There is a City far away (17th June 2016)

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There is a City far away (17th June 2016)

As I feel Your Presence - A Hymn (16th JUNE 2016)

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As I feel Your Presence - A Hymn (16th JUNE 2016)

Here In This Place, Gathered Together

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Here In This Place, Gathered Together: A Hymn

Quotiescumque (When we eat This Bread)

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  • Length: 0:38 minutes (884.12 KB)
  • Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 192Kbps (VBR)

Psalm 63: I Long for You (Balhoff, Daigle, Ducote)

"I Long for You / As Morning Breaks" composed by Balhoff, Daigle and Ducote. © 1981 Damean Music. 

Let me tell you about my experience this week with the above song (first published in 1981). 

I lead singing (often with both voice and nylon guitar) at one and sometimes two churches on weekends. We chose this setting by Balhoff, Daigle and Ducote for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Note that the original was written in 4/4 time. Well, my keyboard player at St. Mary's, Larry, had done an adaptation in 3/4 (waltz) time several years ago for a Polka Mass. He sent me his Sibelius score and a practice MP3 he had made "for accordion and piano." I did not like the feel of it. I did a practice recording in my basement studio in order to convince myself that it could be smoothed out with less oom-pa-pa. Here it is. I sang all the parts in this basement studio recording, including soprano Hildegard.

Shortly after I did the recording, I discovered the original 4/4 arrangement online and figured we better do it the way it was intended by the original authors. 

The 4/4 version (true to the original published version), was captured live with my good old Zoom H2 recorder today, 6/18/2016, at St. Mary's Church in St. Paul, MN. Here it is. I play guitar and lead with voice. Larry plays piano.

Which meter do you like better for this psalm – 3/4 or 4/4?

One final note: Larry's 3/4 Polka arrangement was written in F, a full step lower than the original key of G.

Songs about fatherhood: Vandross to Wonder

From Fabrizio Ferrari at Sheet Music Direct:

With Father's Day just around the corner, we have hand-selected 20 of the very best songs about fatherhood, from Luther Vandross' beautiful tribute to his Dad Dance With My Father, to Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely - celebrating the birth of his first daughter, Aisha.

Give your Dad the gift of music this Father's Day!

Go to www.sheetmusicdirect.com/go/fathers-day-sheet-music

To Jesus, Thru Mary - St. Joseph Youth Choir

Edgar Villavert Combong sent a message to me about his song. I like it. The song does need better mastering to bring out the voices more. - Richard Schletty

"Please check my You Tube submission entitled, "TO JESUS, THRU MARY", and see if you like it.  This song was used for the Women's Cursillo theme song and has been used in some catholic churches in the San Francisco/Bay Area. The song was recorded by the St. Joseph (Church) Youth Choir, Pinole, California. Thank you."

YouTube description: A special song dedicated to our beloved and blessed Mother Mary. Performed by The St. Joseph Youth Choir, Pinole, California, USA. (2009) Soloists: Kimberly Gayo & Alice Chesire.

TO JESUS, THRU MARY

Words & Music by Edgar Villavert Combong. Copyright 2009

As I journey through life
Climbing its mountains and hills
Or, sail the seas, touch the skies
Living life for a while
Like an eagle I will fly
God’s grace will raise me high

Chorus:
To Jesus, thru Mary
God grants His grace thru... 

Fifty Tips For Training Amateur Choirs

The article below is from Jeff Ostrowski at Corpus Christi Watershed. 

Fifty Tips For Training Amateur Choirs

http://www.ccwatershed.org/talk/released/

EARLIER THIS WEEK, I promised to release my 98-minute speech online if we could garner enough pledges to donate $30 to Corpus Christi Watershed. I’m so grateful to everyone who made a pledge, and we met our goal. This talk was delivered live at the 2016 Sacred Music Symposium, and here’s the recording:

98-Minute Mp3 • “FIFTY TIPS FOR TRAINING AMATEUR CHOIRS

These solutions may not work for everyone; I can only share what I have done. You can use my suggestions or discard them.

