There Are Angels Hovering Round is a song that has come to the MMC network through multiple channels. St. Gregory of Nyssa congregants have been singing this song at funerals for many years. Peter and Mary Alice Amidon have a lovely arrangement of it on their website amidonmusic.com, where you can listen to an mp3 and purchase sheet music.
Here's a recording of the Morningstar Singers, a hospice choir in Minnesota, singing There Are Angels Hovering Round:
This gentle melody by psalmist Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is an invitation to release and rest drawn from Psalm 46. It can be used as a Psalm refrain, as a prayer song, or in times of challenge or crisis. With or without accompaniment, the tune quickly finds harmony.
"God our home and help,
O God, our home and help,
we entrust our troubles to you."
Richard's music is licensed through CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Be sure report use of the piece if you print the text or music for your community.
Sheet music is available in the "Our Roots are In You" collection at PsalmImmersion.com.
This layered song by psalmist Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is based on Psalm 31. Each part can be taught to a different part of the community or choir. When each is secure, they can be combined to create a rich, textured space for prayer.
The song can be sung a cappella or can be accompanied. It could be useful in Taizé-style services, and the text also invites it to be sung during Holy Week, especially Good Friday.
Part 1:
"Into your hands I place my life."
Part 2:
"Oh, loving faithful God."
Part 3:
"Oh, my life is yours."
Richard's music is licensed through CCLI, OneLicense.net and Worldmaking.net. Be sure report use of the piece if you print the text or music for your community.
Find sheet music for the song on Richard's PsalmImmersion website.
Tar a thighearna is a beautiful Gaelic chant by singer and composer Ruth Cunningham. Translated "Come, Lord, come thou Being," the piece is a powerful invocation and useful for centering/gathering, prayers, and times when a gentle, focused energy is needed.
The text and the melody can be learned through call and echo. Take your time and repeat passages that need extra care, especially those with ornamentation. Invite improvised harmony when the community is ready.
Gaelic:
Tar a thighearna.
Pronunciation: tahr ah hear-nah, tahr-ah-hee
English translation:
Come, Lord, come thou Being.
Ruth has given faith communities permission to sing and share the song without copyright restrictions.
Sheet music can be found in Singing In Community, our latest songbook published by Augsburg Fortress. It also appeared in Music By Heart, MMC's first collection of paperless music.
Ruth and Ana Hernández recorded the song on Blessed By Light. Here's a link to a recording of Emily Scott teaching the song, then offering suggestions for how to lead it without paper.
Watch Rachel Kroh lead Tar a thighearna at Union Seminary in September 2015:
This song by Carol Webb would be especially effective during prayers for healing and wholeness. Individual names may also be substituted for 'me,' adjusting the rhythm as necessary. The piano accompaniment is optional.
Carol writes about the inspiration for the song in a beautiful blog post.
"Hands of healing, Jesus, lay on me;
gentle hands of healing, Jesus, lay on me."
Sheet music can be found in Singing In Community, our latest songbook published by Augsburg Fortress. Find a preview copy of the score here.
Fear Not the Pain was composed by Rachel Kroh at a Music that Makes Community Composers' Retreat in 2013. The text is from Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus.
The song can be used in many different contexts: at the bedsides of the dying, a mantra for individuals struggling with chronic pain, in interfaith worship gatherings, as well as in liturgies centered around themes of healing, justice, and reconciliation.
"Fear not the pain,
let its weight fall back into the earth.
For heavy are the mountains, heavy are the seas."
Sheet music can be found in Singing In Community, our latest songbook published by Augsburg Fortress.
Here's an audio recording of Fear Not the Pain made in Brattleboro in 2013 as well as the melody transcribed by Marilyn Haskel.
Here's a a four-part arrangement of the song by Peter Amidon. If you enjoy it, you might want to see some of Peter's other arrangements in 55 Anthems for the Small Church Choir.