Eastertide and Music

Subject: Eastertide and Music
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 06:31 PM

I really enjoyed the tunes and suggestions, and the discussion, in the Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Music thread HERE.

For me, this weekend is the start of Easter music, since our Saturday night service last week was eclipesed by the Easter Vigil Service. I think we will start the Saturday Night Service this week with... Green Pastures.

And next weekend (God willing and the creek don't rise) there may be a houseful of Mudcatters to join our little Saturday band. We'll stick to old favorites for that I think. Suggestions welcome, especially from people planning to be here!

What sounds good to YOU for Eastertide?

~S~

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Burke
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 06:43 PM

At Easter I love the good old traditional hymns, especially the ones with alleluia's and descants. Only I don't really like "Hail, thee, festival day." Just open the hymnal to the Easter section & sing straight on through. I think we had 5 hymns during communion on Sunday in addition to the regular hymns, so we really got to sing a lot of them.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 11:41 AM

And here's a timely thread.


I always hear, in my mind's ear,
Ah - ah - ah - ah - al-le-e-lu-u-iaaaaaaa

around this time of year.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stars link
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:11 PM

I heard -wheat that springer green -by parchment in the seventies . It was done in a lovely folk arrangement and only recently found it is a hymn

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:38 PM

Do you mean "Now the Green Blade Rises" Pete? Its a hymn written by J.M.C. Crum in the early 20th century and set to a much older French Folk/Carol melody.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:43 PM

And the reasonably modern hymn "At Eastertide" seems to have the same melody as the Cowboy's Lament "Streets of Laredo", or more likely both borrow from a much earlier melody.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:46 PM

Yes , that's the one .i was reminded of it as a verse of it was on a Sally Army mail shot card.. I found some versions on you tube , but not the one by parchment. Found the chords too , so will do it at my local singaround tomorrow if I get there ( got a bug !)

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:52 PM

Its here:

http://www.tekstowo.pl/piosenka,parchment,love_is_come_again.html

More difficult to find because thy call it "love is come again".

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 03:08 PM

And that is a superb arrangement, I hadn't heard it before.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 06:33 PM

But then there's the summer camp song about a rabbit knocking at someone's door:

HELP me
HELP me
HELP me
he said,
'fore the hunter shoots me dead....

with big exaggerated arm gestures.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 10:29 PM

Back to the OP

"What sounds good to YOU for Eastertide?"

I play recorder and percussion with a flautist and a pianist. This morning I prepared a high version of 'Beautiful Savior' to play as the prelude. It was lovely! The pianist played quietly and let us take center stage.

We also did 'This Joyful Eastertide,' a 17th C hymn which has measures in 4/4 and in 6/4. The congregation handled it just fine.

Now I'm interested in a tune from the 15th C., O Sons and Daughters Let Us Sing. When my band gets together, the earlier the better.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Apr 17 - 08:36 PM

It so happens that I sang this yesterday, before I ever read this thread! Some french friends present who recognised the melody.
Here's the version I was taught a few years back (in Edinburgh):

LOVE IS COME AGAIN                                

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,        
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been;
Love is come again,    like wheat that springeth green.         
                                                
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain;
Thy-y touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our heart that dead and bare have been;
Love is come again,         like wheat that springeth green.        

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain;
Thi-inking that never he would wake again;
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen;                
Love is come again,         like wheat that springeth green.        


Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been;                
Love is come again,        like wheat that springeth green.        
Love is come again,         like wheat that springeth green.        

Tune: Medieval French Christmas Carol "Noel Nouvelet"
Dorian mode

Words: Canon John Macleod Campbell Crum (1872-1958)
In this version more associated with Easter and Spring

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Apr 17 - 09:16 PM

Bach Passions.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Apr 17 - 10:20 PM

Well, I'm reluctant to say that at our Catholic parish, the choir made itself popular by singing Dolly Parton's He's Alive and an Easter version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

I'm having problems with these, although I admit I sang with moderate enthusiasm and got a bit of tear in the eye....

