Nominees for worst hymn

[Sarabande]

Yeah. Thaxted is not easy to use for anything except “I Vow to Thee, My Country” and there is one other hymn I know written to it (not a very good hymn, I think). 13.13.13.13.13.13 is NOT a common metre.

“O God Beyond All Praising”? I actually like that one too.

 

[mercygate]

Don’t worry. I’m only going to the evensong. That particular Episcopal cathedral is probably one of the most liberal in the country. There is another Episcopal parish in the Cleveland area that is thinking of leaving. It would be nice if they converted to Catholic so we could have an Anglican-Use parish. Unless that happens, the evensong is the only service I will attend in an Episcopal church.

Good thing you don’t live in Boston. Catholics who attend Mass at the Church of the Advent come away bawling because the liturgy is so GORGEOUS!

 

[Sarabande]

It is actually a translation of the Latin Gregorian chant which was written in the 9th century although the tune we use today is from the 15th century. We use it as an entrance processional with three verses and we alternate verses.

The Cathedral does this every week during Advent. I love that hymn. What I also love is the last week of Advent when everyone does all the verses a capella along with the choir for the recessional. No cantor - just congregation and choir. After the priest processes out, the choir will then process out from the back still singing the verses along with the congregation, and all the voices will slowly fade away as they leave the church because the congregation will also be singing as they leave. It’s so haunting. Literally gives me chills - in a good way - and makes me feel so eager for Christmas.

 

[baltobetsy]

“O God Beyond All Praising”? I actually like that one too.

Do you know the origin of that text? I’ve found the first verse to be a collection of praise-type language strung together mainly for the sake of the rhyme. Could no one do better than “we worship You today?”

That said, I do love the verse commonly sung as the second (Then hear, O gracious Savior…). And I’ve recently sung an arrangement of it by Richard Proulx that has a lovely second verse:

The flow’r of earthly splendor in time must surely die,
Its fragile bloom surrender to You, the Lord most high;
But hidden from all nature the eternal seed is sown
Though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown:
For Christ the Man from heaven from death has set us free,
And we through Him are given the final victory.

Betsy

 

[daeve]

I fell into that trap at the urging of a cantor who is married to our bishop’s executive assistant. She convinced us that we should sing “Angels, We Have Heard on High”, in lieu of the Gloria for midnight Mass. Because of her unique relationship to the bishop, I couldn’t say much. Oddly enough, the bishop thought it was wonderful, and this is a bishop, mind you, the same ordinary who is supposed to be chief liturgical steward of the diocese


Our previous director of liturgy (a priest with an STD in liturgy) opted to replace the penitential rite with Amazing Grace for a funeral and then he did made the same substitution during Lent using the Attende Domine. I love Attende Domine, but, we need to respect and adhere to the texts that the Church gives us. We can’t cobble up a liturgy for ourselves, like Pope Benedict notes in his books.

He also substitutes the psalm for the Mass with “Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord” By the way, he is proud to show off pictures of himself and JPII. Go figure.

We do A Christmas Gloria on Christmas Eve and Morning. It sounds a lot like Angels We Have Heard, but it’s not…the regular words to the Gloria are in between the Glo-o-o-ri-a part. Could it have been that?

I hate to appear dumb, but what’s an STD in liturgy. That sounds pretty bad to my juvenile sense of humor.

 

[mercygate]

We do A Christmas Gloria on Christmas Eve and Morning. It sounds a lot like Angels We Have Heard, but it’s not…the regular words to the Gloria are in between the Glo-o-o-ri-a part. Could it have been that?

I hate to appear dumb, but what’s an STD in liturgy. That sounds pretty bad to my juvenile sense of humor.

Doctor of Sacred Theology. Hmm. I think the confusion is ironically apt.

 

[daeve]

I’ll second “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love,” if for no other reason than my mom would sing that song when I was little and I was arguing with by brother. I can’t even describe how annoying that was.

Good ol’ Mom. That’s a hoot.

 

[benedictgal]

We do A Christmas Gloria on Christmas Eve and Morning. It sounds a lot like Angels We Have Heard, but it’s not…the regular words to the Gloria are in between the Glo-o-o-ri-a part. Could it have been that?

No. It was the actual Christmas carol. I"m afraid he’s going to pull that stunt again this year.

 

[mercygate]

No. It was the actual Christmas carol. I"m afraid he’s going to pull that stunt again this year.

Can you tactfully suggest using the aforementioned Gloria?

 

[benedictgal]

Can you tactfully suggest using the aforementioned Gloria?

I’ll try. Do you have the sheet music for it? That might help a alot.

 

[mercygate]

I’ll try. Do you have the sheet music for it? That might help a alot.

Sorry, I do not. We have sung it in our parish. You could ask music directors around your area to see if they might have it.

 

[daeve]

No. It was the actual Christmas carol. I"m afraid he’s going to pull that stunt again this year.

Maybe you could find this one…It’s called A Christmas Gloria. It starts out with Gloria to God in the Highest, does a couple lines then goes to the Glo-o-o part. There are 4 verses and we do it in 4 part harmony. There are only 6 or 7 of us at either of those Masses, and it’s one of the few things we really do well. Our “big” number is Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. Again, in 4 part harmony with the 2nd verse accapella. If we were ever in a competition, that’s what we should do. That’s probably my favorite Christmas song of all time. I could live without a lot of the old chestnuts, be we do sing them in a little “concert” before the Christmas Masses.