My speech is 96 minutes long, and explains the following:

PDF Download • 50 Bullet Points From This Speech

More downloadable goodies (including Cliff Notes for the symposium) at http://www.ccwatershed.org/talk/released/

Chant style: Where Charity and Love Prevail (Westendorf, Benoit)

This is a traditional Ambrosian chant style version, as written by Benoit. See my uptempo, guitar-driven version in 6/8 meter which I posted at this site.

Where Charity and Love Prevail

Text: Ubi Caritas, translated by Omer Westendorf (1961)
Tune: CHRISTIAN LOVE, CM, by Paul Benoit (1961)
© 1961, 1962, World Library Publications, Inc.

Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
God’s charity we learn;
Let us with heart and... 

6/8 style: Where Charity and Love Prevail (Westendorf, Benoit)

This is a 6/8 meter version of a song that is usually sung in a more fluid chant style. See the traditional Ambrosian chant version which I posted at this site.

Where Charity and Love Prevail

Text: Ubi Caritas, translated by Omer Westendorf (1961)
Tune: CHRISTIAN LOVE, CM, by Paul Benoit (1961)
© 1961, 1962, World Library Publications, Inc.

Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
God’s charity we learn;
Let us with heart and... 

Wondrous Clay by Richard Schletty, Andre van Haren, Paul F. Page

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Wondrous Clay

Lord of life, you love all souls.
By your touch we are made whole.
Sculptor of all time and space,
hold us in your warm embrace.

[refrain]
God, you watch creation toil.
God, you seed and water soil.
Guide us through another day.
Shape our lives in wondrous clay.

Often blind and so afraid.
Then your Word makes worries fade.
Healing Spirit, bring new light.
Illuminate our darkest night.

[refrain]

We journey with your risen Son
from mother's womb to valleys beyond.
Lead us to a vision so true,
through living waters that renew.

[refrain]

Richard Schletty ©2011

Artist: Richard Schletty, Andre van Haren, Paul F. Page
Title: Wondrous Clay
Album: Wonderful Love
Genre: Gospel & Religious
Year: 2011
Composer: Richard Schletty, Paul F. Page
Copyright Info: © 2011 Richard Schletty

Can't Let Go album by Schletty, Steiner and Anselm

This artful and articulate album was created via an Internet collaboration. Hendrik Steiner and Karl Anselm (both from Germany) recorded each music soundtrack without any preconceived notion of theme or storyline. Richard Schletty (Minnesota, USA) wrote and sang lyrics for each soundtrack. The album was mastered by Richard Schletty using Apple Logic Pro.

Music styling ranges from classical to folk-rock to progressive rock. It’s nourishment for the mind and soul. These twelve tracks will not disappoint you. All lyrics are below.

Free download of album here: https://www.schlettysound.com/cant-let-go/



Can’t Let Go

We found each other in the morning haze
That first year brought to us such joy
With common friends we whiled away the days
It seemed like nothing could annoy

Well, I can’t let go of that old feeling
when our hearts pushed through the ceiling
and soared on high with doves where the shore
met the blue sky of forevermore

We vowed one day to lift each other higher
no matter what each moment weighed
But then doubt’s shadow made us sink into the mire
Harmonic waves began to fade

Now I dream upon my love
Where is she tonight?
Now I drift upon the sea
Is her vessel in sight?

They say that time anneals the fragile soul
That whispered prayers will soon erase
But I am heedless to the final toll
I summon forth your precious face

Feel

Did you think I’d never say?
Etch the words in more than sand?
Now the time is come today.
Feel my heart upon your hand.
Did you think I’d never fall?
Take a chance and start the fire?
Nothing great or nothing small:
All I want to touch is your desire!

