Music leaders, show us your song list - NEW!!

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pianomany2k said:
Once the new missal (and hymnals, as I’ve been told) are released, I’m going to push for new hymnals. Catholic Community Hymnal doesn’t have a whole lot to choose from.
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Do you know what you’re going to push for?
 
CatholicZ09 said:
Do you know what you’re going to push for?
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After what I’ve looked at, I’m probably going to push for the new (when it comes out) Gather Third Edition.

“Problem” is (aside from money), all the hymnal holders were designed specifically designed for the current hymnal, meaning we’d have to build bigger holders.

Yes, “We Are Called” was done by Haas.

Speaking of Haas, anyone heard the song “Come and Journey With Me” ? My fiancee and I are using the accompaniment from that as the processional at our wedding. I ended up buying the music for myself to use for weddings that I play for.
 
pianomany2k said:
Speaking of Haas, anyone heard the song “Come and Journey With Me” ? My fiancee and I are using the accompaniment from that as the processional at our wedding. I ended up buying the music for myself to use for weddings that I play for.
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Recently I had two weddings to serve for, and at both the soon-to-be-married chose Haas’s “Come and Journey With Me” for their prelude’s. It’s a nice song. It’s also really nice with organ accompaniment.

To those who haven’t heard it:

youtube.com/watch?v=mro-3omlyUA
 
CatholicZ09 said:
Recently I had two weddings to serve for, and at both the soon-to-be-married chose Haas’s “Come and Journey With Me” for their prelude’s. It’s a nice song. It’s also really nice with organ accompaniment.
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I played around with it on the organ earlier today, and didn’t really like it. It would sound absolutely beautiful with someone playing the accompaniment on the piano, and someone on an organ playing cords with soft strings, and bass. In my case, I have a MIDI unit, and use the “Legato Strings” with an 8’ Viola on the Swell and 16’ Lieblichgedackt in the Pedal. Sounds beautiful when played with the piano.
 
This week:
Glory and Praise to Our God
Whatsoever You Do
Gift of Finest Wheat
O Lord I am not Worthy
They Will Know We are Christians
 
CatholicZ09 said:
I think it may be the one from David Haas?
  1. Come! Live in the light!
    Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord! We are
    called to be light for the kingdom, to
    live in the freedom of the city of God!
Refrain: We are called to act with justice, we are
called to love tenderly, we are called to
serve one another; to walk humbly with
God.
  1. Come! Open your heart!
    Show your mercy to all those in fear! We are
    called to be hope for the hopeless, so all
    hatred and blindness will be no more! (Refrain)
  2. Sing! Sing a new song!
    Sing of that great day when all will be one! God will
    reign, and we’ll walk with each other as
    sisters and brothers united in love! (Refrain)
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It’s still a bad song. It’s not something that I would sing.

This is what the girl at my dad’s parish chose:

Entrance: Gather Us In (bad song, even worse when badly sung and badly played)
Offertory: Seek Ye First
Communion: Be Not Afraid (bad, bad song, even worse when badly sung and played)
Recessional: Hail Mary, Gentle Woman :eek:

This is what my parish used:

Entrance: Glory and Praise to Our God :eek:
Offetory: Your Words are Spirit and Live (Farrel) :eek:
Communion: Here I Am (really bad song)
Recessional: We are the Light of the World:eek:

This is what I would have picked:

Entrance: Word God, To Earth Come Down
Offetory: Father, We Thank Thee Who Has Planted
Communion: Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
Recessional: Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service
 
pianomany2k said:
After what I’ve looked at, I’m probably going to push for the new (when it comes out) Gather Third Edition.

“Problem” is (aside from money), all the hymnal holders were designed specifically designed for the current hymnal, meaning we’d have to build bigger holders.

Yes, “We Are Called” was done by Haas.

Speaking of Haas, anyone heard the song “Come and Journey With Me” ? My fiancee and I are using the accompaniment from that as the processional at our wedding. I ended up buying the music for myself to use for weddings that I play for.
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I would invest in Worship III. It’s a much better hymnal and you don’t have too much of the awful OCP influence. The late Richard Proulx rewrote his settings before he died.
 
benedictgal said:
I would invest in Worship III. It’s a much better hymnal and you don’t have too much of the awful OCP influence. The late Richard Proulx rewrote his settings before he died.
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I have Worship III in my library of hymnals. If I were to use that, I’d wait for Worship IV. GIA has four hymnals that will be coming out with the revised text. But, I intend to push for Gather Third Edition.
 
benedictgal said:
It’s still a bad song. It’s not something that I would sing.