 

[benedictgal]

Ok, check these out:

Sosa Gloria pg 1
Sosa Gloria pg 2
Sosa Gloria pg 3
Sound clip of Sosa’s Gloria (unfortunately, in Windows Media. Let me know if you need mp3 instead)

I can also send you the keyboard arrangement for this piece, if you need it. What I have uploaded is from the guitar book.

The direct translation of the text would be:

Glory to God in the heavens
And on earth peace
to those (men) who love the Lord,
To those who love the Lord. (not exactly buonae voluntatis, I know)

For your immense glory, we praise you
We bless you, we adore you.
We glorify you, we give you thanks
Lord God, celestial (heavenly) King
God the Father, all-powerful
Lord, Only Son, Jesus Christ

Lord God, Lamb of God
Son of the Father
You who takes away the sins of the world
Have mercy on us, have mercy on us
You who takes away the sin of the world,
Hear our supplication (prayer).
You who are seated at the right (hand) of the Father
Have mercy on us, have mercy on us.

Because you alone are Holy, only you, Lord.
Only you are the Most High, Jesus Christ
With the Holy Spirit
In the Glory of God the Father
Amen, alleluia, amen
Amen, amen, alleluia amen.

Of course, there was one year that I used this for Holy Thursday, because it’s more celebratory, but I changed the “alleluia” to just straight Amen.

It’s not perfect, but it’s MUCH better, don’t you agree?

I just sent this to my pastor. Maybe, if I pray hard enough, he might even use it for the Feast of OLG. I’m also going to email the clip to my PV.

 

[Cracker_Mom]

I have a new unfavorite “hymn” : “Your Song of Love.” Just about the lamest lyrics I’ve ever heard: “Let me give you your food again.” This is referring to feeding Jesus for goodness sakes.

It cracked up my 14 yr. old son. He agreed it sounds like someone feeding their dog.

The rest of the hymn’s lyrics are for the poetically & theologically challenged, as well.
I have no desire to join the Anglicans, but we’ve got to clean up these hymn books from the '70’s & '80’s. We’ve got the orthodox Faith. The Anglicans seem to have the orthodox hymns-at least in the English language.

 

[CarrieH]

Speaking of Evensongs…

If any of you are in the Milwaukee area and would like to experience an Evensong service, Trinity Episcopal Church in Wauwatosa is doing one this Sunday (Nov. 18) at 4 p.m. trinitywauwatosa.org/. The choir will be doing the Ralph Vaughan Williams setting of the “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittus.” It’s a small choir, but fairly good from what I have been told by their director, who is a close friend of mine. There will also be a flute-and-organ recital following.

 

[stpetric]

In another forum, folks were invited to post their favorite hymns. Following the original poster’s vein, I now ask for candidates for the bottom of the barrel.

You’ve put together a pretty good/bad list, but you forgot Tom Conry’s song, “Anthem” – with the refrain:

We are called, we are chosen. We are Christ for one another
We are promised to tomorrow. While we are for Him today.
We are sign, we are wonder. We are sower, we are seed.
We are harvest, we are hungry, we are question, we are creed.<<

That one’s enough to make me swear off singing!

 

[Wolseley]

You’ve put together a pretty good/bad list, but you forgot Tom Conry’s song, “Anthem” – with the refrain:

We are called, we are chosen. We are Christ for one another
We are promised to tomorrow. While we are for Him today.
We are sign, we are wonder. We are sower, we are seed.
We are harvest, we are hungry, we are question, we are creed.<<

I was at a Mass once where that was used as the recessional hymn. This older fellow in the row ahead of me slammed the book shut, shoved it into the pew back, looked at his wife and said, "That’s not all we are. We are also leaving!" And they up and walked out.

I annoyed everybody around me because I couldn’t stop laughing.

 

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I was at Mass today and for the Communion Hymn, the organist selected a hymn about the Bread of Life, but the odd thing is the music it was set to. It was set to Dvorak’s 9th Symphony. Now, don’t get me wrong, Dvorak is my absolute favorite classical composer - but at Mass???

Oh, and this was in the WLP missalette.

 

[benedictgal]

I was at a Mass once where that was used as the recessional hymn. This older fellow in the row ahead of me slammed the book shut, shoved it into the pew back, looked at his wife and said, "That’s not all we are. We are also leaving!" And they up and walked out.

I annoyed everybody around me because I couldn’t stop laughing.

That was waaay too funny! You’re right, though. I should have included that song, along with another one that I used to like (until I read the lyrics): “I Myself and the Bread of Life.”

I myself, am the Bread of Life
You and are the Bread of Life
Taken and blest, broken and shared by all
that the world might live.

This bread is spirit,
gift of the Maker’s (which originally read Father’s) love
and we who eat it
know that we can become one
A living sign of God in us.

There’s more questionable stuff, but I can’t remember it all. Another gem that also gets my goat is “We are Many Parts”, written by Marty Haugen. Where do they get this stuff?

It may have some scriptual stuff to it, but the theology is skewed.

 

[benedictgal]

Hello,

I was at Mass today and for the Communion Hymn, the organist selected a hymn about the Bread of Life, but the odd thing is the music it was set to. It was set to Dvorak’s 9th Symphony. Now, don’t get me wrong, Dvorak is my absolute favorite classical composer - but at Mass???

Oh, and this was in the WLP missalette.

WLP is part of the OCP fine family of music, from what I understand.