Feel a new sensation when in combination
with your wildest dreams and your lovin’ schemes.
Feel blood’s effusion, could it be delusion?
Feel it coursing strong like a heartfelt song.

Did you think I’d never feel?
Fix our lonesome lives apart?
Time for us to make a seal.
Take my hand upon your heart.
Did you think we’d never touch?
Lacking means that could inspire?
Now I know you don’t want much.
All you need to touch is my desire!

Only Everything

You ask what I want
I’ll tell you this
Touch from your lips
Piece of your heart
My turn for the dance
A romance
That will last from now
Until the end of time

Only everything!
That’s what I want!
Only everything!
That’s what I need!

I’ll open up doors
I’ll do the chores
I’ll walk the mile
I’ll make you smile
Do the heavy lifting
Stop all my drifting
All I ask in return is this

Touch from your lips
Piece of your heart
My turn to dance
A romance

No way to turn back the tide of love
I feel rushing in upon us now

In the shadow of the night
In the right bright morn
I want your every kiss
Your longing gaze
Tell me that there’ll
Be no disagreeing
When I start to wrap myself
around your being

Only everything!
That’s what I want!
That’s what I need!
Only everything!
That’s what I want!
That’s what I need!

She Is Love

She is love, she is kindness
She is peace in the night
Bring it on, bring it on
Can’t wait too long

She has taken all my worries
and sent them far from my sight
Bring it on, bring it on
A feeling strong

[chorus] Surrounded by the warmth of her arms
Healed by her mystical charms
She takes the hurt out of being on fire
She is Love

She is hope, she is joy
She is a river of dreams
She is purpose, she is promise
she tempers all my extremes

I was lost in the dark
a vessel searching for light
Her glowing smile is my new ark
A new horizon in sight

[chorus]

I will rise up to her like a dove
sent skyward into pure space
I see all beauty, all harmony
enfolded in her embrace

Those near death she’ll vitalize
Her being none can eclipse
Her every breath I memorize
Promise of life from her lips

[chorus]

Never Again

Forged in a fire of emotion,
the bond seemed all so true.
Hearts aglow with devotion,
now the waves come crashing through.
It’s over, then.
Never again.

Gutted by a storm expanding
flushing down all we had built.
Mud slide of misunderstanding
with no one admitting guilt.
It’s over, then.
Never again.

Never again the floating over you.
Never again a feeling that’s right.
Never again your stardust eyes.
Never again contentment through the night.

Forget about reconstruction.
Look at me with my newfound freedom.
No thoughts of reconciliation
for this heart is now closed.
It’s over, then.
Never again.

Box of containment,
tower prone to crashing,
poorly mixed cement.
Who needs the thrashing?
It’s over, then.
Never again.

Never again the floating over you.
Never again a feeling that’s right.
Never again your stardust eyes.
Never again contentment through the night.

Leaving Flesh

Leaving flesh ungates the soul,
like a bird that soars with grace,
like a worm that leaves the hole,
taken to an extraordinary place.

Give your all until the dawn.
Take what little stuff you need.
Smile until the shades are drawn,
knowing well that you’ve planted the seed.

Gift of knowing, gift of feeling.
Golden orb, precious sight.
Life’s abrasions the sun is healing
for those who simply step out into the light.

What is money? What is power?
Lust and vengeance, blood and bile?
Selfless motives don’t devour.
Look for treasure in a neighbor’s smile.

Saving Great Turtle

Rest, little child, as yet undefiled.
I’ll sing you a story, an old allegory.
This big world so fertile rests on a fat turtle.
It suffers the weight of greed, lust and hate.

The sky has a black eye from smokestacks and wheels.
Hear the cry of the loons and the barking of seals.
When the forests are felled, the oceans will eat the hills.

Wake, all you reapers, you takers and keepers.
Let us be one with the ones who have none.
A new generation must fix degradation.
All treasures to share with nurturing care.

Who will awaken? Who is not shaken
by caps that are shrinking, by heads that aren’t thinking?
When substance is lost, we all will pay the cost.

