A Little Child Shall Lead
“A voice is heard in Ramah: Rachel weeping for her children,
and she will not be comforted because they are lost . . .”
(Isaiah and the Gospel according to Matthew)
The children and young people reflect on the plight of children through time
and invite us to follow them on their path, ‘making new’ our world.
The joyful hymns and songs extend the invitation
to see again through the eyes of a child.
(Watermead Music 1996)
Background to the Music
In our birth parish of St Theresa’s, Birstall, the children had taken a very active role in the liturgy of the mass. In 1982, on the first Sunday of the month, Fr Joe, the parish priest, invited the children of the parish to lead the prayers. This became a regular monthly celebration know as the “Children’s Mass” and by 1983 a thriving children’s music group had begun to provide an accompaniment to the singing. Over the years this grew into a small orchestra, comprising an assortment of instruments - recorders, flutes, clarinets, violins, cellos, guitars, keyboards, percussion, etc. - played by children from four years old upwards. When it began the eldest young person involved was fifteen, but we found that the youngsters didn’t want to leave after they left school and by 1997 the age range was 4 - 26 years with many of those that had begun as little ones were now returning to help teach the new generations.
When we started composing our Watermead hymns and songs we included writing for the children’s mass, including a children’s mass setting, named after Fr Joe and dedicated to St Joseph Cottolengo - famous for founding a hospice including severely handicapped and deformed children in Northern Italy, during the nineteenth century.
The Music
Listed are all the tracks on the recording, along with the introductory wording that accompanied each title on the cassette insert. All sheet music is available, as are some of the recorded tracks - see details given with each title.
Lyrics are by either Alison Jackson or Fr John
and the music is composed by Alison Kennedy
The insert of the cassette opened out to reveal a print of a painting by Alison, originally painted for her daughter (the little girl representative the two women creators, who also led the children's choir involved in the recording - Alison and Alison)
A Little Child Shall Lead
Rachel cries through time for all children who suffer. The children hear her cry and come to console her and lead the world to a new innocence.
St Theresa’s Theme
The Saint was the patron of the parish. Her childlike simplicity a model for all children.
Children of God
The children begin their journey through the world, with love as the key to open all doors.
Mass of St Joseph Cottolengo
The founder of a hospice for the worlds unwanted. The mass sings that we are all loved children of God.
(The wording has since been revised along with the 2011 translation)
Water and Wine
The children offer their love and hearts to God, mingling and entwining their lives with God.
The Lord’s Way
A celebration of journeys in the Scriptures, of Elijah and the Road to Emmaus and our Gospel following Jesus. The breaking of bread and the gentle breeze
are signs of God’s love.
(An instrumental version is available on the People of God
CD)
Here is My Body
Jesus gives himself in the Eucharist and a promise of peace in his Spirit.
(Also recorded on Mary Our Mother
and the I Call You Friends CD)
Thank You, Lord
The children offer thanks for all they’ve been given,
With new understanding that Christ is their friend.
(Track available on the Our Songs Gave Praise CD)
Christ is a Friend
And the journey of life is full of friends who will listen, follow and love.
(Track available on the Our Songs Gave Praise
CD)
Come Follow Me
The children are the new apostles and disciples, to bring God’s message of love to all nations yet - “The path they must take is rugged and steep”
(Track available on the Our Songs Gave Praise
CD)
Mass of the Holy Innocents
The child sings alone her song of truth and praise of God.
This song follows an instrumental version of the title track A Little Child Shall Lead (the original composition)
inspired by tragic massacre in Dunblane, Scotland
Mass of St Theresa
The child is carried by the children of St Theresa’s in a vibrant, joyful dance in which they scatter the rose petals of St Theresa’s love.
(The wording has since been revised along with the 2011 translation)
The Lost Sheep
The parable is retold in an unusual way, But the message of Matthew (18:14)
remains:
“It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost”
(This track was re-recorded for Don Sings the Parables
with Don Maclean)
The Mass of St Anthony
“Dear St Anthony, there’s a good man; find mother’s glasses as quick as you can.”
The saint guides the children to find their way to God.
Let all Creation
We are all stewards of Creation and sing of God’s love in all creation. We are One - the family is now complete.
Christmas Welcome
Hearts and home are open to welcome Jesus, and the children await his coming.
Glory to God
Children sing the song of the angels at Jesus birth, and invite all peoples to share his peace.
Children of God
The recording concludes with an instrumental version of this hymn - Children continue in every age to bring God’s love.
Background to the Recording
The children’s band was run by Alison and Barbara and, then, in 1994, “another” Alison joined the team of helpers along with her 8-year-old daughter, Felicity. Alison had been writing hymn words that had been set to music by either Alison or Matthew and sung on our previous recordings (see
Mary Our Mother and Our Songs Give Praise).
The Alison and Alison partnership had produced a collection of hymns for children to sing and play at the Children’s Mass, complementing the St Joseph’s mass setting. We decided to make a recording of these hymns and songs and after much rehearsal we spent three evenings during June, 1996, at the recording studio.
All the children of the parish had been invited to prepare for the recording, including the regular members of the children’s band, and on 23rd June 1996, a total of 27 children made it to the final recording days at White House Sound, the studio used for our previous two recordings, along with their shepherd (Fr John), shepherdesess (Doreen, Estelle, Mary, Helen and Marian) and a lost sheep (Don, pictured - the first Don
to lead this song). We cannot include surnames because of data protection, but the names of the young people involved (now all adults) were Laura-Jane, Jenny, Hannah, Thomas, Katherine, Rosanna, Ella, Michael, Francesca, Sarah-Jane, Nicola, Felicity, Katherine, Debbie, Diana, Josephine, Alison, Michael, Ann, Katie, Mikaela, Joseph, Luka, Christine, Elizabeth, Paul, Kelly.
The Workshops & Launch
Out of the enthusiasm of the children’s music group had grown the Children’s Summer Workshops - a week of music, sports, drama and craft activities for children during the summer holidays. The activities would focus on a particular theme that connected with a charity chosen by the children themselves.
When we had begun in 1992, it was with a one-day workshop introducing various aspects of music to children from as young as four years old and culminating in a concert to raise funds for the street children who lived in the sewers of Bogota in Colombia - a charity brought to the attention of our tenor recorder player, Mark, by a street children’s charity Jubilee Action.
By 1996 this now annual event organised a variety of workshops for every day of the workshop week and culminated in fundraising concerts that had introduced us to a variety of charities chosen by our children.
We decided to launch our children’s recording at the 1996 workshops, where the music and singing, dance and drama, crafts and activities workshops focused on preparing the music, drama, and props for our Workshop concert on Saturday 17 August, 1996. This was a visual presentation of the songs from the recording which raised £80 in admission tickets for Jubilee Action’s work with street children.
The original cassette recording of A Little Child Shall Lead is still available and some of the tracks have now been transferred digitally to our database. Where available, the sheet music is obtainable from our online shop
and, although cassettes are not on our online shop, we do still have some left which are purchased on request at a cost of £1 plus p&p.
