Adam Wood posted this in 2011

Introit for the first Sunday in advent


Adam Wrote:

Hey! Advent is right around the corner!!

Related to this thread.

I like the idea of Tietze Introit hymns a lot, but I don't care for the specifics of the execution.

What I like about the idea is:
-It's the Proper text. Hoo-rah!
-While the Offertory and Communion song/hymns can easily (well...) be replaced with Chants or other choral works, the *Processional Hymn* seems like a hard nut to crack.
-Having a Proper text set to a congregational hymn in the Protesant style seems like a very worthwhile thing in the world which deliberately and traditionally lives on the border between Catholicism and Protestantism (Anglo-Catholics; Anglican Use Catholics; High Church varietals of Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and others; etc...)

What I don't like so much:
-I can't say I particularly care for the way the texts are set poetically.
-Lots of hymn tunes I don't know. Which almost certainly means lots of hymn tunes most congregations don't know.
-Lots of uncommon meters, making it difficult to correct the above point through re-setting to another tune.
-Under copyright. So even if I had a tune I could set some particular text to, I'm not sure I'd be allowed to. Plus, can I put them in my programs? I don't know.

******SO, THEREFORE...******

In a fit of Ritalin-induced creativity (and thanks be to God for my new doctor, and his Rx pad), and inspired by Kathy's compliment, I wrote some hymn adaptations of the Advent Introits.

Things to note:
1.I set the antiphon in one stanza, and compressed the ideas of the Psalm verses into two stanzas. If you repeat the Antiphon after the two other stanzas, and then sing a metrical doxology, you've got a five-stanza hymn, which I think is just about right for a good processional.
2.These are VERY OBVIOUSLY PARAPHRASES. Sometimes I'm able to hew very closely. Sometimes I had to take liberties, which (of course) requires some interpretation of the underlying meaning. For that reason, I don't think that these satisfy "Option 1." I think of them as above-average Option 4.
3.I put all of them in LM (88 88). This is because:
•It's my favorite meter.
•It gives potential users a pretty wide variety of options, and could even allow someone to re-use the same melody and doxology throughout the season.
•I was thinking of Conditor Alme Siderum

4.This is a first draft. As always, suggestions and critiques are helpful.
5.I will likely release these under a Creative Commons license, but notice that I have not yet.
6.Given the speed of their production, I cannot vouch for the quality.


************************************

Advent 1 - Introit

My soul is raised, in Faith, O God,
Let not my trust be put to shame.
Let not the evil ones be pleased;
Save those who wait upon your Name.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
Guide me along your pathways true.
You are the God who saves my soul,
All through the day I hoped in you.

Your love, and your compassion, God,
Are from of old, have always been.
Remember, in your goodness, Lord-
remember me, forget my sin.

---
Advent 2 - Introit

O Zion, and your people, hear
The majesty of God's own voice.
All nations shall be saved by him
Who stirs your spirit to rejoice.

O shepherd, hear your people cry,
Shine forth and lead us by your grace.
Rise up in might to save your own,
Bring us to you, show us your face.

How long, O God of Hosts, how long?
How long shall tears be daily bread?
How long shall weeping fill our days?
How long, O Lord, this night of dread?

--
Advent 3 - Introit

Rejoice, all people, in the Lord!
Rejoice, I say again, Rejoice!
Be never anxious for this world.
In prayer to God, raise up your voice.

The captive children of our race,
You set them free from sin's strong hand.
You turned your wrath away, O God.
And led them to your promised land.

Bring us into that land, O God.
Let not our sin call forth your rage.
Show us your mercy, set us free.
Let mercy be from age to age.

--
Advent 4 - Introit

Like morning dew, the Just One comes.
From heaven He, like rain, descends.
And from the Earth, which bears him forth,
the Saviour of our race ascends.

The skies proclaim the pow'r of God,
The star shine forth the message clear.
Day unto day the sound goes forth,
Night unto night, til all shall hear.

Across the sky, the Sun shall race,
Rejoicing as it brings the day.
The morning of our joy has come,
the light of love will show the way.

