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Above the starry spheres. Edward Caswall* (1814-1875).
This translation of 'Iam Christus astra ascenderat' was made by Caswall for his Lyra Catholica (1849). It was placed there for Matins on Whit-Sunday. It was a hymn of nine 4-line stanzas, the last of which was a doxology. The previous eight stanzas were a succinct narrative of the events of the first Whit-Sunday, beginning with the reminder that this came ten days after Ascension Day - 'Above the starry spheres,/ To where He was before,/...
PROCTER, Adelaide Anne. b. London, 30 October 1825; d. London, 2 February 1864. She was the daughter of Bryan Waller Procter, a distinguished literary figure and friend of Charles Dickens. Under the pseudonym 'Mary Berwick', she submitted poems to Dickens's periodicals: 73 of them were published in Household Words and seven in All the Year Round. Her poems were published in Legends and Lyrics (First Series 1858, Second Series 1861). After her death they were published in a single volume, with...
HOMMERDING, Alan Joseph. b. Port Washington, Wisconsin, 19 November 1956. He earned graduate degrees in theology, liturgy and music from St Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and the University of Notre Dame. Additional studies in organ, accompanying and vocal/choral studies were taken at Princeton University, Westminster Choir College and the Peabody Conservatory.
In addition to serving as a church musician and a music advisor for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Hommerding is Senior...
TOZER, Albert Edmonds. b. Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, 13 January 1857; d. Steyning, near Brighton, Sussex, February 1910. He was educated at the City of London School, and the Royal Academy of Music. A brilliant young organist, he was elected FRCO at the age of 19. He was made an ARCM in 1885. He completed a BMus at Durham University and a DPhil at Oxford University.
As a young man Tozer was an organist at two Anglican parishes on the south coast, St Mary Magdalene at St Leonard's...
MANZONI, Alessandro. b. Milan, 7 March 1785; d. 22 May 1873. Born into a distinguished family, he was educated at Milan and briefly at the University of Pavia; academically he was undistinguished, but he produced his first poem, 'Il Trionfo della Liberta' as early as 1801. After the death of his father in 1805, he lived for two years with his mother at Auteuil, Paris, where he met French writers and encountered the anti-church ideas of Voltaire. In 1808, however, back in Milan, he married...
All ye who seek for sure relief. Latin, probably 18th century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
This is an alternative to 'All ye that seek a comfort sure'*, a variant on Caswall's translation of 'Quicunque certum quaeritis' in his Lyra Catholica (1849). It was set for Vespers and Matins in 'Another Office of the same Feast', referring to 'Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi', the 'Feast of the most sacred heart of Jesus'. It had six stanzas:
All ye who seek a...
Angelus ad virginem. Latin, probably 13th Century, author unknown, possibly Philip the Chancellor* (d. 1236; see under Goliards*).
This carol is best discussed in two sections: the medieval and the modern.
The Medieval Carol
This was sung by Nicholas, the student in Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale' (Nicholas is a very unpleasant character, whose seduction of his landlord's wife is a grotesque parody of the angel's visit to the Virgin Mary). The carol is first recorded in a fourteenth-century...
MURRAY, Anthony Gregory (monastic name) OSB. b. Fulham, London, 27 February 1905; d. 19 January 1992. He was educated at Westminster Cathedral Choir School (1914-20) and St Benedict's Priory School, Ealing (1920-22). He entered Downside Abbey as a monk in 1922, and read History at Cambridge University (1926-29). He was organist and choirmaster at Downside from 1929 to 1941. He was parish priest at Ealing, (1941-46), Hindley, near Wigan, (1948-52), and Stratton on the Fosse (Downside)...
PETTI, Anthony Gaetano Raphael. b. Islington, London, 12 February 1932; d. Calgary, Canada, 13 January 1985. He was educated at St Michael's College, Hitchin, Hertfordshire (1941-45) and St Ignatius' College, London (1945-50). After National Service he read English at University College, London (BA 1955, MA 1957), teaching at the College from 1960 to 1969. He was Professor of English, University of Calgary, Canada, from 1969 until his early and sudden death.
Petti was a specialist in medieval...
DE VERE, Aubrey (Thomas). b. Curragh Chase, Co. Limerick, Ireland, 10 January 1814; d. Curragh Chase, 21 January 1902. Born into the landed gentry (his mother was a Spring-Rice), he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (1832- ), after which he travelled widely and succeeded in meeting many of the remarkable people of his time, such as William Wordsworth*, John Henry Newman*, and Alfred Tennyson*. As a result of his travels in Europe, he published two early books, The Waldenses, and Other...
Behold the Lamb of God. Matthew Bridges* (1800-1894).
From Bridges's Hymns of the Heart, for the use of Catholics (1848), where it was entitled 'Ecce Agnus Dei' (many of the hymns in that collection had Latin titles). It had seven 7-line stanzas, based on John 1: 29. Because, as JJ pointed out (p.129), the hymn is rarely printed in this form, the original text is printed here:
Behold the Lamb! Oh! Thou for sinners slain, - Let it not be in vain, That Thou hast died: Thee for my Saviour let...
Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First published in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668) in seven 4-line stanzas, where it was the first hymn in 'The Office for Sunday', appointed for Matins on Sunday. John Wesley* used stanzas 1-6 in his first hymnbook, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown, 1737), omitting the final stanza. Austin's original text was:
Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee, And bow before Thy throne;We come to...
FARRELL, Bernadette. b. Altofts, West Yorkshire, 1957. Farrell was educated at King's College London and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She quickly made her mark as one of the founder members of the St Thomas More Group*. She has worked as diocesan music advisor for Southwark and Westminster and as a workshop presenter both in the UK and in the USA. Her ministry flows in to social action and reflects her strong commitment to justice and peace. In addition to her work with the St...
HUIJBERS, Bernard . b. Rotterdam, 24 July 1922; d. Espeilhac, France, 15 April 2003. Huijbers studied under Ernest Mulder during his Jesuit course of training, graduating as a schoolmaster in 1960 and serving (in the tradition of many continental liturgical musicians) as school master and master of music at the St Ignatius College, Amsterdam, until 1969. More importantly he became associated with the Dominicuskerk where he collaborated with the librettist Huub Oosterhuis*. He left the Jesuits...
TAMBLYN, Bill. b. Birmingham, 5 December 1941. He was educated at University College, Durham, during which time he began to study plainchant with Fr Laurence Hollis at Ushaw College and converted to Roman Catholicism. On leaving university, he became, first, cantor and then for ten years, director of music at Our Lady of Grace and St Edward, Chiswick, West London. Tamblyn edited Church Music until 1974, and during the late 1960s he travelled with John Michael East (director of the Church Music...
Blest are they, the poor in spirit. David R. Haas* (1957-).
Blest are they, the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blest are they, full of sorrow; they shall be consoled.
Rejoice and be glad!Blessed are you, holy are you.Rejoice and be glad!Yours is the kingdom of God.
© 1986 GIA Publications, Inc. www.giamusic.com. Used by permission.
This paraphrase of Matthew 5:3-16, 'The Beatitudes', maintains the two-part structure of scripture in each blessing—(1) 'Blest are they, the poor...
