Children's anthem for All Saints?
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    Any suggestions for a good piece for a starting children's choir to sing on All Saints' Day? (I had my first practice with my new choir grades 2 thru 5 on Thursday -- 17 kids!) I was thinking of Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, but now am wondering if it is too closely connected to weddings?
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring seems to scream "wedding" to me.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    The hymn "Who Are These Like Stars Appearing" to the tune "All Saints Old" (aka "Zeuch mich, zeuch mich") would make an effective anthem if the organist could improvise some interludes. It's a beautiful text:

    1 Who are these like stars appearing,
    These before God's throne who stand?
    Each a golden crown is wearing;
    Who are all this glorious band?
    Alleluia! hark, they sing,
    Praising loud their heavenly King.

    2 Who are these of dazzling brightness,
    These in God's own truth arrayed,
    Clad in robes of purest whiteness,
    Robes whose lustre ne'er shall fade,
    Ne'er be touched by time's rude hand?
    Whence come all this glorious band?

    3 These are they who have contended
    For their Saviour's honor long,
    Wrestling on till life was ended,
    Following not the sinful throng;
    These, who well the fight sustained,
    Triumph through the Lamb have gained.

    4 These are they whose hearts were riven,
    Sore with woe and anguish tried,
    Who in prayer full oft have striven
    With the God they glorified;
    Now, their painful conflict o'er,
    God has bid them weep no more.

    5 These like priests have watched and waited,
    Offering up to Christ their will;
    Soul and body consecrated,
    Day and night to serve him still:
    Now in God's most holy place
    Blest they stand before His face.

    6 Lo, the Lamb Himself now feeds them
    On Mount Zion's pastures fair;
    From His central throne He leads them
    By the living fountains there;
    Lamb and Shepherd, Good Supreme,
    Free He gives the cooling stream.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Another possibility is "Jerusalem, my happy home":
    Jerusalem, my happy home,
    When shall I come to thee?
    When shall my sorrows have an end?
    Thy joys when shall I see?

    O happy harbor of the saints!
    O sweet and pleasant soil!
    In thee no sorrow may be found,
    No grief, no care, no toil.

    Thy saints are crowned with glory great;
    They see God face to face;
    They triumph still, they still rejoice
    Most happy is their case.

    There David stands with harp in hand
    As master of the choir:
    Ten thousand times that man were blessed
    That might this music hear.

    Our Lady sings Magnificat
    With tune surpassing sweet,
    And all the virgins bear their part,
    Sitting at her feet.

    There Magdalen hath left her moan,
    And cheerfully doth sing
    With blessèd saints, whose harmony
    In every street doth ring.

    Jerusalem, my happy home,
    Would God I were in thee!
    Would God my woes were at an end
    Thy joys that I might see!
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Angela, here is an All Saints piece I wrote for fifth and sixth graders (a required choir of little-to-no-experience) a while back. It's a 'choral dance', not meant for liturgical dancing (Heavens no!). But it was on the first half of an All Saints-All Souls concert with the Faure Requiem as the second half (of which the fifth and sixth graders sang the SA and a few boys on tenor in the Sanctus, Libera me, and In paradisum with the seventh-twelth grade choir, 10-member parish choir, half a dozen faculty members, and a chamber orchestra.) Mixed meter certainly helped teach them how to count and feel rhythm!

    If you decide to use it, let me know and I'll post a Scorch document at my website for practice files.

    Well, phooey, the pdf won't post. E-mail me, and I'll go see if I can figure out how to get the attachment to work.
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    I saw a notation in an old discussion about the same error being a Firefox glitch, so here is trying IE.
    Dance for All Saints.pdf
    88K
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Wow, thank you for sharing this, Patricia!
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Thank you, Charles. I am posting the corrected pdf (opening the old file in a much later version of Sibelius did some goofy things with rests, and the tempo was from the original sketch!).

    Angela e-mailed me about it and commented (positively--thank you!) on the 'catholicizing' I did of Wesley's text. I thought it worked out well.
    Dance for All Saints2.pdf
    88K
  • Heath
    Posts: 966
    Patricia, very nice! Any other compositions you're sitting on that need to be shared? If so . . . SHARE! : )
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Heath, composition does not come easily to me even though I know I am supposed to do so (long story) so I am slowly doing what I can.

    My latest: Psalm 43 for the feast of St. Padre Pio this Friday. I've been composing refrains for plainsong psalms for years for my Anglicans during the summer (Anglican chant 'during the choir season', plainsong + refrain in the summers with the faithful lady volunteers). Now I have to start changing the language over from the Coverdale Psalter...

    This one is new.
    Ps 43 plainchant +refrain St. Padre Pio.pdf
    50K
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    WHO ARE THESE LIKE STARS APPEARING is a great hymn.

    It is 374 in The Catholic Choirbook Anthology 1.


    Free Download
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