This is what the girl at my dad’s parish chose:

Entrance: Gather Us In (bad song, even worse when badly sung and badly played)
Offertory: Seek Ye First
Communion: Be Not Afraid (bad, bad song, even worse when badly sung and played)
Recessional: Hail Mary, Gentle Woman :eek:
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:eek: Never liked “Gather Us In”. I don’t see how “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman” works as a recessional. I never thought it had that kind of flow a recessional hymn should have… 🤷
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benedictgal:
This is what my parish used:

Entrance: Glory and Praise to Our God :eek:
Offetory: Your Words are Spirit and Live (Farrel) :eek:
Communion: Here I Am (really bad song)
Recessional: We are the Light of the World:eek:
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I’m glad I’m not the only one that doesn’t like Farrell’s “Your Words Are Spirit and Life”.
 
pianomany2k said:
I have Worship III in my library of hymnals. If I were to use that, I’d wait for Worship IV. GIA has four hymnals that will be coming out with the revised text. But, I intend to push for Gather Third Edition.
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Why would you push for Gather, if the Worship hymnal has a far superior collection? Gather, in my opinion, is weighed down too heavily with the OCP influence. I own all four of them: Worship II and III, Gather Comprehensive and RitualSong. Of the three, the best one is Worship II. The older langauge in Worship II is beautiful as far as the hymns are concerned and it’s in a similar style to the new translation.
 
CatholicZ09 said:
:eek: Never liked “Gather Us In”. I don’t see how “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman” works as a recessional. I never thought it had that kind of flow a recessional hymn should have… 🤷

I’m glad I’m not the only one that doesn’t like Farrell’s “Your Words Are Spirit and Life”.
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She always has a Marian song, regardless of the Sunday. If you recall, she had “Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above” as the recessional for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

A couple stopped me at the grocery store to ask me why I don’t sing anymore. I told them that I have not been asked since the girl with the guitar has returned. They, too, do not like the music. I suggested that they speak to the pastor.
 
benedictgal said:
A couple stopped me at the grocery store to ask me why I don’t sing anymore. I told them that I have not been asked since the girl with the guitar has returned. They, too, do not like the music. I suggested that they speak to the pastor.
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Sorry to hear that. I wish you were here. I would let you sing all you wanted. We have a dearth of willing musicians.
 
benedictgal said:
Why would you push for Gather, if the Worship hymnal has a far superior collection? Gather, in my opinion, is weighed down too heavily with the OCP influence. I own all four of them: Worship II and III, Gather Comprehensive and RitualSong. Of the three, the best one is Worship II. The older langauge in Worship II is beautiful as far as the hymns are concerned and it’s in a similar style to the new translation.
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I like some traditional music, but there also needs to be more “up-beat” hymns as well for variety in my opinion. I don’t see anything wrong with Worship, but it is more traditional than I like. And, I don’t care much for the older language, and neither does the majority of the congregation. I’ve experimented with a few older hymns that haven’t been sung in several years, and didn’t get much of a positive response. Even the elderly seem to prefer newer songs, which I am somewhat surprised.

That said, Gather is my choice, and I’m pushing for it unless I’m told “no” from my Pastor.
 
pianomany2k said:
I like some traditional music, but there also needs to be more “up-beat” hymns as well for variety in my opinion. I don’t see anything wrong with Worship, but it is more traditional than I like. And, I don’t care much for the older language, and neither does the majority of the congregation. I’ve experimented with a few older hymns that haven’t been sung in several years, and didn’t get much of a positive response. Even the elderly seem to prefer newer songs, which I am somewhat surprised.

