HAVEN'T DONE AT HOLY GHOST BUT I WOULDN'T MIND INTRODUCING IN THE FUTURE (14):
306 Let Us Go to the Altar (music isn't the greatest, but the text is kosher)
311 Gather Us Together / 316 Our Eyes Are Turned to the Lord
335 Ubi Caritas (Hurd) (one of his better works; his Missa Ubi Caritas is probably his best)
351 I Received the Living God / 352 Anima Christi (Toolan)
359 See Us, Lord, about Your Altar
362 Ave Verum (Mode VI) (The choir already does Mozart's - I wouldn't mind introducing this chant setting to the people as well, and perhaps throw Byrd's and Mawby's to the choir.)
364 Jesu, Dulcis Memoria (in Latin)
382 The Spirit Sends Us Forth (raise the key to G, however)
386 These Alone Are Enough (Schutte's setting the St. Ignatius' Suscipe - better written than fellow St. Louis Jesuit Foley's, IMO. Even better is Peloquin's Prayer of Self-Offering)
387 Christ Be Beside Me (Tune isn't all that bad.)
393 God Be in My Head (One of Grayson Warren Brown's best works I've seen.)
398 Jesus, Remember Me

STUFF I WON'T TOUCH WITH A 39-1/2 FOOT POLE (73):
301 O Love of God / 302 Gather Us In / 303 What Is this Place
304 Gather the People / 305 Our God Is Here
307 Come to the Feast (Why the sam hell do we have Spanish music in an English hymnal is totally beyond me!)
308 In this Place / 309 Now as We Gather / 310 Table of Plenty
312 Here at this Table / 314 Come, Worship the Lord / 315 Gather Your People
317 One Love Released (Kevin Keil has this nasty habit of killing a hymn tune and adding his own stuff to it. One Spirit, One Church is another classic example of this practice.)
318 Bread of Life (Farrell) / 319 Song of the Body of Christ / 321 To Be Your Bread
323 Lord, by Your Cross and Resurrection (Foley)
324 Bread, Blessed and Broken / 325 As Grains of Wheat
326 Bread of Life (Cooney) (This is the infamous You and I are the bread of life...)
327 Bread that Was Sown
329 Let Us Break Bread Together (There are Spirituals that are good - not that one.)
330 When We Eat this Bread (Joncas)
331 In the Breaking of the Bread / 332 Behold the Lamb
333 Amen, el Cuerpo de Cristo / 334 The Bread that We Share
336 The Supper of the Lord / 337 Look Beyond / 339 Come to the Lord
340 Pan de Vida (I had to play this with a cantor a few years back for a funeral. I felt I was playing a Cinco de Mayo party instead of a Requiem Mass.)
341 Taste and See (Hurd) / 342 I Am the Living Bread
343 Seed, Scattered and Sown / 344 Bread for the World
346 Unless a Grain of Wheat / 347 One in Body, Heart, and Mind
348 Lord, to Whom Shall We Go / 349 Our Blessing Cup
350 Call Us to Your Table / 352 That There May Be Bread
353 Come to Me and Drink / 354 Ang Katawan Ni Kristo (Huh???)
355 One Bread, One Cup / 356 One Bread, One Body (now with Spanish)
358 Jesus, the Bread of Life / 361 Bread of Life (Fisher)
366 Irish Blessing (Fabing) / 367 May God Bless and Keep You / 368 Benediction
370 Take Christ to the World (Remember the earlier issues when the words "dedicate our lives to him" were in all caps? Nothing like expressing stress, eh?)
372 Stand Firm / 373 Servant Song / 374 City of God
375 The Servant Song (Gillard) / 376 God Has Chosen Me / 377 Vayan al Mundo
378 Here I Am, Lord (The one people want to wheel their loved ones' coffin down the aisle to, dontcha know?)
379 Celtic Alleluia (But I wouldn't mind watching the Celtics win a few games for once.)
380 The Summons / 381 Take the Word of God with You / 383 Take My Hands
385 You Are the Healing / 388 Fill My Cup, Lord / 390 Jesus, Come to Us
391 This Alone (like One Bread, One Body, this song could serve as a better sleeping pill than Sominex.)
392 To You, O God, I Lift Up My Soul / 394 There Is a Longing / 395 In Faith, in Hope
396 Open My Eyes / 397 Lead Me, Guide Me
399 How Long, O Lord / 400 We Are the Church

#'s 401-500 will be in the next post.
Peace,
BMP

7 comments:

Lyn F. said...

Huh is right. #354 is in Tagalog: Ang Katawan Ni Kristo == The Body of Christ. Just out of curiosity: who wrote it? I would venture to guess it's either Manalo or Manibusan.

Just hope it's not from one of the Filipino Jesuits. They really tapped into the Filipino's love of the sappy and saccharine music.

Brian Michael Page said...

Hi Lyn. Your first guess, Manalo, is right.
BMP

PhiMuAlpha2681 said...

Re: Ave Verum settings. Also look up the Saint-Saens. Not sure if its on CPDL, but I have it in the the "New Oxford Easy Anthem Book" (one of my musical investments for the year...). Will be more doable than the Mawby, I would think.

~nb

Brian Michael Page said...

You're probably right, though I've only heard the Mawby (Madeleine choir in Salt Lake) and not yet seen. I may give the Saint-Saens a look-see as well.
BMP

Fr. Erik Richtsteig said...

Please rethink 303 "What is this Place"--It is heretical crap at odds with a good theology of church buildings.

Brian Michael Page said...

I double-checked it, Father, and you're right. I fixed it. I looked more at the tune in this case (I like the tune, I'll confess) than the text.

Now I have to fix the running totals on all the other posts! LOL

BMP

Mr. C said...

Brian, songs on my abridged list of the 300’s that don’t have my commentary, I’d invite yours as to exactly why you find them repugnant (I’d say a 39.5’ pole implies repugnancy.)

301 O Love of God
307 Come to the Feast/Ven al banquete
These two Hurd songs (as well as others on this first review list) thrive in an ensemble setting. They won’t thrive in a trad/organ milieu. They also have been embraced and sung with great success by our mixed Anglo/Latino parish. Their texts pass muster with the BCL criteria (on their PPT website) quite well, IMO. If the answers are simply: I just don’t do “Hurd….Joncas….Bell” just put an asterick.

312 Here at this Table – too bad for you; outstanding text, powerful setting.
315 Gather Your People
325 As Grains of Wheat
330 When We Eat this Bread (Joncas)
331 In the Breaking of the Bread
332 Behold the Lamb
333 Amen, el Cuerpo de Cristo (Very solid Eucharistic theology here. Same as Hurd’s above, only Schiavone?
336 The Supper of the Lord
340 Pan de Vida
346 Unless a Grain of Wheat
347 One in Body, Heart, and Mind
349 Our Blessing Cup
373 Servant Song
375 The Servant Song (Gillard) Wow, a two-fer! I could understand McCargill, but Gillard?
376 God Has Chosen Me
377 Vayan al Mundo
379 Celtic Alleluia (But I wouldn't mind watching the Celtics win a few games for once.) Then I guess you’re happy you got Garnett!
380 The Summons
381 Take the Word of God with You
397 Lead Me, Guide Me- This addition was long overdue. Too ethnic?