I object to the question (but not the questioner!) I like lots of contemporary hymns... "Lift High the Cross", "Come, Labor On", many tunes by Hancock, Proulx, David Hurd, Haywood... I also like the modern trend of bringing back shape-note tunes into congregational consciousness. But is that what's really being asked?

I'd propose that, to avoid tarnishing the term "contemporary", we should clarify that certain tunes are in the "folk/pop" genre. I don't think this is being too prissy about wording, but a necessary distinction of genre. And even then, I'd disagree with others over what fits in that genre. I think we can all agree "On Eagle's Wings" is in there, but I wouldn't consider "I want to walk as a child of the light" to be in that category. Certainly a guilty pleasure of mine in that category is "We are Called". I NEVER use it at Mass, but I do play through it for my own amusement. I just find it fun to play, as long as no one is around.

We Walk By Faith is a very good text, but Dunlap's Creek (in Worship III) is SO much better than Haugen's music!

"We Walk by Faith" isn't _bad_, but one boggles at the second line:

"No gracious word we hear
From Him who spoke as none e'er spoke"

Dude. We have this thing called the Bible. We have readings from it _every Sunday_. Words from Him we hear aplenty. You need a second draft.

It's not even dissidence. It's overstretched poetic license. Almost every Haugen and Haugen-set text is like this. Fine, fine... AAAAARGH! ...fine again. It wouldn't be so painful if I didn't think he could write. But he can; he just doesn't go for a complete lyric that makes sense.

"Center of My Life" has this weird invitation-to-nasality about its sounds. Maybe he wrote it for English choir vowels, and it's just an American thing. But it's okay if you keep an eye on it. You have to remember to breathe, also, or you are so in trouble. But yeah, I'm okay with that.

Chant Cafe suggested tons I haven't heard. Also, "Laudate Dominum", which is fine if you don't touch the English wording and sing it in Latin.

However, if "The Servant Song" is that ghastly "Will you let me be your servant?", however, I must differ pretty strongly. That is one sappy song, and it has some extremely dubious rhymes and lines. ("speak the peace you long to hear"? Well, heck, I'll speak my piece, but nobody can speak peace -- unless this is some kind of riddle like "Speak, friend, and enter.") I can hold my nose and sing it, but it needs to be pruned. (Send us editors with good taste!) Apparently, however, the Baptists sing it to "Beach Spring", which takes away vast heaps of sappiness.

I agree that "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light" is good.

Laura Kutscher's "Mary Immaculate" is also good (as a motet for choir). But you kinda want to take the chorus with a bit more spirit and intensity than this concert video. (But Holy Angels at UD has extremely echo-y acoustics, being built of early 20th century concrete, so they had to be careful. And I think that's not really the tabernacle anymore in the old high altar behind; there's a little chapel off to the right where it is. Anyway, check out the angels painted on the wall.)

"No gracious word we hear From Him who spoke as none e'er spoke"
Dude. We have this thing called the Bible. We have readings from it _every Sunday_. Words from Him we hear aplenty. You need a second draft.

46 The ministers answered: Never did man speak like this man.
46 Responderunt ministri : Numquam sic locutus est homo, sicut hic homo.

I'm not questioning "like none e'er spoke". I'm questioning that we never hear His words.

I think Haugen (or the poem writer? Is that one not by him?) was colliding phrases again. We don't hear Jesus' actual voice, but we do hear the Voice of God in Scripture, and we do hear His very words, all the time. Of all the things of which we are deprived until His Second Coming, words are not what one should seize upon. Especially since He is the Word.

Now, I admit that you don't want to get overinvolved and write something like "nor hear your voice's timbre" or "nor hear your golden Galilean-accented Aramaic tones", or so on. But "no gracious words we hear/From Him" is not the figure of speech you want to use in a theological song, in any Gospel-believing denomination. It's like saying "No gracious words we hear/From Him, but Gospels we made up./The Gnostics were right, dear."

I know that's not what the song means to say, but that is what it says. It bugs me.

Somebody say something positive... I'm a wet blanket tonight, and I apologize.

Also, we must not forget Gorecki's "Totus Tuus"

Haugen (or the poem writer? Is that one not by him?)

Henry Alford

I'm glad for this thread, I had been looking for suggestions for a "contemporary white list" when I first began blogging, and am always on the lookout.

Go ahead, feel free to mock my love of "Now the Silence.

* Jean Langlais, Lord, Your Glory in Christ (Dieu, nous avons vu)
* Englert, O Faithful Cross
* Webbe, W. Y. Cor Jesu, Dulcis
* Vincent, Lines Written in Her Breviary
* Gouzes, Let All Who Thirst
* Hurd,D Now, Lord, You Let Your Servant Go in Peace
* Hurd,D. Christ Mighty Savior
* Alstott, There is One Lord
* Kenneth Smith/Neale, Come and Let Us Drink of That New River
* Proulx, Canticle from I Peter (By Your wounds...)
* Schalk/Vajda, Now the Silence

And I could add most of what I have been fortunate enough to hear at at the CMAA new music reading sessions.
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Well, if Langlais is in, how about "For All the Saints" (Sine Nomine)?

And I like "In Perfect Charity" also....

I agree, Glory in the Cross is very good, especially the Holy Thursday verses!

Messiaen's O Sacrum Convivium

haas's psalm 138, the fragrance of Christ.

my problem with a lot of this stuff is that theres many times a germ of a good idea or cool melody but most of these composers dont have the skill to develop it properly (let alone provide decent part writing and accompaniment.) constant re-writes are getting very old.

If you are referring only to the popular stuff, I prefer the original songs that most of these things copy. For example, I really like "Strange Way" by Firefall over "Remember your Love"...

i kind of enjoy bob hurd's 'ubi caritas' (english, spanish, latin)

http://www.chantcafe.com/2010/07/choosing-bricks-part-second.html