HURD, Bob (Robert L.). b. Lakewood, Ohio; August 9, 1950. Bob Hurd is a Catholic composer, teacher, liturgist, and author who is known for his many English-language and bilingual compositions in Spanish and English. He studied at St John's Seminary College (Camarillo, California; BA 1973) and De Paul University (Chicago; MA 1976; PhD 1980). Hurd has served in several academic and pastoral settings including Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), the Franciscan School of Theology (Berkeley,...
FOLEY, (William) Brian. b. Waterloo, Liverpool, 28 November 1919; d. Crosby, Liverpool, 11 October 2000. He was educated at St Mary's Irish Christian Brothers' School at Crosby, Lancashire, and at Upholland College, near Wigan, where he trained for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He was ordained in 1945. His parish ministry was in Liverpool for ten years; Bootle for eleven; Birkdale for five; and eventually, from 1971, in Clayton Green, Chorley, Lancashire. He died at Nazarene House,...
Caelestis formam gloriae. Latin, 15th Century, author unknown.
According to Frere (1909, p. 353) this hymn was 'one of those anciently sung at Salisbury and elsewhere for the Transfiguration.' He then goes on to say that 'when that festival was brought into common use at the end of the XVth century many new hymns were written for it, and this among the number.' JJ gives its provenance as being found in a Sarum Breviary (Venice, 1495). It is of unknown authorship. It began:
Caelestis formam...
Cantemos al Señor. Carlos Rosas* (1939-2020).
This is Rosas' best known hymn. It was composed for 'Rosas del Tepeyac: misa en honor de Nuetra Señora de Guadalupe', a setting of the Mass found in Díez Canciones Para la Misa (San Antonio, 1976). It was originally entitled '¡Aleluya!'. Tepeyac is the hill where Juan Diego (1474-1548) is said to have had his vision of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in December 1531. The Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City was constructed on this site....
ROSAS, Carlos. b. Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico, 4 November 1939; d. San Antonio, Texas, 12 February 2020. Catholic hymn writer, composer, church musician, and lecturer, and son of Anastacio Rosas and Isabel Delgado, he was the tenth of twelve children. He and his wife María Teresa de León (1940-2011), a citizen of the United States, were married on December 26, 1965. He resided in San Antonio, Texas, near his five children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Rosas's compositions...
GABARÁIN, Cesáreo. b. Hernani, Gipúzkoa, Basque Country, Spain, 16 May 1936; d. Antzuola, Spain, 30 April 1991. Monseñor Cesáreo Gabaráin was one of the best-known composers of Spanish liturgical music following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). He was inspired by the feelings and actions of the humble people he met during his ministry. His hymns were recorded on thirty-seven albums (the last completed posthumously). He is the only Roman Catholic Church composer to receive...
WILLCOCK, Christopher John. b. Sydney, 8 February 1947. He attended De La Salle College, Armidale (1960-63), then studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, becoming an Associate in Music in theory and piano. At the University of Sydney he completed a BMus with honours in composition (1974), and took a BD at the Melbourne College of Divinity, followed by a Master's degree in Sacramental Theology at the Catholic Institute, Paris (1982). He then completed doctoral studies in liturgical and...
WALKER, Christopher Dixon Harvey. b. London, 9 June 1947. Walker became a chorister at Bristol Cathedral and later studied composition at Bristol University and Trent Park College. On leaving university he became director of music at the (then newly opened) Roman Catholic Cathedral at Clifton in Bristol. He met members of (and subsequently joined) the St Thomas More Group* before emigrating to the USA in 1990, where he became a lecturer at Mount Saint Mary College and director of music at St...
Clichtoveus. b. Nieuwport, Flanders, 1572; d. Chartres, France, 22 September 1543.
During the Renaissance it was common for learned authors to Latinize their names (cf. Andreas Gryphius*, Paul Speratus*). Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis, usually referred to as 'Clichtoveus' was the name for Josse van Clichtove, educated at Leuven (Louvain) and Paris. He became Librarian of the Sorbonne before moving back to Flanders in 1519 with Louis Guillard, Bishop of Tournai. He later moved with Guillard...
A manuscript or section of a manuscript containing prayers ('collects') for the Divine Office in the western Roman Catholic liturgy.
Crown of Jesus (1862) was a major publication during the years of the expansion of the Roman Catholic church in Britain following Catholic Emancipation, the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829, and the growth in numbers following immigration from Ireland and the converts from the Oxford Movement*. Library catalogues give the names of the editors as R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. Its full title was Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction....
Daily, daily sing to Mary. Henry Bittleston* (1818-1886), from the 'Hymn of Saint Casimir' probably by Bernard of Cluny* (12th century).
The Latin hymn from which this translation is taken is part 7 of a cycle of hymns, the Mariale, beginning 'Ut jucundas cervus undas, aestuans desiderat'. In the course of a careful discussion of possible authorship, James Mearns* comes down on the side of Bernard of Cluny as the most likely author (JJ, pp. 1200-1202). Section vii of the Mariale begins 'Omni...
LUNDY, Michael (monastic name: Damian) FSC. b. Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, 21 March 1944; d. Oxford, 9 December 1996. The son of a master baker, he was educated at West Vale Catholic Primary School, then at the De Salle (Christian Brothers) Grammar School, Sheffield. He joined the De Salle Religious Order in 1960, and trained at St Cassian's Juniorate, Kintbury, Berkshire; then at Inglewood Novitiate, and at various establishments in Germany and France. He then read English at Magdalene...
SCHUTTE, Daniel L. b. Neenah, Wisconsin, 28 December 1947. Schutte was educated at St Louis University, St Louis, Missouri (BS, 1972). After three years teaching Oglala Sioux high school students at Red Cloud Indian School at Pine Ridge, South Dakota (1973-76), he went to the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California (1976-80, MDiv 1980) to complete his formal theological training in preparation for priestly ordination. He also holds an MTh degree from the Graduate Theological Union,...
HAAS, David Robert. b. Saginaw, Michigan, 4 May 1957. Haas studied at Central Michigan University and achieved proficiency in voice, keyboard, guitar and trumpet. His studies at the (College) University of St. Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota centered on theology and liturgical music. He was later appointed composer in residence at the university's St Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He also served as composer in residence at Benilde-St Margaret High School in St Louis Park, Minnesota, and he is...
Dear Angel! ever at my side. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
There are two entries in JJ for this hymn, both under the heading 'Dear Angel! ever at my side', which was Faber's own first line. The first gives the printing in Faber's Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hymns (1849). The entry in the 'New Supplement', p. 1627, also gives the date of publication as 1849, in Faber's St Wilfrid's Hymns (Faber, converted in 1846, had founded the 'Brothers of the Will of God of the Congregation of St...
DUFNER, Delores (OSB). b. near Buxton, North Dakota, 20 February 1939. Born in the family farmhouse during a winter blizzard, Dufner's elementary education was in a one-room country school; she was later educated by the Benedictine Sisters in Crookston, Minnesota. She entered St Joseph's Benedictine Monastery in St Joseph, Minnesota, and was awarded graduate degrees in Liturgical Music (1973) and Liturgical Studies (1990) from St Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, and the University of...
DOLBEN, Digby Augustus Stewart Mackworth. b. Guernsey, Channel Islands, 8 February 1848; d. Luffenham, Rutland, 28 June 1867. He was the son of aristocratic and fiercely Protestant parents, and Digby reacted by becoming involved with Roman Catholicism while still at school at Eton, when he associated with an unofficial order of Benedictines which allowed him to dress as a monk. At Eton he became friendly with Robert Bridges*, who encouraged him to write poetry and admired the result; on a visit...
