Choosing Marian hymns for the Assumption (Aug 15)

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Edmundus1581

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Greetings, liturgy experts, and those who are interested! 🙂

I will be involved in choosing hymns for the Feast of The Assumption (Wed, Aug 15).

Our congregation is fairly conservative and likes good music, but struggle with anything complex (and the choir won’t be singing on Wednesday). So, “Hail Queen of Heaven” will always get a good response but something more complex might not.

For a Marian hymn I could choose “Hail Queen of Heaven” as the recessional, but is it appropriate on this feast to do more?

I have two questions:
  1. Is it liturgically desirable to have the Marian hymn in a more prominent place, such as the processional or communion, or to have more than one such hymn?
  2. Are there suggestions for other Marian hymns? Preferably ones which are familiar to a conservative congregation and/or suitable for the Assumption.
Thankyou!
 
I always liked “Gentle Woman.” It was the communion hymn at my grandma’s funeral.

As to liturgical issues with the hymn, I really can’t comment.
 
Recommended Hymns
  1. Immaculate Mary (Entrance)
  2. Salve Mater, Misericordiae (Offertory)
  3. Marian Antiphon Salve Regina (Pre Recessional)
  4. Ave Maris Stella (Communion)
 
skigirl1689 said:
I always liked “Gentle Woman.” It was the communion hymn at my grandma’s funeral.

As to liturgical issues with the hymn, I really can’t comment.
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Thankyou. I’m glad you like it. I have always liked it, and I’m old enough to have discovered it when it first came out on Reverend Carey Landrey’s LP (vinyl, that is) 🙂 I also particularly like his song “I will never forget you”*.

“Gentle Woman” always goes well in our church, and I know that everyone will join in. However, I didn’t suggest it for the Assumption as I feel that something more solemn or majestic would be better for this feast - but one also has to consider what the congregation will participate in (and they will participate in “Gentle Woman”).

ps…
  • “I will never forget you”. This was 1979, and I was going through tribulation in relationships with my work mates, and I found great consolation in listening to “I will never forget you”. Just the mention of Carey Landrey or any of his songs brings it all back to me 🙂
 
tbtcom1213 said:
Recommended Hymns
  1. Immaculate Mary (Entrance)
  2. Salve Mater, Misericordiae (Offertory)
  3. Marian Antiphon Salve Regina (Pre Recessional)
  4. Ave Maris Stella (Communion)
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Thankyou.

Do you know if it is it liturgically acceptable to have more than one in the same service?

If so, then I might try to have Immaculate Mary for the entrance (with the congregation singing) and one of the others played from CD at the right time. (I will have to use a CD as there will be no choir or organist on Wednesday).

I’ve found Ave Maris Stella here. That is so lovely! It would make a beautiful communion hymn.
 
I’m sorry that I cannot offer you any suggestions. It will be first time that I will have attended Church on the Assumption in 29 years. Last one was when I was about 12/13yrs old. I checked our Church website and it’s going to be in Latin. Oh I just so can’t wait!!!:extrahappy::choocho:
 
Does anyone know of any melodically beautiful Marian hymns. I find a lot of them to be very simple.
 
Thankyou for the suggestions. I will try to listen to all of them, and I look forward to hearing some treasures I’m not yet familiar with.
Symphorian said:
Sing we of the blessed Mother:

youtube.com/watch?v=AtnEv8F6dN4
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I listened to it. It’s beautiful.

The last verse is perfect for the Assumption.

Sing the chiefest joy of Mary, when on earth her work was done,
And the Lord of all creation brought her to his heav’nly home:
Virgin Mother, Mary blessed, raised on high and crowned with grace,
May your Son, the world’s redeemer, grant us all to see his face.

I look forward to the day when our parish has the choir sing this hymn for this feast!
 
Edmundus1581 said:
Thankyou for the suggestions. I will try to listen to all of them, and I look forward to hearing some treasures I’m not yet familiar with.

I listened to it. It’s beautiful.

The last verse is perfect for the Assumption.

Sing the chiefest joy of Mary, when on earth her work was done,
And the Lord of all creation brought her to his heav’nly home:
Virgin Mother, Mary blessed, raised on high and crowned with grace,
May your Son, the world’s redeemer, grant us all to see his face.

I look forward to the day when our parish has the choir sing this hymn for this feast!
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It’s probably my favourite Marian hymn. It doesn’t need a choir - it’s a standard congregational hymn. (At least for Anglicans:p). The tune ‘Abbot’s Leigh’ is also used for the hymns ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken’ and ‘Father, Lord of all creation’.
 
Both the Haily Holy Queen Enthroned and Sing We of the Blessed Mother are nice.

I really, really love the “Sing We of the Blessed Mother”. That’s the kind of beautiful hymn I was looking for. I’ll see if our musical director would like to sing it.

Thanks folks! 👍
 
TrueLight said:
Does anyone know of any melodically beautiful Marian hymns. I find a lot of them to be very simple.
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English or Latin?

I don’t know any in English but there are many melismatic Gregorian Marian antiphons like Salve Regina on the solemn tone (which is more properly an antiphon than a hymn).
 
OraLabora said:
English or Latin?