They sound too damn Protestant to me. I feel much more comfortable with Tattie Bogle's "Love Is Come Again" suggestion.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Apr 17 - 02:29 PM

my favourite track on the Watersons FRost and Fire album was the Easter carol


https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/thehollybearsaberry.html

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 04:52 AM

My pet hate at this time of year is those who insist on putting an extra 'l' sound into Alleluia (or Halleluia), making it Al E lool ya.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 05:24 AM

I've never tried it, but I can visualise a Good Friday service ending with 'Lord of the dance', but cut short at "They buried my body and they thought I'd gone". Followed by the choir processing out in silence.
Easter Day starts in silence, with the choir bursting into "I am the dance and I still go on" with chorus, final verse & chorus.

Most of the people who go to the Good Friday service (locally at least) will also be at the Sunday service. Although many at the Easter Sunday service may not have been to the Good Friday one.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 02:49 PM

Of Sydney Carter's hymns/songs, Friday Morning is the obvious one for a Good Friday service.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 12:21 AM

Hmm, Nigel. I've never heard anybody do that, but I can see how it would be irritating.

Joe, I know what you mean. For me, it's not that those songs are Protestant, but that they are commercial. You hear the song and expect it to be followed by an advertisement.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: GUEST,Some bloke
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 03:00 AM

An annual opportunity for local folk clubs to experience my "Jesus on a rubber cross."

Not as flexible as I used to be, but there again neither is my voice.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: BobL
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 05:19 AM

AT our parish church, the Easter service was opened by the unaccompanied choir singing "Were you there when they crucified my Lord" up to the Entombment verse, followed by the Easter gospel, and then the last verse. Very effective (except that the Hymns Old & New arrangement has an awkward note that our tenors, bless them, can never get right. The New English Hymnal version would sound better).

"Hail Thee Festival Day", mentioned by the second poster, is a tricky hymn - or rather set of hymns, there's one for each of the major festivals - as the metre is based on that of classical Greek and Latin poetry, considered (as I understand) by those qualified to make such judgements as some of the most beautiful ever written at any time or in any language. Something is lost when the pattern of long and short vowels is mapped onto our stressed and unstressed syllables, but a lot of the beauty still comes through. Vaughan Williams' tune isn't easy to pick up by ear but is worth the effort of getting right.

The Easter hymn I should really love to sing and hear, though, is "Thine be the glory", in the original French, as it might have been arranged by Hector Berlioz - i.e. full symphony orchestra, organ, massed choirs, extra percussion and probably a brass band or two thrown in for good measure. He didn't do things by halves.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 02:49 PM

I know what you mean by "Thine is the Glory". It's a grand piece of music.

I must admit I'm tired of "Were You There".

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 03:12 PM

Of course the origin of that piece of music, to which Thine be the Glory is set, is that Handel wrote it to celebrate the return of the Duke of Cumberland from the battle of Culloden, where he had been engaged in slaughtering the Scots under Charles Edward Stuart.

Here is a suitably militaristic setting.

Budry wrote the hymn in French about 140 years later.

Despite all this it is one of my favourite hymns too.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 03:50 PM

There's a new hymn for clergy and church musicians that's taking the Internet by storm this week. You'll find sheet music here (click), and a Soundcloud recording here (click). And, of course, on on YouTube.

HOLY JESUS, I'M SO TIRED words by Junga Kim and Michael Cooper Music by Michael Cooper 77.76 Tempo: Bleary (quarter note=80) Holy Jesus, I'm so tired, Bring me coffee, grant me strength. Pray I shut my mouth at length; And help me not get fired. Amen. Tempo for last line: Nodding Off (quarter note=60)

Over the last week, I worked and sang at 7 services: Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and four on Easter. I got churched out...

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 23 Apr 17 - 04:38 PM

Thanks for posting that David . I had forgotten just how good it is myself !

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Jan 18 - 06:31 AM

While what David said is true, "See the Conquering hero Comes" is from Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabeus" which has its own, much older story. Google Judas Maccabeus for all that as well as all the ways in which the tune has been used. We only ever learned "Conquering Hero" at school (a very long time ago!) and it was years later that I heard it, much to my surprise, as "Thine be the Glory".

(I play a snatch of it for the entry, and resurrection, of our gallant hero during our Mummer's play! Now wondering how many people think I'm playing " Conquering Hero" or "Thine be the Glory"! I suppose either fits the chracter, and some won't know the tune anyway.)

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: CupOfTea
Date: 08 Jan 18 - 10:18 PM

Nice to see to see this thread pop up after talking about Now the Green blade riseth/Sing we now of Christmas and playing it yesterday. With Ash Wednesday so early this year, it is time to start planning what to sing.