FISHEL, Donald Emry. b. Hart, Michigan, 1 November 1950. Fishel, a flautist, attended the University of Michigan, studying under Nelson Hauenstein and Michael Stoune (BM, 1972). Brought up a Methodist, he turned to Roman Catholicism in 1969, and worked for the charismatic Roman Catholic 'Word of God Community' in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as publications editor of their Servant Music and as director of the parish orchestra, until 1981. He was principal flautist with Dexter Community Orchestra and...
GURNEY, Dorothy Frances (née Blomfield). b. London, 4 October 1858; d. London, 15 June 1932. She was the daughter of the vicar of St Andrew Undershaft in the City of London, and granddaughter of a Bishop of London. In 1887 she married Gerald Gurney, the son of Archer Thompson Gurney*. She and her husband became Roman Catholics in 1919. She published The Childhood of Queen Victoria (1901), Poems (1913), and A Little Book of Quiet (1915). After her death two collections of her poems were...
Drawn to the Cross which Thou hast blest. Geneviève Mary Irons* (1855-1928).
Written in 1880, this hymn was published in the Sunday Magazine in October of that year, entitled 'Consecration of Self to Christ', and in Irons's manual for Holy Communion, Corpus Christi (1884). It was included without an author's name in the Congregational Church Hymnal (1887), and in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, music edition 1889), from which it passed into MHB. Later British books to include it were...
VAUGHAN, Edmund. b. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, 26 November 1827; d. Bishop Eton, Liverpool, 1 July 1908. Born at into a distinguished Roman Catholic family, he became a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (C.ss.R), the order of mission priests ('Redemptorists') founded by St Alphonsus Liguori*. He was a Novice in 1850, made his profession as a Redemptorist on 2 February 1852, and was ordained to the priesthood on 22 February 1852. He worked for a time in Australia, and was...
HONTIVEROS, Eduardo. b. Molo, Iloilo City, 20 December 1923; d. 15 January 2008. This Filipino Jesuit musician was educated at Manila High School and the San Jose Seminary (1939-45). He entered the Society of Jesus in 1945, took novice's vows in 1947, studied theology in the USA, and was ordained in 1954. He is known as 'the father of Filipino liturgical music'. In October 2000, Pope John Paul II conferred on him the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice bestowed on clergy and laypersons who have served...
CASWALL, Edward. b. Yateley, Hampshire, 15 July 1814; d. Birmingham, 2 January 1878. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Chigwell, Essex and King Edward's Grammar School, Marlborough, Wiltshire. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford (BA 1836, MA 1838) and took Holy Orders (deacon, 1838, priest, 1839). He became Perpetual Curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, where his uncle, Thomas Burgess, was bishop. He married in 1841, and in 1845 he and his wife went on a tour of the...
ELGAR, (Sir) Edward William. b. Broadheath, Worcestershire, 2 June 1857; d. Worcester, 23 February 1934. At Broadheath his father, William Henry Elgar, ran a music retailing business and was organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church. Educated at Littleton House School and self-taught as a composer, Elgar was later to receive honorary degrees from several major universities. He was knighted in 1904, received the O.M. in 1911, and was appointed Master of the King's Music in 1924.
Elgar was...
Effata is the title of a Catholic hymn book for young people published at Passau, Germany, in 1990, sub-titled 'Neue religiöse Lieder für Gottesdienst' ('New songs for Sunday worship'). The title is explained as 'öffne dich', open thyself, probably best rendered in English as 'open up!' Continuing the metaphor, it encourages young people to have open minds to meet with God and other people.
Its structure is strikingly traditional. It is within the context of the normal Sunday service that these...
FARJEON, Eleanor. b. Westminster, London, 13 February 1881; d. Hampstead, London, 5 June 1965. Born into a distinguished literary family, she became a writer herself, publishing books for both adults and children. Two of her books were memoirs: A Nursery in the Nineties (1935), about her childhood, and Edward Thomas: the Last Four Years (1958), recording her friendship with the poet who was killed in the Great War of 1914-1918. She published a book of poems, Pan Worship, in 1908; her Nursery...
SANDS, Ernest. b. 1949; d. Oswestry, 11 April 2016. A bucolic, witty and charismatic priest and composer, 'Ernie' Sands sprang to fame and ultimately (in the USA) notoriety as the composer of 'Sing of the Lord's goodness'* described by one critic as 'a rip-off from Dave Brubeck's “Take Five”'. A founder member of the St Thomas More Group*, Sands had a number of pieces published in the UK and USA in group song collections. 'Sing of the Lord's goodness'* was chosen for the enthronement in 1991 of...
WHITE, (Elizabeth) Estelle. b. South Shields, County Durham (now in Tyne and Wear), 4 December 1925; d. Dewsbury, Yorkshire, 9 February 2011. Born into a musical family, she learned to play the guitar and saxophone in her youth. She joined the army in 1943, and was based at Fenham Barracks, Newcastle upon Tyne, until she was moved to London with an army band to play the saxophone. After coming out of the army, she trained as a physiotherapist. She worked with children with cerebral palsy for...
Flor y Canto (flower and song) is a hymnal that represents the diversity of Latino/a cultures in the United States. Published by Oregon Catholic Press in four editions (1989, 2001, 2011, 2023), the title indicates the symbolism of flower and song found in Aztec culture and the experiences of indigenous peoples in Hispanic cultures. Unlike earlier Spanish-language Protestant hymnals, this Catholic publication includes a limited number of hymns in Spanish translation from traditional Western...
Fortem virili pectore. Silvio Antoniano* (1540-1603), translated by various hands.
This was from the revision of the Roman Breviary, commissioned by Pope Clement VIII, and published in Venice in 1603, the year of Antoniano's death. It was included by John Henry Newman* in Hymni Ecclesiae (1838), for the many virtuous women, who were neither virgins nor martyrs ('Commune Sanctae Martyris Tantum, et nec Virginis nec Martyris') as a hymn for Vespers. It was translated by Edward Caswall* and...
CHESTERTON, Frances Alice (née Blogg). b. 28 June 1869; d. 12 December 1938. She was the eldest child of a diamond merchant, George William Blogg (of French descent: the name was originally de Blogue) and his wife Blanche, née Keymer. Frances was educated at Notting Hill High School, followed by a time as a pupil-teacher at a Church of England Convent, St Stephen's College (1889-91). Her parents had progressive views about the education of women, and her mother set up a debating society in the...
STANFIELD, Francis. b. probably at Camden, London, 5 November 1835; d. Clapton, east London, 12 May 1914. His family lived at Camden from 1832 to 1839. He was the son of Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867), the theatrical and landscape painter, and friend of Charles Dickens. Clarkson Stanfield became an increasingly devout Roman Catholic in his later years. Two of his children, Francis and Raymund, became Catholic priests. Francis, a convert to Catholicism like his father, was ordained in 1860 and...
XAVIER, Francis. b. Xavier, Navarre, Spain, 7 April 1506; d. Shang Chuan, near China, 3 December 1552. He was born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta in a new castle ('Xavier' in the Basque language) belonging to his aristocratic family in the kingdom of Navarre: the kingdom was invaded and divided during his youth, and the castle was reduced in size by the order of Cardinal Cisneros (see 'Spanish hymnody'*). He was educated at the Collège Sainte Barbe in Paris (1525- ), where he met Ignatius...
