Lent season music suggestions

  • Thread starter Thread starter VAC
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

VAC

Guest
In English please, for the music at the children’s mass with the children’s choir I lead.👍

I don’t mean Holy week (Not my responsibility) or Palm Sunday (carved in stone already:D )

What are the best Lent season songs you can think of that truly embody the spirit of the season???

Hit me with your best ideas, I’ll start planning soon.
 
VAC said:
In English please, for the music at the children’s mass with the children’s choir I lead.👍

I don’t mean Holy week (Not my responsibility) or Palm Sunday (carved in stone already:D )

What are the best Lent season songs you can think of that truly embody the spirit of the season???

Hit me with your best ideas, I’ll start planning soon.
Click to expand...
Geez, VAC, let’s enjoy Christmas for its full 20 days. But, as someone who has planned liturgies, I hear you.

Okay, this is what our children’s choir at the Cathedral used to sing:

Attende Domine (get the English translation from the Worship III hymnal - the older one, not the newer one, as it’s closer to the original)

O Sun of Justice

The Glory of these Forty Days

Our Father, We Have Wandered

Again, We Keep This Solemn Fast

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (Babiloine melody)

Tis Good Lord, to be here (2nd Sunday of Lent)

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Third and Fifth Sundays of Lent)

Your Hand, O Lord, in Days of Old (Fourth Sunday of Lent)

What Wondrous Love is This

I know that you said that Holy Week is pretty much written in stone, but, here are some suggestions that work well with kids (as we tried them with success):

All Glory, Laud and Honor
At the Name of Jesus (found in the Red Worship III hymnal)
At That First Eucharist
At the Cross, Her Station Keeping
Lift, High the Cross
Sing My Tongue, the Song of Triumph

You might also try an antiphonal entrance such as “Come, let us return to the Lord, for he is gracious and merciful.” It’s a setting from the Benedictines and the verse changes with every week of Lent. It’s long enough to cover the entrance procession to the time the celebrant gets to the chair (if he’s using incense, you can add a second verse).

I hope this helps.
 
For kids, “Lord Let Me Walk” is simple, as is “Near the Cross.” Of course, “Hosea” is a favorite of many.
 
pnewton said:
For kids, “Lord Let Me Walk” is simple, as is “Near the Cross.” Of course, “Hosea” is a favorite of many.
Click to expand...
When my PV took over as rector, one of the first songs he ditched (faster than tying it to a millstone and dropping it in the Gulf of Mexico) was Hosea. He felt that the children needed to be exposed (and taught) to the Church’s 2000+ years of Sacred Music. Hosea just didn’t cut it, nor did Lord, Let Me Walk, nor Just a Closer Walk with Thee.

The former choir director challenged me when I gave him the list of hymns. He said that chant was too hard for the kids. I had just returned from a business trip to the lower Texas Gulf Coast area and had heard the children’s choir from one of that area’s parishes. They were the same age group as our kids and they really did a splendid job with the hymns on the list I had given our choir director. Needless to say, our kids did a splendid job with the hymns that I had suggested in post #2, and, they found the plainchant rather easy to learn.
 
benedictgal said:
Needless to say, our kids did a splendid job with the hymns that I had suggested in post #2, and, they found the plainchant rather easy to learn.
Click to expand...
I understand. However, the OP to whom I addressed my post wanted suggestions. The ones I suggested are sound and beautiful. They are totally appropriate. I would also add “Were You There” I do not know what the poster is looking for, other than she wanted to stick to English.

BTW - Our music for 'Attende Domine" is “Draw Near O Lord Our God.” We sing it throughout Lent, but I always enter on Ash Wednesday with the Latin.

The only song I have every ditched was “Tree of Life.” I had a pianist that liked to do a diferent verse every week. I noticed no one really liked to sing it and I found it rather hokey.
 
pnewton said:
I understand. However, the OP to whom I addressed my post wanted suggestions. The ones I suggested are sound and beautiful. They are totally appropriate. I would also add “Were You There” I do not know what the poster is looking for, other than she wanted to stick to English.

BTW - Our music for 'Attende Domine" is “Draw Near O Lord Our God.” We sing it throughout Lent, but I always enter on Ash Wednesday with the Latin.

The only song I have every ditched was “Tree of Life.” I had a pianist that liked to do a diferent verse every week. I noticed no one really liked to sing it and I found it rather hokey.
Click to expand...
We also ditched “Were you there.” My PV said that when he was in the seminary, one of the seminarians rewrote the hymn to the point that they could no longer sing it with a straight face (it was bad, but it was funny). What we did was What Wondrous Love is This, for the veneration of the Cross.

But, you are right. The OP did ask for suggestions. There was also another one that we enjoyed, “Parce, Domine.” It, too, is easy to sing.
 
