Music Notes 7-19

Hypnosis by Ian Clarke

Panis Angelicus by Cesar Franck

May the Bread of Angels become bread for humankind;
The Bread of Heaven puts all foreshadowings to an end;
Oh, thing miraculous!
The body of the Lord will nourish the poor, the servile, and the humble.

God of the Fertile Fields

This hymn has two references to the Lord’s Prayer – to “our daily bread” and “Thy will be done.” The text references agricultural practices, stewardship, and ways of caring for one another to describe ways in which we must live to fully receive “our daily bread.”

God of the fertile fields, Lord of the earth that yields our daily bread;
forth from thy bounteous hand come gifts thy love has planned,
that all in every land be clothed and fed.

We would thy stewards be, holding in trust from thee, all thou dost give;
help us in love to share, teach us like you to care, that earth may all be fair;
your children live.

As grows the hidden seed to fruit that serves our need, thy kingdom grows.
So let our toil be used, no gift of thine abused, no humble task refused thy love bestows.

God of the countryside, dear to our Lord, who died to make us one;
we pledge our lives to thee to serve thee faithfully, guide all we say and do, Thy will be done.

Orange Dawn by Ian Clarke

Orange Dawn was originally inspired by the vision of a dawn scene in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa – awakening exotic animal life was envisaged silhouetted against a dramatic rising sun. The composer had recently co-written and performed background music for a documentary on wildlife in East Africa and was inspired to write this piece. Orange Dawn builds upon that work, incorporating ethnic music from the region and using advanced techniques to make the flute sound like ethnic instruments.