HUSENBETH, Frederick Charles. b. Bristol, 30 May 1796; d. Costessey, Norfolk, 31 October 1872. The son of a wine merchant who had originated from Germany, he was educated at Sedgley Park School, a Roman Catholic school near Wolverhampton (1803-10), before entering his father's firm. After three years he decided to become a priest: he returned briefly to Sedgley Park (1813), and thence to St Mary's College, Oscott (1814). He was ordained in 1820. After a short period as a Catholic missioner at...
OAKELEY, Frederick. b. Shrewsbury, 5 September 1802; d. London, 29 January 1880. He was the son of a baronet, Sir Charles Oakeley. He was educated mainly at home and with a private tutor, before entering Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1824). He took Holy Orders (deacon and priest, 1827), and was appointed chaplain and fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, becoming a tutor in 1830. Among his pupils was Archibald Tait, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury, and who remained Oakeley's friend for the...
FABER, Frederick William. b. Calverley, West Yorkshire, 28 June 1814; d. London, 26 September 1863. He was born at Calverley vicarage, the son of Thomas Henry Faber, who became secretary to Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham (1734-1826). He was educated briefly at the grammar school in Bishop Auckland, then privately by the Revd John Gibson at Kirkby Stephen. He entered Shrewsbury School in 1826, and Harrow School in 1827. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1832, and was elected...
Friends of the English Liturgy was founded in Chicago in 1963 in the midst of the Second Vatican Council. Dennis J. Fitzpatrick (nda) began the firm to sell his own 'Demonstration Mass in English'. Within a few years he had signed a contract with songwriter Ray Repp and published Hymnal for Young Christians, subtitled 'A supplement to adult Hymnals', and one of the first hymnals intended for guitar accompaniment. The music of Repp and many other composers in the collection became widely...
Full in the panting heart of Rome. Nicholas Wiseman* (1802-1865).
This remarkable hymn, notable for its devotion to the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church, was published in Britain in Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (1862), edited by R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. It was included in Catholic Hymns, Original and Translated, edited by Albert Edmonds Tozer* with the assistance of Richard Runciman Terry*, and in many others (JJ, p. 1728)....
IRONS, Geneviève Mary. b. Brompton, London, 28 December 1855; d. Eastbourne, Sussex, 13 December 1928. She was the daughter of William Josiah Irons*. She contributed to the Sunday Magazine from 1876 onwards. She became a Roman Catholic (the Latin title of her manual for Holy Communion, Corpus Christi, 1884, suggests that she was a convert by that time). She translated The Divine Consoler: little visits to the most holy Sacrament, by J.M. Angéli, of the Lazarist Fathers (1900), and published a...
FULLERTON, (Lady) Georgiana Charlotte (née Leveson-Gower). b. Tixhall Hall, Staffordshire, 23 September 1812; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, 19 January 1885. The Leveson-Gower family was a distinguished one: her father later became Earl Granville; her mother was Lady Harriet Cavendish. Her father was appointed Ambassador to Paris in 1824. She married Alexander George Fullerton, an attaché at the embassy, in 1833. In 1843 he became a Roman Catholic; she followed in 1846, after her father's...
HOPKINS, Gerard Manley. b. Stratford, London, 28 July 1844; d. Dublin, 8 June 1889. From Stratford, East London, his family moved to Hampstead in 1852. Gerard was educated at Highgate School, followed by Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1867). In the face of anguished opposition from his Anglican parents, he became a Roman Catholic in 1866, being received into the church by John Henry Newman*, and teaching for a short period at Newman's Oratory at Birmingham. He entered the Jesuit order in 1868...
OSTDIEK, Gilbert. b. Lawrence, Nebraska, 20 March 1933. Ostdiek is a pre-eminent liturgical scholar and educator, a member of the Franciscan Order, an ordained presbyter in the Roman Catholic Church. He is one of ten children born to Henry Stephen and Dora Rita (née Rempe) Ostdiek. Ostdiek attended the minor seminary and junior college of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, Mayslake, near Westmont, Illinois, Quincy College (now Quincy University) (AB 1957), St Joseph Seminary,...
God everlasting, wonderful and holy. Harold Riley* (1903-2003).
This was written before 1968, when it appeared in the Catholic hymnal The Parish Hymn Book. It was subsequently included in English Praise (1975) before being included in MHfT (1980) and thus in A&MNS. It was headed 'To the altar of God': its four stanzas explore the liturgical custom in many churches of reverencing the altar. They are wonderfully compact and meaningful: they describe adoration (stanza 1), thankfulness (stanza...
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274), translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins* (1844-1889).
One version of this translation was published in the Irish Monthly in 1903. It was a rendering of a variant of Aquinas's 'Adoro te devote, latens Deitas'*, beginning 'Adoro te supplex, latens deitas', found in editions of the Paris Breviary and in a Paris Processionale of 1697 (Milgate, 1982, p. 204). This was the text printed in John Henry Newman*'s Hymni Ecclesiae...
BROWN, Grayson Warren.b. Brooklyn, New York, 21 March 1948; d. Jacksonville, Florida, 2 July 2023.
Grayson Warren Brown was a pioneer in the development of the Black gospel Mass in the late 1960s. Authentic, spirit-filled worship liturgies characterized his work in a small inner-city multicultural parish in New York. Brown's creative works mixed the genres of Black gospel music with the Western classical tradition, illustrating his sensitivity to both the Catholic tradition and the...
Hail glorious angels, heirs of light. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First published in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668), in the section 'Office of the Saints', where it was prescribed in 'Lauds for Saints'. It is a selection from a hymn of eleven 4-line stanzas, beginning with two not used in modern books:
Wake all my hopes, lift up your eys, And crown your heads with mirth· See how they shine beyond the skys, Who once dwelt on our earth.
Peace busy thoughts,...
Hail, glorious Saint Patrick, dear Saint of our isle. Sister Agnes, 19th century.
Published in Henri Friedrich Hemy*'s Easy Hymn Tunes with the words in full, adapted for Catholic Schools (1851), where it attributed to Sister Agnes, 'of the Convent of Charleville, Co. Cork'. This was the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, founded in 1831. The hymn appeared in Suffield and Palmer's Crown of Jesus (1862), and in many later books, including Albert Edmonds Tozer*'s Catholic Hymns: original and...
Hail, Queen of Heaven, the ocean Star. John Lingard* (1771-1851).
This is Lingard's translation of 'Salve, regina'* (sometimes 'Salve, regina (mater) misericordiae'). According to Milgate (1982, p. 209) it was published in The Catholic Magazine V (1834) and signed 'Pros'. It was included in Lingard's Manual of Prayers (York, 1840), and in Suffield and Palmer's Crown of Jesus* (1862). Milgate notes its publication in the USA in The Sacred Wreath 1867, 'and in innumerable others to the present...
Hear thy children, gentle Jesus. Francis Stanfield* (1835-1914).
Stanfield wrote two very similar hymns for children. The first, 'Hear thy children, gentlest Mother'*, addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was published in his Catholic Hymns (1858, 1860). The second, with the first line as above, was in his Holy Family Hymns (1860). Each had four stanzas, in the same metre.
Both were published in the Westminster Hymnal (WH, 1912). The present one addressed to Jesus survived into the Revised...
