Hymns for Good Shepherd Sunday
  • liampmcdonough
    Posts: 297
    What hymns do you use for Good Shepherd Sunday?
    This one is found unattributed in Divine Worship: Daily Office. We'll sing it to ROUEN.

    1. Christ, Thou Good Shepherd!
    Head and Chief of Pastors!
    Here on Thy feast-day,
    Joyfully in chorus,
    Raise we Thy anthems,
    Therewithal we pledge Thee,
    Truer devotion.

    2. Shepherd and Bishop,
    Art Thou to Thy people
    All things to all men;
    Bearing all their sorrows;
    Charity grant us,
    As Thyself Thou givest;
    Thou our refreshment.

    3. Wherefore, Christ Jesu,
    Do Thou now assist us;
    Lead us and guard us;
    Bring us home rejoicing;
    Where we may worship
    And adore Thee ever
    With hymns eternal.
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores CHGiffen
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,889
    I love the text;

    question though: Rouen = Iste Confessor?
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,889
    1 See Israel's gentle Shepherd stand
    With all-engaging charms;
    Hark, how He calls the tender lambs,
    And folds them in His arms!

    2 "Permit them to approach," He cries,
    "Nor scorn their humble name;
    For 'twas to bless such souls as these
    The Lord of angels came."

    3 We bring them, Lord, in thankful hands,
    And yield them up to Thee;
    Joyful that we ourselves are Thine,
    Thine let our offspring be.

    Phillip Doddridge 1755
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen liampmcdonough
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,889
    A bit simplistic, but would be nice for communion:

    1 Faithful Shepherd, feed me
    in the pastures green;
    faithful Shepherd, lead me
    where thy steps are seen.

    2 Hold me fast, and guide me
    in the narrow way;
    so, with thee beside me,
    I shall never stray.

    3 Daily bring me nearer
    to the heav'nly shore;
    may my faith grow clearer,
    may I love thee more:

    4 Hallow ev'ry pleasure,
    ev'ry joy and pain;
    be thyself my treasure,
    though none else I gain.

    5 Day by day prepare me
    as thou seest best,
    then let angels bear me
    to thy promised rest.

    Thomas Benson Pollock 1868
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen liampmcdonough
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Since I've yet to meet a Gibbons' tune that I dislike, I can't help but be fond of noting this pairing of SONG 13 to a text (Loving Shepherd of Your Sheep) that is not a paraphrase of Psalm 23 nor similarly in an individual/personal expression of gratitude (there are *many* such already), but a more general prayer of praise, to a nobly simple tune.

    https://hymnary.org/page/fetch/TPH2018/799/high

    The tune in action (in Eb rather than in D above, to a different text): https://youtu.be/5i3Op7pTYlU

    And a Vaughan Williams prelude:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIffkd6n6-0
    Thanked by 2liampmcdonough ServiamScores
  • liampmcdonough
    Posts: 297
    I think there are multiple tunes out there named ISTE CONFESSOR, I assume because they were originally written for use with all the 11.11.11.5 office hymns, of which Iste Confessor from the Common of Confessors is most famous.

    Hymnary refers to two French melodies by that name, one from Angers and the other from Poitiers.

    There is of course the plainsong melody.

    The 1940 Hymnal refers to the Poitiers melody as ROUEN, and that is the melody we usually use for 11.11.11.5 hymns.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • rollingrj
    Posts: 352
    Perhaps too saccharine, but I will suggest "The King of Love My Shepherd Is". At least this adaptation of Psalm 23 is more in accord with the actual psalm itself.
    Thanked by 2irishtenor liampmcdonough
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 116
    We've done At The Lamb's High Feast (SALZBURG) in years past.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Caleferink
    Posts: 434
    All People that on Earth Do Dwell and Gift of Finest Wheat are on my lineup for this Sunday.

    Others I can think of, in no particular order (besides those already mentioned above):
    *Shepherd of Souls, Refresh and Bless
    *Shepherd of Souls, in Love, Come Feed Us
    *My Shepherd Will Supply My Need
    *The Living God My Shepherd Is
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 548
    1 Shepherd of tender [or eager] youth,
    Guiding in love and truth
    Through devious ways,
    Christ, our triumphant King,
    We come thy name to sing;
    Hither thy children bring
    Tributes of praise.

    2 Thou art our holy Lord,
    The all-subduing Word,
    Healer of strife;
    Thou didst thyself abase,
    That from sin's deep disgrace
    Thou mightest save our race,
    And give us life.

    3 Ever be near our side,
    Our Shepherd and our guide,
    Our staff and song;
    Jesus, thou Christ of God,
    By thine enduring word
    Lead us where thou hast trod,
    Make our faith strong.

