To Praise You: Music for the Journey of Faith

Dan Schutte, Oregon Catholic Press

Dan Schutte has created a very easy listening, liturgy based CD here. The vocals are very well handled and some of the music is very lilting and easily learnt.

It has a lot to offer for people and congregations that prefer relatively traditional music, although it has all been written in the last two years, so is still very modern in concept.

Some of the songs are based on ancient texts (the Te Deum and a 14th century writer of sacred words). Several of the pieces are based on Bible passages, from the book of Saint John and Psalms for instance, and others are from the liturgy of a Eucharistic service.

The theology in the poetry of these songs is soundly based and the words don’t just become mantras. The Hymn of Praise is excellently handled and could just as easily be used as a thanksgiving prayer as a song.

There is a song or a hymn for many parts of the more formal liturgy, from a thanksgiving prayer to a hymn for the Eucharist; to a hymn for someone dying or who has recently died.

This is a very worthwhile collection of words and music. Dan Schutte and his colleagues are to be congratulated.

Lyn Housen