Hear thy children, gentlest Mother. Francis Stanfield* (1835-1914).
This was the first of two hymns for children by Stanfield, written in the same four stanzas, and in the same metre. The other was 'Hear thy children, gentle Jesus'*. The present (earlier) hymn was published in his Catholic Hymns (1858, 1860):
Hear thy children, gentlest Mother, Prayerful hearts to thee arise; Hear us while our evening Ave Soars beyond the starry skies.
Darkling shadows fall around us, Stars their silent...
LAUFENBURG, Heinrich von. b. Laufenburg, Aargau, Switzerland, ca. 1390; d. Strasbourg, ca. 1460. He is named after his birthplace, a town on the Rhine, now on the border with Germany: in JJ he is listed as 'Heinrich of Laufenburg' (p. 507; Catherine Winkworth* uses 'Henry of Loufenburg', and Wackernagel 'Heinrich von Loufenberg'). In JJ James Mearns* noted that he was first heard of as Dean of the Collegiate Church of St Maurice at Zofingen, Aargau. He later became a Dean at Freiburg, Baden,...
OOSTERHUIS, Huub (Hubertus Gerardus Josephus Henricus). b. Amsterdam, 1 November 1933; d. Amsterdam, 9 April 2023. Oosterhuis was educated at the Jesuit Ignatius College and met Bernard Huijbers* in the Liturgical Choir there. He entered the Jesuit Novitiate, singing again under Huijbers in the Gregorian Choir. He studied Philosophy and History, Language and Theatre, and published his first devotional song (to Mary) in 1954. Working with Huijbers he published Fifty Psalms (eventually published...
I will come to you in the silence ('You are mine'). David Robert Haas* (1957- ).
In 2017 The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (USA)* (NPM) conducted a hymn survey in which 3,000 participants ranked hymns. Known popularly by its title, David Haas' 'You Are Mine' was number four on the list. The hymn first appeared in the composer's collection Who Calls You by Name: Music for Christian Initiation (Chicago, 1988-1991).
The words are based on texts from Psalm 46: 10, 'Be still and...
I worship Thee, sweet will of God. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Jesus and Mary: or Catholic Hymns (1849), where it was entitled 'The Will of God'. It was then published in Faber's Hymns (1962). It had fourteen 4-line stanzas. Hymnbooks have normally shortened the hymn, normally to five or six stanzas. It was in six stanzas in the Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes (New York, 1855), edited by Henry Ward Beecher*, which began with two stanzas identical to those in...
Iam desinant suspiria. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749).
This hymn appeared in the Paris Breviary (1736) and in Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin (1736). It was written for Matins on Christmas Day. It is a very attractive Christmas hymn, which has attracted much attention from translators (see JJ, pp. 576-7).
The Latin text was printed in John Chandler*'s Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), in the 'Hymni Ecclesiae' (i.e. Latin) section. It had eight stanzas, beginning:
Jam desinant suspiria;...
I'll sing a hymn to Mary. John Wyse* (1825-1898).
Published in Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (1862), edited by R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. It was also in Catholic Hymns: Original and Translated, with accompanying tunes (1898), edited by Albert Edmonds Tozer* with the help of Richard Runciman Terry*. It was the only hymn by Fr Wyse to be included in the Westminster Hymnal (1912, revised 1940), but its inclusion in those books ensured that...
Higginson, J. Vincent. b. Irvington, New Jersey, 17 May 1896; d. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 11 April 1994. Joseph Vincent Edward Higginson was the son of George and Anna A. Higginson. He married Lillian Rendelman (1906–1987), August 17, 1939, in New York City. Higginson received his education at Manhattan College, Julliard School, Pius X School of Liturgical Music, and at New York University (BMus 1929; MA 1938). He taught at Pius X School of Liturgical Music and lectured at New York University,...
QUINN, James. b. Glasgow, 21 April 1919; d. Edinburgh, 8 April 2010. He was educated at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, and read Honours in Classics at the University of Glasgow (MA 1939). He entered the Novitiate of the Jesuit Order in 1939, studying philosophy at Heythrop College (1941-44), followed by a period as a Greek and Latin teacher at Preston Catholic College (1944-48). He returned to Heythrop College to study theology (1948-52), being ordained in 1950. He served his Tertianship at St...
JONCAS, Jan Michael. b. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 20 December 1951. Michael Joncas, pre-eminent liturgical scholar, teacher and composer, majored in English at the College of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota (BA, 1975); liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana (MA, 1978), and liturgical theology at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome (SLL,1989 SLD, 1991). In 1980 he was ordained a Roman Catholic presbyter for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,...
DE BRÉBEUF, Jean, SJ. b. Condé-sur-Vire in Lower Normandy, France, 25 March 1593; d. Saint-Ignace, Canada, 16 March 1649. Born into a family that may have been related to the English Earls of Arundel, Brébeuf entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen at age 24, where he taught at the Collège de Rouen and was ordained priest in 1622 at Pontoise. A linguist, he was chosen to go to the missions in New France; he sailed from Dieppe in April 1625. After spending a winter with the Montagnais of the...
WISE, Joseph Edward, Jr. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 19 August 1939. Wise attended St. Mary's Seminary/University in Baltimore, Maryland (BA 1961, STB 1963); Spalding College in Louisville (M Ed. 1965); and the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC (MA, 1969). Wise was one of the most performed and influential composers of liturgical music in what became known as the 'folk Mass movement' after the Second Vatican Council. Other representative composers from this era include Ray Repp, Jack...
AINSLIE, John. b. Taunton, Somerset, 20 May 1942. He was choirmaster at the English College in Rome (1963-66). He has worked as editor of Roman Catholic resource books, including the Simple Gradual (1969) and Praise the Lord (2nd edition, 1972). He co-edited English Catholic Worship (1979) — the first survey, post Vatican II, of new liturgical and music developments in England. He is General Secretary of the international study group Universa Laus.
Ainslie has composed several strong tunes...
Laudate (1999, 2012)
This is the title ('Praise') of a British Roman Catholic hymnbook, first published in 1999 by Decani Music. It was edited by Stephen Dean*. It was revised in 2012 in accordance with the 2010 translation of the Roman Missal, with a fifth revised printing in 2014.
It contains a first section, 'The Liturgy of the Hours', with three sections: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. These contain hymns, psalms, and antiphons by various writers, from John Mason Neale*...
BÉVENOT, Ludovic Eloi Isidore Jean Joseph (Monastic name: Laurence) OSB. b. Birmingham, 21 June 1901; d. 22 October 1990. He was born to French immigrant parents: his father was professor of Romance Languages at Birmingham University. He was educated at Mount St Mary's Preparatory School, Derbyshire (1909-14) and Ampleforth College, Yorkshire (1914-19). He joined the monastic community at Ampleforth in 1919. He read Mathematics at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University (1922-25). From 1928 to 1951...
Let the hungry come to me. Delores Dufner* (1939- ).
This was written as a communion hymn for a large diocesan celebration at St Mary's Cathedral, St Cloud, Minnesota. It is sung to a plainsong melody, ADORO TE DEVOTE, a processional hymn for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Delores Dufner, OSB, was inspired by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This text may be sung antiphonally between the choir and congregation to the plainsong melody.
In the first stanza, Dufner calls all...