In the Sky above the Water there lived the Ancient One and his people. A Great Tree bearing flowers and fruits nourished them. One night, the wife of the Ancient One dreamed that the Great Tree was uprooted. To fulfill such a powerful prophecy, the Great One and his warriors pulled with all their might and lifted up the Great Tree, leaving a big black hole. Many creatures tried and failed to reach down and pull up Earth from the bottom of the hole. Finally, muskrat succeeded, clutching Earth in her right paw. Great Turtle said, “Put Earth on my back.” The tiny bit of Earth grew on Great Turtle’s back until it became the whole wide World.*

Now into the black night the tortoise might drop.
Will you help the Great Turtle keep our garden on top?
Will you see wisdom etched on the back of his shell?
Oh, Little One, will you help?

* Spoken narrative adapted from creation story of the Onandaga Indians of the northeastern woodlands of North America. 

You Are

See the light that shines in the darkness,
Hear the silent lips, the shuffle of tired feet.
Bring your gifts to the doorstep of a heart in a sling.
Bring your juice pressed from fruit both sour and sweet.

You are the poet, you are the clown, you are the artist able to fashion
a new smile on someone draggled by despair.
Take the lead, plant the seed of hope with compassion.
Help a shattered spirit find repair.

Rain, tears and fears, the falling and the rising:
necessary grayness for the whetting of new growth.
Life and death in circles ever flowing.
Inspiration, expiration — not one but both.

Against Your Will (The Trail of Tears Story)

This is the broadcast version. There is also a longer version with additional verses.

In 18-3-0 “Sharp Knife” Jackson carved out
For tribes in the southeast a land exchange route
A Removal Act that Emerson and Crockett decried
Surely natives and squatters can live side by side

Soldiers guarded forts and a river of clay
from Lake of the Woods to Galveston Bay
The lands kept on shifting, the lines all were gray
Where there’s greed there’s death in the old USA

[chorus]
In the camps where you died
In the land of the free
On the trails where you cried
Digetsi ilvse’i
You were driven like cattle against your will

1n 1835 the Treaty of New Echota
offered millions in cash and land in Oklahoma.
Chief John Ross from Georgia handed on a petition.
That you marked as a sign of rejection

Chief Ross cut a deal for self-preservation
Cross the wide Mississippi without reservation
Heed the acts and the treaties and the guns in your backs
Join your brothers on the Plains, time to take up your packs

[bridge]
We sent armies of thousands to shepherd you west
Made you homeless in your homeland with rifles and fists

[chorus]
In the camps where you died
In the land of the free
On the trails where you cried
Digetsi ilvse’i
You were driven like cattle against your will

Note: “digetsi ilvse’i” means “driven like cattle against their will” (third-person reportive tense in the Cherokee language. Source: Ryan Mackey, www.cherokee.org)

In Your Dreams

Blind man says you’ll see the light.
Deaf girl sings you’ll hear the harmony.
In your dreams.

Dead man cries fight fire with water.
Virgin smiles life for death to self.
In your dreams.

In your half-waking state,
you will come to know your fate.
In your dreams.
In your wildest dreams.

There is no need to fear it,
this alchemy of spirit.
In the matrix of your being
is the portal to all healing.

Mute boy signs your tongue will dance.
Beggar man shouts riches way beyond belief!
In your dreams.

Bending human nature, superhuman sight.
Tenderly embracing her impossible charms.
In your dreams.

In your half-waking state,
you will come to know your fate.
In your dreams.
In your wildest dreams.

There is no need to fear it,
this alchemy of spirit.
In the matrix of your being
is the portal to all healing.

The Everlasting

God is shrouded in history, in mystery.
Prior knowledge infuses me, confuses me.

The Everlasting ever casting
mystic shapes on humanscapes.
Love poured down on every frown.
Take me to a place of wonder,
free of all disgrace and blunder,
where the truth is in the here and now.

