Music at St. Augustine's

Though most ( all ? ) of our services have some sort of music in them, we are not an obsessively musical church. Nevertheless, we have a few musical features. Here they are.

Mattins

For a long time, our most obvious musical endeavour was our singing of Mattins on the first Sunday of each month. We used the traditional 1662 service from the Book of Common Prayer, from which we also took the collects, and the setting from Ferial Responses. Settings for the Venite and Te Deum were from the Parish Psalter. The Psalms were usually sung responsorially.

Mattins stopped at the end of 2008, when we gave up the 8 a.m. services to concentrate on the newer 10 a.m. New Zealand Prayer Book service. The music, in effect, stopped with it. We still sing hymns, but that's different.

Christingle

We have a Christingle service each Christmas Eve, at which we have sung an appropriate song to our own setting.

The CHRISTINGLE CAROL

Chorus    Christingle, Christingle, pretty little ball,    Telling us of Jesus and His love for us all. 1.  The orange so round is the world that God made,    All people and creatures, the sun and the shade -    A beautiful orb in God's limitless space,    Its future ensured by God's limitless grace. Chorus 2.  The ribbon so red that encircles the ball    Is the blood Jesus shed through His love for us all,    When He died on the cross that our sins be forgiven,    So that we might at last be His children in heaven. Chorus 3.  The good things to eat bring us joy with each bite,    As the love Jesus gives fills our hearts with delight;    We pass on that love in the kindness and care    We show to all those whom we meet everywhere. Chorus 4.  The candle above is the wonderful light    Jesus brings to our life, leading us to the right;    He was born to bring hope to all people on earth -    Thank God for our Lord at the time of His birth ! Chorus

Words modified from an original by Charmaine Braatvedt; Music original to St Augustine's church; you can get a pdf version of the score, or as a midi file, or as mp3.

Joy Ministries

For some years we welcomed the people of Joy Ministries once a month for special services. Here is a Christmas song presented at one of these services.

JOY AT CHRISTMAS

Chorus Joy at Christmas, Joy at Christmas, Joy at the coming of our Lord and Saviour ! Joy at Christmas, Joy at Christmas, Joy at the coming of the Lord. Oh, the angels told the shepherds that the Lord was born : "We bring you tidings of great joy : In a stable in Bethlehem He came to earth; He's been born as a little baby Boy". So there's - Chorus

Words and Music original to St Augustine's church.

Here is the score, as a pdf file - and here's a midi version, - and here's an mp3 version.

- but there's more to this story ....

Family services

A few times each year we have what we call a family service. These are not formal, traditional, or solemn; we hope they are enjoyable, and convey some Christian message. All of them include some music, almost all of which comes from elsewhere; there is a list of musical items used, currently incomplete, which we compiled for copyright reasons. Original contributions from St Augustine's are :

item title	service date	service title	material available
"God's Ten Commandments" :	June 2003;	"Rules for loving" :	Our version of the words; sung to the tune "Bradbury" ( or "Jesus loves me"; usual words : "Jesus loves me, this I know" );
"Who did swallow Jonah ?" :	May 2004;	"Trust and Obey !" :	melody and words ( we added two verses to the original two );
"Put on love ev'ry day" :	July 2004;	"The good Samaritan" :	Our version of the score, midi, MP3;
"Zacchaeus ( and how to spell him )" :	August 2004;	"Zacchaeus" :	score, midi, mp3, words;
"Rejoice, rejoice" :	December 2004;	Carol service :	words; sung to the tune "Morning Light" ( usual words : "Stand up, stand up for Jesus" );
"Love, love, love" :	October 2006; September 2007;	"Sowing seeds of love" "God's Intentions For The Saints".	Arrangement of music for keyboard : score, midi, MP3;
"When the Saints go marching in" :	September 2007;	"God's Intentions For The Saints".	Arrangement of music for keyboard : score, midi, MP3;
"God is so good" :	December 2007;	Christingle service	Several verses composed on the general theme "God is so good".
"Father God in heaven" :	July 2008;	"The Lord's Prayer"	Original verse 3 extended to two verses, 3 and 4.
"I'm going to get my Bible today" ( Tune : "Here we go round the Mulberry bush" ) :	August 2008;	"The Bible"	Single verse.
"Joy At Christmas" :	November 2008;	Carol service	( a much extended version of our earlier Joy Ministries song ); score, midi, MP3, words.
"All things bright and beautiful" :	Christingle service, 2009;		A new verse about animals; further remarks in this comment.

St Augustine

"St Augustine" is the name of at least two hymn tunes. Here they are.

References