Let us be bread (I am the bread of life, broken for all). Tom Porter* (1958– ).
This song was written in 1987 for the author/composer's wedding. It was initially published as an anthem with GIA Publications, Inc.* (Chicago, 1990), this song first appeared in congregational form in Gather Comprehensive (Chicago, 1994). 'Let us be bread' reflects post-Vatican II liturgical theology and practice. This refrain style liturgical song weaves together themes of Eucharist, Paschal Mystery and mission....
[note: 'French Canada' refers not only to the province of Quebec, but also to the pockets of French-speaking people in all parts of Canada]
Early history
Roman Catholic liturgical music was brought to New France in the 17th century by French missionaries and peasants. In the 1640s the Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites, Paris, 1632-72) referred to music sung by the peoples of the First Nations and French settlers. One of the songs that has survived and is sung at Christmas time in...
Longing for light, we wait in darkness ('Christ, be our light'). Bernadette Farrell* (1957- ).
This hymn is frequently known as 'Christ, be our light', from the first line of the refrain. It was published in 1993 by the Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) in Portland, Oregon. Since its first publication, with Farrell's own tune, it has become widely known and much loved in many countries. It has appeared in subsequent OCP books, including Journeysongs (2003), Glory and Praise (2015) and One in Faith...
Lord, now the time returns. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First printed in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668), in the section 'The Office of our B. Saviour', where it is part of 'Complin for our B. Saviour'. It had eight 4-line stanzas:
Lord, now the time returns, For weary man to rest; And lay aside those pains and cares With which our day's opprest:
Or rather change our thoughts To more concerning cares: How to redeem our mispent time, With sighs, and...
MANZARA, Loretta, CSJ. b. London, Ontario, Canada, 4 May 1948. Loretta Manzara, CSJ, is a liturgist, organist, and hymnal editor. Her family's origins, and the rich cultural roots which fed her early life, can be traced to England on her maternal grandparents' side and to Italy on the side of her paternal grandparents. Music was a part of the life of her parents and their six children. After working his regular job at GM Diesel, her father took weekend bartending work to pay for her music...
Lucis Creator optime. Latin, author unknown, 8th Century or earlier.
According to JJ, p. 700, this hymn was found in many early books and manuscripts. It was at one time attributed to Gregory the Great*, but this is now believed to be unlikely. In monastic Uses it was the first hymn, and thus the Sunday hymn, for Vespers in the 'New Hymnal' (see 'Medieval hymns and hymnals'*):
Lucis Creator optimeLucem dierum proferens,Primordiis lucis novaeMundi parans originem:
Qui mane iunctum vesperiDiem...
CONNAUGHTON, Luke. b. Bolton, Lancashire, 2 June 1917; d. Oulton, near Stone, Staffordshire, 2 September 1979. Born into a Roman Catholic family, Connaughton was destined for the priesthood, but abandoned his vocation and became a journalist. He was closely associated with the firm of Mayhew-McCrimmon, for whom he edited Sing a New Song to the Lord (Great Wakering, Essex, 1970). In this book 33 texts by him were included, some with the pseudonyms 'Peter Icarus' and 'J. Smith'. After his death...
FRANCISCO, Manuel ('Manoling'). b. Quezon City, Philippines, 26 October 1965. Educated at the Ateneo de Manila High School, he grew up playing keyboard, and trained for a career in classical piano. After his uncle, his mother's first cousin, Benigno Aquino, was killed in 1983, Francisco became a student activist. At the age of 20, while in his second year in college, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Novaliches. Ordained in 1997, his first assignment was as a priest and school director of an...
THURMAIR, Maria Luise (née Mumelter). b. Bozen, Süd Tirol, Austria (now Bolzano, Alto Adige, Italy), 27 September 1912; d. Germering, München, 24 October 2005.
Her father was District 'Hauptmann', or District Superintendent, the last under Austrian rule. When Süd Tirol was ceded to Italy at the end of World War I, the family moved to Innsbruck, where the child Maria Luise went to school at the Ursuline Gymnasium. At the University she studied philosophy, German, history and liturgy, with a...
BYRNE, Mary Elizabeth. b. Dublin, Ireland, 2 July 1880; d. Dublin, 19 January 1931. She was educated at the Dominican Convent in Dublin, and the National University of Ireland (the Roman Catholic university founded by John Henry Newman to provide higher education for Catholics parallel to that of Trinity College, Dublin). Her Irish name was Máiri Ní Bhroin, but she published much of her work as Mary E. Byrne. She was a research scholar who worked for the Board of Intermediate Education. With...
Mary immaculate, star of the morning. F.W. Weatherell, dates unknown.
This hymn was printed in The Book of Hymns with Tunes (1910), edited by Samuel Gregory Ould* and William Sewell, but in the opinion of Wesley Milgate* (1982), it 'may well be earlier'. Milgate also states that it was in the Westminster Hymnal (1912), but it has not been found there. It was certainly in WH (1940), and Milgate describes it as 'very popular'. It begins with the image of Mary as the stella matutina, star of the...
GUIMONT, Michel. b. 1950. Composer and choral director, Michel Guimont studied psychology at Concordia University, received his Bachelor of Music and Masters in Music Composition at the University of Montreal and attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He has studied conducting with Canadian choral conductor Wayne Riddell in Montreal and attended numerous master classes with Frieder Bernius and Helmuth Rilling from Germany.
Director of music at Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica...
WINTER, Miriam Therese. b. Passaic, New Jersey, 14 June 1938. Gloria Frances Winter joined the Medical Mission Sisters at age 17, and acquired her new name, Miriam Therese. She studied music at the Catholic University in Washington, DC, (BM 1964), religious education at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Canada, (MRE 1976), and liturgical studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD 1983). Implementing the changes that the Second Vatican Council had permitted in Roman Catholic worship,...
Missalette is a generic term for a shortened form of a missal for congregational use, published periodically, and generally including liturgical music and hymns and songs for use at Mass. The missalette is descendent from the pre-conciliar 'hand missals', which included the Order of Mass and readings and propers in Latin and English for congregational use. Beginning in 1965, the J. S. Paluch Co., Inc. in Chicago, Illinois, published Monthly Missalette, presently Seasonal Missalette®, one of the...
KROETSCH, Murray John. b. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, 7 April 1952. He was educated at St. Jerome's University College, University of Waterloo (BA in Religious Studies, 1974) and King's College, University of Western Ontario (MDiv, 1978); University of Notre Dame, Indiana (MA in Liturgical Studies, 1985); and postgraduate studies at Lateran University, Rome (2002-03).
Murray Kroetsch was ordained a priest for Hamilton Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada on 29 April 1978; and was...
My soul cries out with a joyful shout ('Canticle of the Turning'). Rory Cooney* (1952- ).
Carl P. Daw, Jr.* correctly notes: 'From the very beginning it is evident that this is no tame paraphrase of the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55). . . [This setting of the Magnificat*] identifies with, and draws energy from, the deeply revolutionary implications of what it means for the mighty to be put down from their thrones and the lowly to be lifted up' (Daw, 2016, p. 100). First published as the...
New Catholic Hymnal (1971). The New Catholic Hymnal was published in 1971, edited by Anthony Petti* and Geoffrey Laycock*. It bears the imprint of a church in a post-Vatican II situation; but by any standards, it was a remarkable book for its time. Not only did it publish many new texts and tunes, but it also revised texts into modern speech and syntax, an example followed a decade later by HFTC. Controversially, it was one of the first books to use the 'you' form for God, as in 'Lord, your...