I don’t know any in English but there are many melismatic Gregorian Marian antiphons like Salve Regina on the solemn tone (which is more properly an antiphon than a hymn).
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English or Latin is fine but I"m looking for more hymns rather than Gregorian chant.
 
Symphorian said:
It’s probably my favourite Marian hymn. It doesn’t need a choir - it’s a standard congregational hymn. (At least for Anglicans:p). The tune ‘Abbot’s Leigh’ is also used for the hymns ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken’ and ‘Father, Lord of all creation’.
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Oh is it Anglican? I think the Director tries to stick to Catholic hymns, but we shall see.
 
acacia12 said:
I’m sorry that I cannot offer you any suggestions. It will be first time that I will have attended Church on the Assumption in 29 years. Last one was when I was about 12/13yrs old. I checked our Church website and it’s going to be in Latin. Oh I just so can’t wait!!!:extrahappy::choocho:
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I’m so happy for you - for both returning to the Holy Days, and for having a Latin Mass for this special feast! Congratulations!

I can recall the joy I felt, some 15 years ago when I became more serious about my faith and started attending the Holy Days (regularly, not occasionally) and extra Masses, saying the Rosary daily, etc…
 
Symphonian, thank you for sharing that beautiful hymn, “Sing We of the Blessed Mother.” I listened to the youtube clip and then googled it. I made myself a copy of the words so that I will have it for the future. I am sure that others will like to use it as well. It has a copyright date of 1975 from the Oxford University Press. The meter is 87 87 D, so it can be sung to other tunes besides the one in the clip, although that was lovely. It could be sung to the tunes we use for “Daily, Daily Sing to Mary,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” and many others. Since it can be sung to a tune that the people already know, it could easily be used this Wednesday. I hope that TrueLight’s music director will look at this hymn. I don’t know if it was written by an Anglican or not, but any hymn text that talks about the Assumption and the Coronation of our Blessed Mother should be Catholic enough for any of us. I have a copy of an interview with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger where he talks about a time when someone criticized him for programing “Protestant” music. He said, “Which note is Protestant?!” Considering some of the junk that has been written by Catholics, we should be grateful for the beautiful, reverent and theologically orthodox hymn texts written by non-Catholics. Each piece needs to be judged for its own value. If there is any question about the orthodoxy of the text of any particular hymn, you can consult with a good priest for his opinion and advise.
 
Marysann said:
Symphonian, thank you for sharing that beautiful hymn, “Sing We of the Blessed Mother.” I listened to the youtube clip and then googled it. I made myself a copy of the words so that I will have it for the future. I am sure that others will like to use it as well. It has a copyright date of 1975 from the Oxford University Press. The meter is 87 87 D, so it can be sung to other tunes besides the one in the clip, although that was lovely. It could be sung to the tunes we use for “Daily, Daily Sing to Mary,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” and many others. Since it can be sung to a tune that the people already know, it could easily be used this Wednesday. I hope that TrueLight’s music director will look at this hymn. I don’t know if it was written by an Anglican or not, but any hymn text that talks about the Assumption and the Coronation of our Blessed Mother should be Catholic enough for any of us. I have a copy of an interview with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger where he talks about a time when someone criticized him for programing “Protestant” music. He said, “Which note is Protestant?!” Considering some of the junk that has been written by Catholics, we should be grateful for the beautiful, reverent and theologically orthodox hymn texts written by non-Catholics. Each piece needs to be judged for its own value. If there is any question about the orthodoxy of the text of any particular hymn, you can consult with a good priest for his opinion and advise.
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Agreed! Thankyou… I had to let the comment re “Anglican” slip, as it’s Monday morning here in Australia and there is too much for me to take on before work, so I’m very very glad that someone else went to the trouble, and, btw, did a much better job than I could have.

WRT the difficulty of the hymn, I noted Syphoniums comment on it being a standard tune, but I know from experience that tunes such as these do actually cause difficulty in the congregation, especially when there’s no choir or organ. I will consider using one of the others you suggested (but, I suspect, Abbots Leigh is particularly well suited). And a quick “well done” for you musical aknowledge to match the metric with other tunes.

*He said, “Which note is Protestant?!” * 😃 (Mozart and an Emperor come to mind)

*Considering some of the junk that has been written by Catholics, * :sad_yes:, and, some of the junk new Protestant music which we happily adopt (well, here in Australia anyway)
 
TrueLight said:
English or Latin is fine but I"m looking for more hymns rather than Gregorian chant.
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Ah well, can’t help you there. I’m afraid I’m a one-trick pony when it comes to church music, and my trick is Gregorian, though I can manage some modal French plainchant.
 
Edmundus1581 said:
Agreed! Thankyou… I had to let the comment re “Anglican” slip, as it’s Monday morning here in Australia and there is too much for me to take on before work, so I’m very very glad that someone else went to the trouble, and, btw, did a much better job than I could have.
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There is nothing to take on and there is no debate here about whether one should use non-Catholic hymns or not. I’m just looking for a nice hymn and I was wondering out loud whether we would be able to use that at the mass I attend or not. I’m not even sure of the stance of the director.

If you don’t know by now, I am a Protestant convert, so obviously, I’m going to love hymns.

No offense meant at all.
 
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