There is one thing benedictgal and I will totally agree on for a suggestion. 😉 If at all possible before you get too involved in planning for the Lenten liturgy, try to grab a copy of Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Spirit of the Litrugy.” I just finished it and I found it an excellent way to understand where we have come from and where we are. Knowing these two things can be a big help in understanding where you are going. While this is not the specific question you asked, I believe it helpful in developing prudence in decisions regarding liturgy.
 
I don’t have my hymnals in front of me at this moment, but one of my favorite hymns from my convent days is “God Is My Great Desire.” I can’t say it’s necessarily lenten, but it is an awesome reminder to focus our lives on God, which is a good idea in the season of penitence (and all other seasons).

Gertie
 
jc4love, thank you for posting that link. Those were intersting songs with powerful lyrics. I will look at them more closely in the future, as tomorrow is the first Sunday of Lent, it’s a little late to change them for this year.

Thanks to the rest of you for your suggestions.
After hours on the phone with comcast, and the help of a fellow choir musician who is majoring in computers, I have my new website up and running . All our songs for the first 3 weeks are there except for “let all mortal flesh keep silence” which I had to change because of the 'Alleluia’s in the last verse.

These are home quality recordings, We are not professionals, and our pianist is out of commission for a while.

home.comcast.net/~bjxxiii9amchoir/site/?/page/Our_Music/

if you listen to nothing else, please listen to ‘Jesus remember me’
to hear the children at the end.
 
benedictgal said:
When my PV took over as rector, one of the first songs he ditched (faster than tying it to a millstone and dropping it in the Gulf of Mexico) was Hosea. He felt that the children needed to be exposed (and taught) to the Church’s 2000+ years of Sacred Music. Hosea just didn’t cut it, nor did Lord, Let Me Walk, nor Just a Closer Walk with Thee.

The former choir director challenged me when I gave him the list of hymns. He said that chant was too hard for the kids. I had just returned from a business trip to the lower Texas Gulf Coast area and had heard the children’s choir from one of that area’s parishes. They were the same age group as our kids and they really did a splendid job with the hymns on the list I had given our choir director. Needless to say, our kids did a splendid job with the hymns that I had suggested in post #2, and, they found the plainchant rather easy to learn.
Click to expand...
 
benedictgal said:
He felt that the children needed to be exposed (and taught) to the Church’s 2000+ years of Sacred Music.
Click to expand...
Hmm, let’s see. 2000+ years goes all the way through this year, doesn’t it? You can argue particular songs, but no need to dump them just because their not “old”.
 
I realize that I’m late on this and that you have already chosen your repertoire for the Lenten season. But maybe for next year? I directed a children’s choir for two years before I got married. Here are some of the hymns we did and that I know the children sang well:
  • What Wondrous Love is This
  • Hear Us Almighty Lord (Attende Domine - We did it in English, but I did teach them the Latin chants for the mass parts which they did very well, but didn’t get a chance to teach the Attende Domine. It took me two years to get the Latin mass chants down. I would have needed a little more time to do the hymns. But once you get it into them, they don’t forget and sing it better than the adults.)
  • Forty Days and Forty Nights
  • There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
  • I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (They loved the melody of this hymn and sang it really well.)
For Easter, any of what I call the “Alleluia” hymns, they sang really well. Another one, which is a 15th c French hymn that my choristers really loved singing was “Now the Green Blade Rises”. We also had a children’s handbell choir, so sometimes, we would take one or two of the bells, use it as the “metronome” and to keep on pitch and would sing that hymn to that. It was very simple and beautiful and helped the kids learn how to keep the beat and rhythm within the beat. (The organist wasn’t too good and didn’t play solidly, so the bells were much better in keeping the beat.)
 
lyre said:
Hmm, let’s see. 2000+ years goes all the way through this year, doesn’t it? You can argue particular songs, but no need to dump them just because their not “old”.
Click to expand...
However, if you look at the hymnals out today, you will find that many of the really beautiful and ancient hymns are being pushed out. This is certainly true for OCP’s hymnals. They are so busy trying to push their stuff on people that the beautiful hymns that date back to the 6th century are often dropped. O Sun of Justice is one such example. This hymn, which dates back to the 10th century, is no where to be found in the OCP hymnals. However, you can find it in the Worship III hymnal from GIA.

Some of the newer hymns are problematic because there is no real sorrow expressed for sin. Unlike the original English translation of the Attende Domine, these songs impart more of a feel-good sense to Lent, rather than stressing the need for conversion and repentance for sins.

I would also caution against some of the songs that come out in Spirit and Song, as well as those that are out on the internet. The ones out on the internet may not necessarily be approved for Church use and may wind up not being in agreement with Church doctrine and liturgical theology.

Unfortunately, children’s liturigcal music (and the stuff used for youth Masses) has become a petri dish of experimentation that does not always yield good results.
 
God love you, Vanessa! My Meg LOVES choir at our parish, and it does so much for her self-esteem.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top