A few songs from Oct 7 and 14

I just thought I’d post a few highlights from the last few weeks:

Let Us, with a Gladsome Mind – COS can sing hymns like nobody’s business. That makes my job easy, because I can choose just about any hymn I want and they’ll be singing it in four parts by the end of the first verse. The theme of this hymn fit the sermon theme of “Blessed Are the Merciful” beautifully.

O Bless the Lord, My Soul – We’ve been singing this all season as a Gloria (response to the assurance of pardon) during our series on the Beatitudes. Fits perfectly. Both this and the previous are under-used hymn tunes, it seems to me.

Pater Noster – Franz Liszt’s setting of The Lord’s Prayer in Latin. We do very few choral anthems at COS, but it seemed what we lost in congregational participation this particular week (it replaced the congregation’s reciting of the prayer) would be gained in deeper appreciation.

Bless the Lord, O My Soul! (Psalm 103) – My choral setting of Psalm 103.

God is So Good – One of the challenges of combining the Basic English Service with the Sanctuary Service is finding songs that are simple to sing and known to both communities. It turns out that the Church has been singing “off the page” for centuries, including this song from the African American tradition.

West Indies Lord’s Prayer – One of my favorite Lord’s Prayer settings, it features a call-and-response structure that works well in the BES setting.