"Simple English" Popular Hymns
  • DowlandDowland
    Posts: 1
    Hello all,

    As I'm sure many of you have experienced, I sometimes have parishioners requesting Eagle's Wings, Here I am Lord, and other songs that are not the most appropriate for mass. While I try to conduct a high standard of liturgy, I also don't want appear as if I am completely ignoring the wishes the congregation. As much as I would love to do all Gregorian and polyphony all the time, this is not currently possible in my parish. I've found that a happy solution is to arrange the texts of these often requested songs to simple chant melodies, not unlike the Simple English Propers. These have been extremely successful in my parish, especially Eagle's Wings which is so often requested at funerals. I've attached two examples below, I would love any feedback anyone has to offer.

    Cheers!
    AmericaTheBeautiful.pdf
    13K
    CompletedEW.pdf
    19K
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Hi. Welcome to the board.

    I'm not trying to be rude... but I have to ask...

    Is this a serious post?
    Thanked by 3Richard Mix Ben Gavin
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    America has 4 syllables. At least, technically. There is always the vernacular 'Murica.

    You have written it with 4 syllables but only 3 neumes. When introducing these to our parishes, how ought this discrepancy be interpreted?

    (Tongue-in-cheek, as I'm assuming this is a farce...)
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    Interesting. This is an option that had never crossed my mind because my issue is with the text as much as it is with the style. Which leads me to ask: is your goal to introduce chant to an otherwise "chantless" congregation that has perhaps never heard it before? If so, keeping the familiar texts but setting them to chant like melodies could be a logical, temporary step. On the other hand, if your goal is to improve the liturgy, it might be more prudent to set the Propers or other sound scripture/poetry to the melodies of On Eagle's Wings, Here I Am Lord, etc.

    I assume the syllabic discrepancy is probably a typo or an oversight.

    Very interesting work. This has my mind going a bit! Thanks for posting.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Speechless...
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    This is a joke, right?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    If you want to CHANT "On Eagles Wings" (to a tune that isn't On Eagles Wings), then you might as well chant Psalm 91(90).

    As it happens, this is the text of the Introit, the Tract, and the Offertory in the Graduale Romanum (and the Communion in Roman Missal) on the First Sunday of Lent.

    The Lumen Christi Simple Gradual has very fine, simple and beautiful English settings of these texts at no. 183, 184, and 185.

    (This Psalm shows up in a few other places over the course of the year. This was just the first example I found).

    On Eagles Wings is a (compared to some other things from the time) good song because it takes a liturgical text (a Psalm) and sets it to a tune that many people have come to feel is familiar and comfortable.

    If one is going to take the tune away from the congregation, it makes no sense to me to leave the sub-par text paraphrase.
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Without having actually listened to the OP's examples, I know that the contention that anything, ANYTHING can be chanted to elicit understanding and credibility is theoretically true.
    A capella immediately demands a "re-consideration" of rendition.
    Those who argue against this reality are bound to cultural bias.That conditional rejoinder doesn't absolve the progenitor of such a renditional paradigm shift as "chanting" OEW of the responsibility to lead congregational (not to mention choral) performance with appropriate credibility. It is not something I would choose to do on any consistent basis, but it can empirically be done.
  • rogue63
    Posts: 410
    I think these examples are tres cool. They wouldn't work for nearly 99% of RC parishes, because the faithful can be aggressively conservative in choosing a particular tune-and-text pairing.

    Interesting idea; I would have set the verses of OEW differently, with more predictable motion, but this is a fine start. America is actually quite well set to the tune you've written, although I would have avoided so many torculi (torculuses?) on strong syllables ("am-ber"; "maj-es-ties", etc.). Those accented bits seem to slow down the forward motion.

    I agree with Adam's advice about the psalm paraphrase: this is an interesting academic exercise, but not really suitable for the temple. If you can't avoid these two for liturgy, and you think these will work in your parish, then go for it. The Roman church offers so many options for music, these are certainly within the bounds of acceptable and at least moderately good taste.

    Nice work!
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