My Mouth Shall Proclaim Your Praise

People keep telling me that they can't join the choir because they don't read music. Well, reading music is nice, but not necessary, depending on the level of musicianship and the difficulty of the music in your parish choir. But it got me thinking... what if they could? So I asked my pastor for a minute at the end of each Mass one weekend to make "an announcement." (To be fair, if he didn't want me to go on for a bit, he should have said no - he's seen the length of my previous "announcements," so it's on him, really.) Below is the text of the announcement I gave: "Hello, my name is (Kathleen), and I am the director of music here at (church). For over 20 years, it has been my honor to help enrich the liturgical life of this wonderful parish, with the help of a team of dedicated and talented musicians. I’m not actually here to recruit you to join the choir - in fact, the choir is just about to take their summer break, so that announcement wi

 Hymn Title: I Bind Unto Myself Today Tune Name: ST PATRICK"S BREASTPLATE / DIERDRE Meter: LMD (Long Meter Double, that is, 88 88 two times) The first hymn I put up on this site was a fine example of an old Irish lorica  or prayer of protection. This one is the Big Great Grandaddy of all Old Irish Loricas, named the breastplate of St Patrick. If hymns were people, this one would be a legendary general. If hymns were food, this one would be an entire banquet. If hymns were dwelling places, this one would be a fortress. Performance of this wonder should not be undertaken without preparation - it's hard to know what is going on and when, unless everyone has looked over the music together at least once. The first verse is a shortened version of the subsequent verses, so I have typeset it first by itself, outside of the repeats. Then, you may notice that the remaining verses are numbered 2-5, then 7. This is because, not content to be a great hymn, this one sidetracks for the s