I do like the idea of using Carter's Lord of the Dance, but another of his strikes me at perfect: Bitter was the Night. There just aren't too many things to sing on Good Friday, and this song makes me appreciate the creepiness of Judas' betrayal and suicide that get under your skin and make you think about the Passion in a visceral way. There's lots of the same-old, same-old like Hail thee Festival Day and Were You There that I can live without.

Joanne in a VERY Protestant music ministry (hi, Joe!)

Subject: ADD
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jan 18 - 11:17 PM

Hi, Joanne -

We do a Wednesday night ecumenical series with the "mainline" Protestant churches in town. We Catholics usually host Ash Wednesday because the Protestants like our ashes. We try to get a female pastor to preach from the Catholic pulpit that evening.

The Protestants also like our music. We don't do the commercial-sounding stuff, and we don't do the stodgy anthems. We do a lot of Taize, mixed with spirituals and a few pieces from modern Catholic (et al.) composers.

But I have to say that the Methodists have the best after-service cookies, closely followed by the Congregationalists. We don't serve cookies, because we're fasting on Ash Wednesday.

-Joe-

Subject: ADD: Friday Morning (Sydney Carter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jan 18 - 11:24 PM

Up above, David Carter mentioned Sydney Carter's "Friday Morning," so I had to find it.

Raymond Crooke posted a YouTube performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcjAd-jp81I

...and lyrics here: http://www.raymondfolk.com/page/Friday+Morning

Lyrics are from the Lovely in the Dances CD, which has lyrics slightly different from the Crooke recording.

FRIDAY MORNING
(Sydney Carter)

It was on a Friday morning
That they took me from the cell
And I saw they had a carpenter
To crucify as well.

CHORUS
You can blame it on to Pilate,
You can blame it on the Jews
You can blame it on the Devil.
It's God I accuse.

"It's God they ought to crucify
Instead of you and me,"
I said to the carpenter,
A-hanging on the tree.

You can blame it on to Adam,
You can blame it on to Eve.
You can blame it on the apple,
But that I can't believe.
It was God that made the Devil
And the woman and the man,
And there wouldn't be an apple
If it wasn't in the plan.
CHORUS

Now Barabbas was a killer
And they let Barabbas go,
But you are being crucified
For nothing that I know,
And your God is in his Heaven
And He doesn't do a thing,
With a million angels watching
And they never move a wing.
CHORUS

"To hell with Jehovah,"
To the carpenter, I said
"I wish that a carpenter
Had made the world instead.
Goodbye and good luck to you;
If our ways divide.
Remember me tomorrow
The man you hung beside."
CHORUS



Chords:

  Dm ............ Am .... Dm
  It was on a Friday morning
  ................ Am ................... Dm
  That they took me from the cell
  
  And I saw they had a carpenter
  ...... Am ........ Dm
  To crucify as well.
  
  You can blame it on to Pilate,
  ...................................... Am
  You can blame it on the Jews
  ............... Dm
  You can blame it on the Devil.
  ........... Am .. Dm
  It?s God I accuse.
  
  ?It?s God they ought to crucify
  .............................. Am
  Instead of you and me,?
  ... Dm
  I said to the carpenter,
  .... Am ................ Dm
  A-hanging on the tree.

Interestingly, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen did a sermon based on this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqyU0v1easY

There's a very credible YouTube recording from the Lovely in the Dances CD, but it's probably not available in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45pJBc8MncY
Performed by: Robert Johnson · Vince Cross · Rick Kemp · Nigel Pegrum

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 16 Apr 18 - 12:14 PM

This being Sydney Carter, the lyrics would have been slightly different every time he sang it, let alone anybody else.

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 05 Apr 20 - 10:51 PM

Holy Week is here (for the Western church, not Eastern Orthodox)
and this is a timely subject.
(all these posts about Good Friday)

Subject: RE: Eastertide and Music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 20 - 01:03 AM

This Janet Whitaker composition is what we've been singing on Holy Saturday as the Song of Miriam for the last several years after the reading of Exodus 15 about the crossing of the sea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8ekXdFjUw

I love it, but I think we sing it better than this recording. We really have fun with it.

-Joe-