O radiant light, O Sun divine. Greek, perhaps Third Century, translated by William George Storey* (1923-2014).
This translation of 'Phos hilaron'* is given a copyright date of 1979. It began:
O radiant light, O Sun divine, of God the Father's deathless face, O image of the Light divine that fills the heavenly dwelling-place.
Information on the recent use of this hymn is found in Hymnary.org., to which the following is much indebted. It was included in The Presbyterian Hymnal: hymns, psalms,...
O salutaris Hostia. Thomas Aquinas* ( ca. 1224/5-1274); English translation by Edward Caswall* (1814 -1878).
The Latin text of this hymn is from Aquinas's 'Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram'*. It forms the last two stanzas of that hymn. These stanzas are widely known as a devotional text in both Latin and English.
O salutaris Hostia, quae caeli pandis ostium, bella premunt hostilia, da robur, fer auxilium.
Uni trinoque Domino sit sempiterna gloria, qui vitam sine...
O Sanctissima
This is a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of uncertain date and origin. It is believed to have been sung by Sicilian fishermen at the end of each day. The first known printing seems to have been in a London periodical, The European Magazine (1792) as part of a series whimsically called 'Drossiana' contributed by the anecdotist William Seward (1747-1799), a benevolent but odd member of the literary circle around Dr Samuel Johnson, whose epitaph he helped to compose. The original...
WESTENDORF, Omer Evers. b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 24 February1916; d. Cincinnati, 22 October 1997. Educated at the College of Music of Cincinnati (Certificate in Piano, 1947; BM, 1948, MM, 1950), Westendorf served for forty years as organist and choirmaster of St Bonaventure [Roman Catholic] Church in the South Fairmount neighborhood (1936-76). His tenure was interrupted by military service during the Second World War in Europe, where in the Netherlands he heard and obtained copies of a wide range...
Omni die, dic Mariae. Latin, probably by Bernard of Cluny* (12th century).
This is a selection of lines from 'Ut jucundus cervus undas, aestuans desiderat' (from Psalm 42: 1), the opening of a cycle of poems known as the Mariale. The authorship of the cycle is uncertain, but James Mearns*, after assessing all the evidence, attributed it to Bernard of Cluny (JJ, pp. 1200-1202). Section 7 of the Mariale began 'Omni die, dic Mariae, mea, laudes, anima'.
For Catholics it is notable as the Latin...
SHIPLEY, Orby. b. Twyford, Hampshire, 1 July 1832; d. Lyme Regis, Dorset, 5 July 1916. He came from a distinguished clerical and military family: his grandfather, William Davies Shipley, was the Dean of St Asaph in whose house Reginald Heber* wrote 'From Greenland's icy mountains'*. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1854, MA 1857), he took Holy Orders (deacon 1855, priest 1858), becoming curate of the high-church St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and then of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn,...
ALSTOTT, Owen. b. 1947. Alstott studied theology and philosophy at Mt Angel Seminary, and organ at Williamette University, both in Oregon. Following a long career in various roles, latterly including publisher, at Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), he relocated to the United Kingdom in 1992. He is married to fellow Roman Catholic author and composer Bernadette Farrell*. His Heritage Mass is a congregational setting widely used in the USA and printed in several major Catholic hymnals and missals. He...
Pan de vida (Bread of life). Bob Hurd* (1950– ) and Pia Moriarty (1948– ).
This eucharistic hymn is the best-known composition by Bob Hurd and his wife Pia Moriarty. Composed in 1988, it appeared initially in the first edition of Flor y Canto* (Portland, Oregon, 1989) and subsequently in most Catholic hymnals published in the United States.
The song, one of the first bilingual worship songs, was composed while Bob Hurd was living in Guatemala. During this time, he was searching for songs that...
BRENNAN, Patrick. b. Carraghroe, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, 1877; d. North Perth, Western Australia, 18 May 1951. He left for Australia 'in his early years' (Milgate, 1982, p. 224). He was ordained to the priesthood in 1902, serving in the diocese of Perth and editing the diocesan paper, The Record. After twelve years in parish work, he was accepted in 1915 by the Congregation of the most Holy Redeemer (C.SS.R), the 'Redemptorists', who sent him as a missionary to the Philippine Islands. He was...
INWOOD, Paul. b. Beckenham, Kent, 7 May 1947. Inwood was educated at Wimbledon College and the Royal Academy of Music. He was organist at Clifton [Roman Catholic] Cathedral (1974-87), director of music for the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, (1986-91) and has been diocesan director of liturgy and music for the diocese of Portsmouth since 2000. In the intervening years he worked in the USA as clinician and composer. Inwood was active as musician and editor at the St Thomas More Centre in North...
SCHOLTES, Peter Raymond. b. Evanston, Ilinois 20 November 1938; d. Madison, Wisconsin, 1 July 2009. Scholtes attended Roman Catholic elementary and high schools, and studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood at Quigley and St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein Seminary. Ordained in 1965, he served in an inter-racial parish, St. Brendan's, in Chicago's south side, and quickly became involved in the civil rights movement. Leaving the priesthood he studied adult education and organizational development...
CONNOLLY, Richard. b. Sydney, 10 November 1927; d. May 2022. He was educated at Lewisham Christian Brothers' School, then at Springwood (New South Wales) Marist Brothers' school. In 1946 he travelled to Rome and attended the Propaganda Fide College where he studied theology and music but withdrew in 1950 shortly before completing his ordination for the Roman Catholic priesthood. On his return to Australia he completed a BA at the University of Sydney (1956). In the same year he took up a...
CRASHAW, Richard. b. London, 1612/13; d. Loreto, Italy, 1648. The son of a Puritan clergyman, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA 1634). At Cambridge he acquired a reputation as a neo-Latin poet, and as a supporter of the high church practices of Archbishop Laud. He became a Fellow of Peterhouse, where he was associated with John Cosin*. In 1643 he left England as a consequence of the Civil War, living at first at Leiden in Holland and then at Paris. He...
Before the Second Vatican Council
English Catholic hymnody falls into two distinct phases: the era between the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and the Second Vatican Council (1962-3) and the years between that time and the present day. In the first period Catholic hymnody had a distinctly different character from its Protestant counterparts, partly because of the history of the English Catholic community; but also because it served very different functions.
Between 1559 and the First...
Post-Colonial Era
Both the body of hymnody from and the publication of hymnals for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States at its founding and in the decades immediately following are quite small. The cause of this is two-fold: the inherited status of Roman Catholics under British governance and the role of the congregation at the Catholic Mass.
Until the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, Catholics in the colonies lived under the same rules of suppression as they did in England. Public...
HARBOR, Ronald Dean. b. Greenville, South Carolina, 7 August 1947. Ronald Dean (Rawn) Harbor is a Catholic composer and liturgical musician. He received early encouragement and piano instruction from his family, a high school music teacher, and Springfield Baptist Church, an African American congregation in Greenville. Harbor received degrees from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina (BM, 1971) in music theory and composition, and the Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego,...
Salvator mundi Domine. Latin, date and author unknown.
According to James Mearns* in JJ (p. 988), this hymn is found in manuscripts of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is found in the Sarum, York, Hereford and Aberdeen Breviaries, appointed as a hymn for Compline at times that varied from monastery to monastery.