Sundogs dancing, blinding youth, refracting truth.
Search for pathways to heaven’s door, to evermore.

You cannot believe how deep I’ve dug,
how high I’ve climbed to catch the waves
of timeless droning,
present, past and future owning.

All of our senses, hard tempest rain,
deep needle pain. When will it end?
All our senses!

Witness freedom.
A Spirit grows. A Mother knows.
God holds you so tenderly, eternally.

Breath That Heals

In the crush of oppression
When emotions sway and the truth is gray
In a crazy obsession
When the senses war and the will is torn

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Quench the flaming darts
That pierce unguarded hearts
Have authority over anger, fear and lust
Bring light, bring hope, bring trust

In the clutch of possession
When voices scream and visions are seen
In the cold disconnection
From everlasting Love, from your God above

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Quench the flaming darts
That pierce unguarded hearts
Have authority over anger, fear and lust
Bring light, bring hope, bring trust

In each inspiration
When new seeds are grown and the Word is known
In times of communion
When faith and hope unite to fight the dark of night

That’s when you shout, for nothing can conceal
The joy when you receive the Breath that heals

Lyrics for “Breath That Heals” inspired by cramer-institute.com/weapons-for-warfare/

Ite Missa Est Alleluia Alleluia

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Ite Missa Est Alleluia Alleluia

  • Artist: Edewede Oriwoh
  • Title: Ite, Missa Est, Alleluia, Alleluia
  • Genre: Christian
  • Year: 2016
  • Composer: Edewede Oriwoh
  • Copyright Info: © 2016 Edewede Oriwoh

A Free Gift from St. James Music Press

May 10, 2016 - A FREE GIFT from St. James Music Press 

Greetings!

It's almost Pentecost! The church year is just flying by, and we're thinking that we might tempt you with something sweet. Hmmm, tempting, you say?
  
For two-part mixed choir - men and women [trebles] with organ. An idyllic, sumptuous setting of a text by Christina Rossetti. The two parts start in unison, then enter in canon, then move into gentle harmony. Nothing difficult about this one - just exquisite writing. You will love it! The text is general enough to sing anytime, based on Matthew 6:26-28. A perfect summer anthem: flowers, birds, God's grace ... what more could you ask for?

Of course, our cunning plan in offering you this free anthem is to get you to realize that a yearly subscription to SJMP (only $139) will allow you to download anything and everything on this site - well worth the price  - just calculate the cost of three or four new anthems for your choir.

We put 125 new works on the website last year - anthems, cantatas, organ pieces, hand bell music, hymn harmonizations ... these added to the already 1650 works already there - a HUGE catalog, and something for everyone.
 
So, if you're not yet a member of SJMP, we're happy to... 

Looking for words and name of a May Procession hymn

A recent new user, Regina99, wrote:

"Looking for words and name of a May Procession hymn used each year in my elementary school years during this Mother's Day Procession to Our Lady. Here are some of the words: Roses we bring to thee, Queen of the Rosary....Red blooms with pain untold, blend with royal robes of gold....

Found this site accidentally while looking for the above hymn. I did not know it existed."

Can you help Regina find the hymn?

I found it!

"Queen of the Rosary" is hymn number 82 in Mount Mary Hymnal (published 1937). Words by Sister Chrysostom, SSND, and music by M. Haller. The entire hymnal is available as a PDF file via download from Corpus Christi Watershed (courtesy of Jeff Ostrowski). See the TCS article link below. It will lead you to the PDF file which is quite large – 82 MB:

https://topcatholicsongs.com/mount-mary-hymnal-1937

For your convenience, Regina, I have taken a screen shot of "Queen of the Rosary" for you to download. See link below.

I am curious if there is a typo in the last line of verse 1 in the hymnal. Regina's version sounds more correct: "Red blooms for pain untold blend with royal robes of gold."

Queen of the Rosary

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