Hymns for the Liturgical Year
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    For those who might not be aware of this little book I wrote, a decade or so ago CanticaNOVA published a collection of my hymn texts, to be sung to well-known tunes (suggestions included).

    It's a complete cycle of hymnody, one theologically sound text each for the major seasons and for the feasts that replace a Sunday.

    For programs using worship aids, nothing could be easier to use, or more economical. For the price of a burger and a beer you have a couple of dozen nice hymns, with reprint rights. Those using propers regularly might need nothing else out of the public domain. Here's an example.

    Just fyi. Thanks and God bless.
    Thanked by 2Heath canadash
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    ...and another, for the Holy Family.

    Within the quiet of a home
    Let no one but the angels come,
    Or travelers in their distress,
    Or friends in holy righteousness.
    Let every fam’ly live in peace
    And let the grace of God increase.

    O Jesus, born on Christmas night,
    The Son of Mary, heaven's Light,
    Give us the grace we need each day
    To follow in Your Father's way:
    The heav'nly Father, quick to bless,
    Whose ev'ry act is faithfulness.

    Then Father, bless each family
    With faith and hope and charity,
    That we may find our perfect Good
    Whose bed was only hay and wood.
    Saint Joseph, help all families stay
    With Him you sheltered Christmas day.

    Copyright © 2005 CanticaNOVA Publications. Duplication restricted.
    Suggested tune: Sussex Carol, or others:
    Angel’s Song Neumark (alt) Saint Petersburg
    Melita Saint Catherine Stella
    Thanked by 2canadash glagoljica
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Ha!
    One doesn't think of 'Sussex Carol' or carol tunes in general as 'hymn tunes'.
    They seem in a class by themselves.
    But it's deliriously joyful!
    Nice indeed!
    Thanked by 2Kathy CHGiffen
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,478
    As Percy Dearmer wrote in the 1928 preface to the Oxford Book of Carols
    People crowd into our churches at Christmas, Easter, and Harvest Festivals, largely because the hymns for those occasions are full of a sound hilarity
    Thanked by 4M. Jackson Osborn Kathy Salieri CHGiffen
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    So many of our current hymns miss this aspect of delighting in the Lord.
    Thanked by 1Viola
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Some of the stuff sung nowadays is, hilariously, called music.
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn KyleM18 Salieri
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    We need more "repeating tunes" like Antioch/Jerusalem or Adeste Fideles, rather than just a steady diet of plain-tunes. (Then maybe one can teach one's congregation to sing fuguing tunes.)
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    When doing liturgical music presentations for non-musicians I always give a talk on the necessity of texts and tunes not clashing - then I make them sing Joy to the World to ST FLAVIAN and Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days to ANTIOCH. It gets the point across clearly.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Also as much as I sometimes joke around with Kathy about her other work (hymn tune propers? Pfff...) - I will say that I love her Eucharistic hymn text and will buy this collection first thing next week.
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