That said, Gather is my choice, and I’m pushing for it unless I’m told “no” from my Pastor.
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While you may not like the older language, that is pretty much what we are getting with the new Roman Missal. The issue with language is something that we need to look at very carefully, even when it comes to music. We need to realize that during the Mass we are engaging in something that is out of the ordinary, out of our normal everyday speak. We are engaging in a truly sacred act which should have its own language. Also, some of the re-translations of the older hymns have actually taken out the original meaning and hav rendered the venerable hymns theologically suspect. One example is “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” where decendeth is replaced with decended. “Decendeth” takes in the fact that at every Mass, Jesus becomes present in the Holy Eucharist. Decended has a totally different meaning altogether. Mind you, this is not my interpretation; rather, it is a finding made by the USCCB.

Furthermore, the characterization of upbeat is somewhat troublesome. What is “upbeat” may not necessarily be appropriate for the Mass. It is also a mischaracterization of what is truly sacred. The Te Deum, Regina Caeli and Salve Regina may not necessarily be seen as upbeat, but, they are the Church’s hymns of joy. Songs like Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today and Alleluia, Sing to Jesus also convey that same message of joy, but it’s in a sacred format.
 
benedictgal said:
Furthermore, the characterization of upbeat is somewhat troublesome. What is “upbeat” may not necessarily be appropriate for the Mass. It is also a mischaracterization of what is truly sacred. The Te Deum, Regina Caeli and Salve Regina may not necessarily be seen as upbeat, but, they are the Church’s hymns of joy. Songs like Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today and Alleluia, Sing to Jesus also convey that same message of joy, but it’s in a sacred format.
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I was at a workshop back in February and this topic came up. The music director that was leading the workshop did a study on the participation in music. He said that most people participate in “upbeat” music (along with other instruments) with vigor, as opposed to some older music. Although it was stressed that other instruments such as drums and electric guitars be used SPARINGLY (if at all). All of it is of course up to pastoral discretion. And thus far, I have had no objections.
 
pianomany2k said:
I was at a workshop back in February and this topic came up. The music director that was leading the workshop did a study on the participation in music. He said that most people participate in “upbeat” music (along with other instruments) with vigor, as opposed to some older music. Although it was stressed that other instruments such as drums and electric guitars be used SPARINGLY (if at all). All of it is of course up to pastoral discretion. And thus far, I have had no objections.
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Actually, I, too, attended a diocesan workshop given by someone who works for a publishing house. I found the presenter’s content somewhat questionable because it was geared more towards promoting his publishing house rather than the authoritative documents of the Church. I challenged him on it and he tried to skirt the issue.

So as to not derail the thread, I would love to split this topic and make it a stand alone thread, if possible, because I have many observations on this issue.
 
I noticed this past weekend that the congregation kind of shuns from singing some of the songs if the organist doesn’t play that loud. For instance, we sang “In the Land there is a Hunger” this past Sunday and when he got to the verses (it was a different organist), he played really low, and everyone dropped out. I guess the majority of the congregation doesn’t like hearing themselves sing or like to be heard. When the usual organist plays, he plays with a lot of vigor which invites full congregational participation.
 
CatholicZ09 said:
I noticed this past weekend that the congregation kind of shuns from singing some of the songs if the organist doesn’t play that loud. For instance, we sang “In the Land there is a Hunger” this past Sunday and when he got to the verses (it was a different organist), he played really low, and everyone dropped out. I guess the majority of the congregation doesn’t like hearing themselves sing or like to be heard. When the usual organist plays, he plays with a lot of vigor which invites full congregational participation.
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They might not be comfortable with the melody if they can’t hear it. Now, granted, when I have sung, it has been mostly acapella and the faithful do manage to sing and sing loudly. When my parochial vicar leads the singing, he also gets the same loud response acapella. However, if the piece is complicated and unfamiliar, the faithful need some sort of guide.
 
benedictgal said:
They might not be comfortable with the melody if they can’t hear it. Now, granted, when I have sung, it has been mostly acapella and the faithful do manage to sing and sing loudly. When my parochial vicar leads the singing, he also gets the same loud response acapella. However, if the piece is complicated and unfamiliar, the faithful need some sort of guide.
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That is true. Also, I’m not sure if you’ve sung or heard the song before, but it has a different melody each verse, sort of like “Eat this Bread”. So, that can also be bad for the congregation. It could help if they verses were taken out and given for just the cantor to sing, or the organist can play louder on the verses instead of playing softly.

And, the congregation probably can sing louder with the older hymns than the newer, because they know them more. And, we haven’t sung this song in 3 years, so it’s bound to be unfamiliar the first go around.
 
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