    4 So now, and till we die,
    Sound we thy praises high.
    And joyful sing;
    Let all the holy throng,
    Who to thy Church belong,
    Unite and swell the song
    To Christ, our King.

    Words attr. Clement of Alexandria, tr. Henry Dexter
    Tune: YMMV; sometimes Italian Hymn/Moscow, sometimes something else.

    Also nice for 1st Communion, Confirmation, other “youth” occasions.

    https://hymnary.org/text/shepherd_of_tender_youth
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores liampmcdonough
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,889
    This isn't a shepherd hymn, but it is very much a propos for this coming Sunday (re: second reading from Revelation)

    https://hymnary.org/hymn/NEH1985/page/804
    Thanked by 1liampmcdonough
  • sdtalley3sdtalley3
    Posts: 263
    “Bone Pastor, Panis vere” etc set to T. Tallis’ If ye love me.
    Thanked by 2liampmcdonough Chrism
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep. It's in the St. Gregory Hymnal.
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 116
    The Lord's My Shepherd (BROTHER JAMES AIR) is a great one. There is a great choir arrangement by Gordon Jacobs as well.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,889
    “Bone Pastor, Panis vere” etc set to T. Tallis’ If ye love me.

    I had never heard of this before, and of course we just sang 'If Ye love Me' last week. sigh. I have half a mind to sing it again this week to this other text anyway.
    Thanked by 1sdtalley3
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    I remember being at a NO Mass mostly in English where they used the contrafactum, and I thought to myself, "Why use this, when you can use the English? Isn't that the point…?"
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    "Isn't that the point…?" - Nope, cf Mt 13:52.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    “Bone Pastor, Panis vere” etc set to T. Tallis’ If ye love me.
    This arrangement/contrafactum was done by Richard R. Terry, 1st performed on the Advent I, 1902, and published in his "Downside Motets" collection in 1905.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw sdtalley3
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    This arrangement/contrafactum was done by Richard R. Terry, 1st performed on the Advent I, 1902, and published in his "Downside Motets" collection in 1905.


    Indeed, that's my point, made another way. Terry had to make this arrangement, because he wouldn't have been able to sing a Latin motet at high Mass, but you are singing the NO Mass in English no less, where there's no longer a restriction on singing English motets (or in any other vernacular language). It's preeettty obvious to me anyway that Anglican sympathies (as well as, perhaps, German) were played to during the reform of the liturgy, not even in the conspiratorial sense: it's well-known that Paul VI and Michael Ramsey had a warm relationship, and the Anglicans paid attention to what happened liturgically in the wake of the council, for better and also for worse. For decades, the gold standard in the English-speaking world has been an overlap between something very Roman while being able to use things in English that, before the council, couldn't be sung due to being in the vernacular, never mind being prejudiced against Anglicans, and besides, this prejudice had already begun to cool well before the 1960s.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 127
    whats the story on this Song13 "O my love how comely now" ?
    or "Come kisse me with those lips of thine" ?
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    Hymnary.org -
    Orlando Gibbons (PHH 167) composed SONG 13 in soprano and bass parts. Used as a setting for a text from the Song of Songs, the tune was published in George Withers' Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1623) as hymn number 13 (hence the tune name).
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    As performed by the Deller Consort:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUFg8tel3eQ
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 127
    I just want to know why you think Vaughan Williams prelude on Song 13 is appropriate for church. It's a nice piece, a tad too sentimental perhaps(for my taste) but he wrote this piece for his lover, and the words in the piece definitely show that.
    O, my love, how comely now,
    And how beautiful art thou.
  • davido
    Posts: 942
    Lars, as pointed out in the above comments, the original text which you quote is based on the Song of Songs from the Bible, which is used in the liturgy for Marian feasts and theologically as analogous to Christ and the Church.

    Vaughan Williams also used SONG 13 as the tune for Henry Baker’s hymn, “Jesu, grant me this, I pray” in The English Hymnal.
    Thanked by 2Lars Liam
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    The text of that canticle comes from chapter 4 of the Song of Songs. The prose (but not prosaic) translation by Ronald Knox has
    How fair art thou, my true love, how fair! † Eyes soft as doves eyes; half hidden behind thy veil; hair that clusters as thick as the flocks of goats when they come home from the Galad hills; ...
    and his footnote says they might perfectly well be words addressed to a village girl by her lover.
    George Wither, on the other hand, has to defend his setting of these biblical canticles, and concludes his paragraph on this fifth extract -
    And that Jesus Christ is he, who in this song professes an entire affection, not only to the whole Mystical Body of the faithful, but even to every member of it in particular
    Thanked by 1Lars
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