There is a popular song for Our Lady in Brazil that has more or less these words (in Portuguese, obviously):
My Queen and my Mother, I give myself entirely to you; and to show my devotion to you, I consecrate to you this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being without reserve. Wherefore, good Mother, as I am your own, keep me, guard me, as your property and possession. Amen.
Everyone here knows it and loves to sing it. It isn't a work of art, and to be honest I've only heard it belted out by the ladies in the congregation, unaccompanied. It's easy to sing and moves right along with enthusiasm.
Just now, I tried to find a recording on Youtube (either in English or Portuguese) and every one of them is a sappy, gloopy, SLOOOOOOW, meander, full of synthesizers, violins, romantic-sounding guitars, and long introductions. So neither similar to the parish version nor very pleasing to my ears.
So my question is: does this song have an old version? a better version? a newer version? a singable half-decent sort of version? It can be a school-kids or campfire type song. But not sappy! Our Lady is not sappy!!!
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.