Tag Archives: Sacred

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Alphabetical list of Hymn tunes

For a list of tunes sorted by meter, please click here.

  • Azure Blue – CM
  • Advent Beginnings – 10 10 11 10
  • Bitterwood – 76 76D
  • Casser – 11 11 11 11
  • Changing Words – 77 77D
  • Classic Unity – CM
  • Demon Driven – 87 87D
  • Double Unity – CMD
  • Easter Morn – 88 88 88
  • Elm Street – LM
  • Extended Cloud – 77 76
  • Faithful Church – 11 11 11 11 with refrain
  • Farewell Friend – LM
  • Friends Today – 87 87D
  • Glad Acclaim – CM
  • Green World – 77 77 with refrain
  • Hillside Wheat – 87 87D
  • Hubbard – 66 67D
  • Idle Depths – 85 75
  • Light Unfading – 87 87 87
  • Living Church – LM
  • Love Me Not – CM
  • Matinal – 86 88
  • Merciful Shadow – SM
  • Mystic Spirit – 87 87 77
  • No Royal Crown – LM
  • Present Here – CMD
  • Proud Wisdom – 10 9 10 9
  • Refuge Call – SM
  • River’s Child – 7777
  • Rooted Chain – 87 87D
  • Sea Fishing – 88 88 88
  • Sea Walk – LM (w/repeat)
  • Sent Forward – 11 8 11 9 with refrain
  • Steadfast Mercy – SM
  • Trampled Shame – SM
  • Trusting Christ – CM
  • Unfading Light – 87 87
  • 1 more unnamed tune
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Hymn Tunes by meter

Listed below are the named hymn tunes I have written sorted by meter. For an alphabetical list, please see my post here.

CM

  • Azure Blue
  • Classic Unity
  • Glad Acclaim
  • Love Me Not
  • Trusting Christ

CMD

  • Double Unity
  • Present Here

LM

  • Elm Street
  • Farewell Friend
  • Living Church
  • No Royal Crown

LM with repeat

  • Sea Walk

SM

  • Merciful Shadow
  • Refuge Call
  • Steadfast Mercy
  • Trampled Shame

66 67D

  • Hubbard

76 76D

  • Bitterwood

77 76

  • Extended Cloud

77 77

  • River’s Child

77 77 D

  • Changing Words

77 77 with refrain

  • Green World

85 75

  • Idle Depths

86 88

  • Matinal

87 87

  • Unfading Light

87 87 77

  • Mystic Spirit

87 87 87

  • Light Unfading

87 87D

  • Demon Driven
  • Friends Today
  • Hillside Wheat
  • Rooted Chain

88 88 88

  • Easter Morn
  • Sea Fishing

10 9 10 9

  • Proud Wisdom

10 10 11 10

  • Advent Beginnings

11 8 11 9 with refrain

  • Sent Forward

11 11 11 11

  • Casser

11 11 11 11 with refrain

  • Faithful Church
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O Sons and Daughters

This is an arrangement of the Easter Hymn O Filii et Filiae for SATB choir, organ and brass quintet. It was originally written for the 25th anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Howard Hubbard as Bishop of the Diocese of Albany. The event was celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter and needed a lengthy piece for the entrance procession. In addition to including all nine verses of the hymn there are interludes between each verse. This arrangement served as the basis for the later arrangement used at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the Papal visit to New York City.

The score packet includes a full score, choral score, and parts for organ, horn, trumpet 1, trumpet 2, trombone 1, and trombone 2. Purchasers are granted permission to print or reprint scores as necessary for performance.

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Salvator Mundi

One of the difficulties in using a historical musical setting of the Latin Mass in the Novus Ordo is the lack of Memorial Acclamation and Amen. With only two syllables, it’s usually pretty easy to do some text replacement and derive an Amen from material in other movements. It may even be possible to simply use the amen found at the end of the Gloria or Credo as a stand alone Eucharistic acclamation. The Memorial Acclamation, regardless of the text option chosen, proves a much tougher challenge.

For the Choral Mass on February 22, 2013, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Dr. William Picher gave me the task of creating something for him to use alongside Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli. While I initially wrote something for the SATTBB voicing that Palestrina uses, I forgot that this was to be a Latin Mass and set the English response “Save Us, Savior of the World.” Mea culpa. As six contrapuntal voices seemed a bit of a stretch for me in the limited time I had to prepare the piece, when I started over again with the equivalent Latin text, I opted for the more traditional (and perhaps more useful) SATB voicing.

I hope to have a recording of live singers performing the piece after February 22. In the meantime, the music notation program Finale has provided this rendering:

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Salvator mundi, salva nos, qui per crucem et resurrectionem tuam liberasti nos.
Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world.

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Ave Verum Corpus

Ave verum corpus,
natum de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine,
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

This setting of the traditional Latin text is for unaccompanied SATB choir with moderate divisi in all four parts. The musical language is modern while still using traditional sonorities. The audio below was generated by the Finale music notation program.

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Rejoice in the Lord

Gaudete in Domino semper:
iterum dico, gaudete.
Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice.

This musical setting of text from the introit for the third Sunday of Advent is written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The lyrics use both Latin and English phrases from the introit. The music alternates between short unison chant sections and longer polyphonic sections based on ideas found in the original Gregorian chant.

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To You I Lift My Soul

Ad te levavi animam meam:
Deus meus in te confido.
Non erubescam.
To You, I lift up my soul.
I trust in you.

This musical setting of text from the introit for the first Sunday of Advent is written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The lyrics use both Latin and English phrases from the introit. The music alternates between short unison chant sections and longer polyphonic sections based on ideas found in the original Gregorian chant.

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Vexilla Regis

Written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609), Vexilla Regis is one of the great chant hymns of the church. Appropriately sung at vespers from Passion Sunday until Holy Thursday, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross and even on Good Friday, the hymn was originally written to celebrate the arrival of a large relic of the True Cross in Poitiers, France.

In the French Classical tradition when singing hymns, the organ alternated verses with the choir. Having always enjoyed the sounds of the French Classical organs, when I had the opportunity to play a recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, NY on Palm Sunday, I decided to write a suite for organ on this great hymn of the cross. The suite contains six movements and uses traditional tonal language and registrations of the period.

Vexilla Regis

  1. Plein jeu
  2. Duo
  3. Récit de voix humaine
  4. Basse de trompette
  5. Tierce en Taille
  6. Grand jeu
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Dilexisti justitiam

You prize justice and abhor wickedness,
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
With the oil of gladness, above your peers.

Dilexisti justitiam is the Introit for the Chrism Mass where the Sacred Oils are blessed every year during Holy Week. After experiencing the extremely lengthy entrance procession during my first Chrism Mass here in Orlando, I decided to write an extended musical setting of the introit that would lead easily into the hymn Lift High the Cross.

Scored for double choir, the composition may be performed with brass quartet playing the second choir. Hear a recording generated by Finale below.

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Regina Caeli

Regina caeli laetare, Alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare. Alleluia,
Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia.

Intended for use during the Easter Season, this is the second Marian antiphon I set for SSAATTBB choir. The traditional chant melody is cast in a modern tonal language. A piano reduction of the SSAATTBB piece provided in the score for rehearsals. The audio below was generated by the Finale music notation program.

      Listen now