Different versions of this popular hymn are found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus IV, p. 209, and in Analecta Hymnica, 23. 39. It was well known in England in Tudor times, because it...
OULD, Dom Samuel Gregory, OSB. b. London, 8 December 1864; d. Exton, Rutland, 10 February 1939. The son of Wesleyan Methodist parents, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1879, and entered Fort Augustus Abbey in 1884 (Clothed 21 September). Fort Augustus had become celebrated for its renewal of plainsong, and for its leaving the English Bendictine Congregation to become more austere and encouraging the development of a liturgical life inspired by the example of Solesmes.
Ould...
TEMPLE, Sebastian. b. Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, 12 February 1928; d. Tucson, Arizona, 16 December 1997. He was raised by his grandparents. At the age of 16 he wrote a romantic novel, and using its royalties moved to Italy. In 1951 he moved to London and prepared BBC news broadcasts relating to South Africa. Temple went to the United States in 1958, lived in Washington DC, was a Scientologist for ten years, converted to Catholicism and became a Secular Franciscan.
He was a student of...
ANTONIANO, Silvio. b. Rome, 31 December 1540; d. Rome, 16 August 1603. He was educated at the University of Ferrara, before being appointed by Pope Pius IV as Professor of Belles-Lettres at the Sapienza University in Rome. He was ordained as a priest in 1568, and became Secretary of the College of Cardinals; he held various posts in the Curia under successive Popes (Pius V, Sixtus V, Clement VIII). He had a particular interest in education, and published Tre Libri dell' Educazione Christiana...
Solis ad victimam procedis, Domine. Peter Abelard* (1079-1142).
From Hymnarius Paraclitensis, the book of hymns that Abelard wrote for the religious house of The Paraclete, where Heloise was Prioress (see Paraclete Hymnal*). It was written for the third nocturnal office on Good Friday. It beautifully combines the lament for the solitary figure of Christ 'going forth' to His sufferings and death with the promise that if we share His sufferings ('Tu tibi compati sic fac nos, Domine') we may...
This is the name given to a group of Roman Catholic composers, who were associated with a study centre in the parish of St Thomas More, North London, from 1969 onwards. The group's founder members were Stephen Dean*, Paul Inwood*, Bernadette Farrell*, Peter Jones, Ernest Sands*, Bill Tamblyn*, Christopher Walker* and James Walsh, although only Dean and Inwood were on the staff of the centre. Other members include Peter McGrail and Anne Quigley.
In 1985 Paul Inwood and Christopher Walker...
DEAN, Stephen. b. Horsham, Sussex, 5 May 1948. He was choirmaster at the English College in Rome during the late 1960s, and subsequently went to live in Barcelona in the mid-1970s before returning to England. He worked with Fr. Harold Winstone at the St Thomas More Centre for Pastoral Liturgy in North London as liturgist (1969-73 and 1986-91). He was Director of Music at Arundel Cathedral (1979-85), and is Diocesan Music advisor for East Anglia (1991- ).
Dean is one of the founder members of...
Tantum ergo sacramentum. Thomas Aquinas* ca. 1224/5-1274).
This two-stanza hymn consists of stanzas 5 and 6 of the great hymn by Aquinas, 'Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium'* (cf. The similar use of 'O salutaris Hostia'* taken from 'Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram'*). It is sung in the office of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, or during Mass at the Elevation of the Host (JJ, p. 878):
Tantum ergo sacramentum veneremur cernui:et antiquum documentum novo...
BOWMAN, Thea (Bertha). b. Yazoo City, Mississippi, 29 December 1937; d. Canton, Mississippi, 30 March 1990. Bowman was a charismatic figure, known for her work with African American communities and congregations. She was a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Bowman attended Viterbo College (now University) (BA 1965), and The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (MA 1969; PhD 1972). Having taught at the grade school, high school and...
ARNE, Thomas Augustine. b. London, 12 March 1710; d. London, 5 March 1778. Born into a wealthy family of London upholsterers, Arne was brought up a Roman Catholic owing to his mother's allegiance to that faith. Well educated, Arne nevertheless threw off a career in the law in favour of music and, in particular the theatre. With the family nose for business, he was assisted by his father in setting up a theatre company for performances of opera at the Haymarket with John Frederick Lampe*. After...
ARMSTRONG, Thomas Barrett. b. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, November, 1929; d. Toronto, 14 November 2009. Arriving as a student at St Michael's Choir School in 1942, Barrett Armstrong went on to study philosophy and theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, was ordained in 1955, and completed licentiate degrees in Gregorian chant and sacred music at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. He returned to St Michael's, where he taught from 1958 until his retirement in 2004,...
POTTER, Thomas Joseph. b. Scarborough, Yorkshire, 9 June 1828. d. Dublin, 31 August 1873. At the age of 20 he became a Roman Catholic, and was ordained as a priest in 1857. He was appointed Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and English Literature in the Foreign Missionary College of All Hallows, Dublin. From this came his instructive works, Sacred Eloquence; or, the theory and practice of preaching (Dublin, 1866), and The Spoken Word: or, the art of extemporary preaching, its utility, its danger,...
Vatican II and hymns
When the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was convened, most Protestant hymn collections contained few Roman Catholic hymns. The reform of the liturgical life of the Roman Catholic Church in the 'Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy' ('Sacrosanctum Concilium', 1963) made an immediate ecumenical impact on most mainline Protestant traditions. A deeper theology of Baptism and Eucharist, the recovery of Scripture, the revision of the church year and the appearance of a...
Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274).
As with 'Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium'*, St Thomas was here taking an earlier text, 'Verbum supernum prodiens,/ a Patre olim exiens'*, and making it his own. It was written ca. 1263 for use on the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is printed in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 254, entitled 'De eadem festivitate ad Laudes' ('On the same festival at Lauds') thus linking it with St Thomas's other...
Verbum supernum prodiens,/ a Patre olim exiens. Latin, probably 10th century.
This is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 77, entitled 'De Adventu Domini', in two texts, one from a Rheinau Codex (TH IV. 144), the other from the Roman Breviary (1632), with line 2 as 'e patris aeterno sinu', and other variations from the original text. In Analecta Hymnica 2. 35, it is printed from a 10th-century hymnal of the Abbey of Moissac ('Das Hymnar der Abtei Moissac'). It is found in many medieval...
NOVELLO, (Francis) Vincent. b. London, 6 September 1781; d. Nice, 9 August 1861. The son of a Piedmontese pastry cook, he went to school in Huitmille, Boulogne, in the early 1790s. From 1793 his training took place as chorister and organist in London's Roman Catholic embassy chapels. He sang for and studied with Samuel Webbe (I)* the Elder at the Sardinian Embassy Chapel. He deputised as organist for Webbe at the Sardinian and Bavarian Embassies and for John Danby at the Spanish Embassy. It was...
FUNK, Virgil Clarence. b. La Crosse, Wisconsin, 25 July 1937. Raised in Arlington, Virginia, Funk attended St Charles High School and College Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland; St Mary's University, Baltimore, (STL, 1963), and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC (MSW, 1969). While a seminarian at St Mary's, Funk was formed in liturgy and music by the distinguished liturgist and author Eugene Walsh, SS; and the acclaimed scripture scholar Raymond Brown, SS, serving as his...