---

Possible Doxology:

To God the Father, God the Son,
And to the Spirit, Glory be.
All praises to the Three in One,
All glory to the One in Three.

Here is another project of this sort, Adam woods 'Flexible English propers, with Noel and Kathy also

flexible English propers

Some more here:
http://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/11229/seasonal-metrical-hymn-propers#Item_1

This thread is entitled "...common meter hymn tunes..." . If you're looking to expand this project out, personally, I do not recommend sticking only to CM. Although CM has its advantages (e.g. opens up a whole load of plainchant hymn tunes), and I have read the rationale given above, I would suggest that being a bit more flexible about the metre: (i) allows a bit more variety, and (ii) makes it slightly easier to get a reasonably poetic + accurate translation - sometimes forcing a translation into CM doesn't always do it justice.

I also did a set of these, way back-when. I used them in my Cincinnati parish, and the pastor like them. Moved to Houston, and the pastor was upset that I wasn’t doing “O Come, O Come” on Advent 1. (Truth …) Then I went to an Anglican Use parish where they did hymn + a simple proper. Now I’m at a parish that sings actual Gregorian propers.

I used to like the hymn-propers idea. Nowadays I tend to think that this idea looks better on paper than it actually is in the minds and mouths of congregants, many of whom (I think) feel funny putting new words to a familiar melody and so many just stop singing—regardless of the innate quality of the text that they’re actually being given to sing.

Adam / Felipe - interesting. I can see why you reached the conclusions that you did. When I was experimenting with the little project I linked above I came to the view that something along these lines could perhaps be of some use in the parish, but:
(i) rather than take the GR propers, go for setting the GS propers, so that each hymn could be re-used within a season (no-one is going to take to a hymn that they sing only once a year!);
(ii) make the project have more of an emphasis on producing metrical psalms that fit the GS propers for that Season, rather than "hymnising the antiphon", if that makes any sense.

My thinking was that this way the project would be much smaller in scope (easier to do), and also have dual use as a source of metrical settings of the psalms / fragments of the psalms (plus also the project could make use of pre-existing metrical psalms such as from the Scottish Psalter). I'm a fan of hymns like "The Lord's my shepherd" and "All people that on earth do dwell" so my thought was that we could probably benefit from even a handful more hymns like that - a couple for each season.

I originally thought that perhaps we could just make better use of existing metrical psalmody (e.g. Scottish Psalter) but when I looked at Advent and Christmas, I wasn't entirely sure about some of the existing settings I saw (hence I had a little go at a few ones myself).

... but perhaps even this iteration is just another thing that sounds good on paper but, as Felipe says, won't be of much use in practice? (I abandoned this project too...!)

Sorry, bit of a ramble, but those were my thoughts on this when I looked at it a few years ago.

Perhaps a good (Catholic) Metrical Psalter might be worth developing.

I agree, though one wonders what would cause it to be explicitly Catholic, other than perhaps the identity of its creator.

I have mentioned in the past that I would like to see a good metrical psalter just for use as hymnody, and I seem to recall Fr. K mentioning that GIA had recently published something like that.

I have thought about starting a collaborative effort on GitHub to create an Open Source Metrical Psalter. If anyone has a lot of interest in that sort of thing, let me know.

If the good Father would post something about that collection I'd appreciate it, as I think would many.

About your GitHub idea, I think it's a good one, and one that I wish I'd could contribute to, I'm afraid I'm not a poet of any qualitie - I just, oddly enough, finished a metricization of Psalm I the other day (CM), but I'm sure it's just as much doggerel as Archbishop Parker's Psalter - especially since for some reason I couldn't find my RSV and I was basing it off of Douai.

This is something that I'd very much be interested in, especially in my current position: If I can't sing the Introit from SEP, Willan or whatever, and have to do a 'hymn' that the people can sing, it'd be just as well to sing a Metrical psalm (or verse thereof) matching the Introit to a well-known tune. BTW, I experimented with Kathy and Chuck's Introit Hymns last Advent and Lent at the 4:00 Saturday 'Low Mass' (Sunday the 'High Mass'), and they seemed to go over well.

This is something that I put together for this Sunday for my parish. A little late for this year, but use if you want.