Sharing the gift of our own music was the inspiration that began Watermead Publishing Apostolate and from which all other activities have grown. Initially we only planned to sell sheet music and our first recordingwas made as a demonstration cassette, intended to aid those who purchased the sheet music by showing the potential for use with its easy instrumental arrangements and vocal harmonies. This recording was made live in the church on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, through two microphones, and it was only when people of the parish started asking for copies of the cassette that we decided to approach a local recording studio to ask advice on duplication - thus beginning our journey to share our original music through recordings.
This first recording Our Songs Give Praise was shared as a cassette recording but, as music technology has advanced over the years, we have moved from cassettes to CD's and, most recently, downloads. There have been various soloists, choirs and instrumentalists involved, along with those who have allowed their artistic contributions to be used in the presentation - all giving freely of their time and talents to help produce our recordings. The individual recording details are listed below, along with links to the various background stories, related gifts, sample music and, where still available, the recordings. Click on the image to access the recording on our shop website.
OUR SONGS GIVE PRAISE
1994 Our first recording in cassette format included “Our Song Gives Praise”, along with other music composed from within the parish (MASS SETTINGS:Mass of St Andrew
(Lord Have Mercy, Gloria, Holy Holy, Lamb of God) Mass of St Bernard(The Kyrie) Mass of St David
(Lord Have Mercy, Holy Holy, Lamb of God); PRAYER SETTINGS:
The Our Father, The Hail Mary, The Gloria (a 2nd Setting); HYMNS AND SONGS:Christ's Farewell, Come and Hear, Mary Our Mother, Our Songs Give Praise, Pax Christi. Remember Man, Song of Peace, Remember Man, The Amen.
The cassette is no longer available, although some of its tracks were transferred digitly to the "Our Songs Gave Praise" CD.
1995 "MARY OUR MOTHER - A Walsingham Pilgrimage"
was our second cassette recording and the first recorded live in the studio. Towards the end of 1993 our first Marian hymn, “The Pieta”, was completed. The background story so touched and inspired Alison (known as the “other” Alison) that she had gone home and written her own hymn wording, titled “Mary Our Mother”. This was set to music and became the title song and inspiration for our Walsingham cassette recording.
The cassette is no longer available, although some of its tracks were transferred digitly to the "Our Songs Gave Praise" CD.
1995 Our third recording was a selection of instrumental tracks, songs and hymns, sung by various soloists alongside the Watermead Singers - members of St Theresa’s choir who now met regularly outside of their regular parish choir commitments to promote the music of our apostolate through recordings, workshops and music events around the country. The music on the recording takes us from Old Testament to New Testament as seen through the seasons of our lives - Spring Summer, Autumn, Winter - and the promise of eternal life.
In 2006 after many requests the cassette recording was transferred to a digital format and is now produced as a CD and is also available to download.
1996 At our birth parish of St Theresa’s the children had begun taking a very active role in the liturgy of the mass and a regular monthly celebration know as the “Children’s Mass” was started 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, and the Alison and Alison partnership had produced a collection of hymns for children to sing and play. We decided to make a recording of these hymns and songs.
We no longer sell these cassettes (although they are available on request until stocks run out), but some of the tracks were transferred onto the "Our Songs Gave Praise" CD.
1999 In 1998 at one of the Children’s Mass celebrations that Father Peter Walters of "Let the Children Live" came and told his story and how he had come to help the plight of the unwanted “disposable” children (the gamines) in Colombia, whom he lived and worked with. We had first met him in Walsingham when he took our "Mary Our Mother" cassette to help with fundraising and his visit to us was just one of the many he was to make during this home trip and his sharing of the children’s heartbreaking stories, plus his own inspiring vocational journey, left all who heard him wanting to help - most of all our parish children. Realising that most of the music at the mass he had just celebrated had been composed especially for our children, he asked Alison if she could write him a song for his children. She did and the recording was made to help with the charity's fundraising.
This was our first CD recording although we also still made the recording available as a cassette.
2005 In 1994 Father John started using the instrumental versions of our hymns during the Holy Hour at retreats. The people were given hymn sheets containing the wording of a hymn and would then be played its music, asking them to follow the words as they listened, reflecting on and praying them ~ singing them in their hearts. We called this “Music as Prayer” and each retreat we organise includes this prayerful meditative time with music. This recording was produced from requests by people to be able to use for their own 'home' retreat or 'parish group' retreat. On the recording Fr John introduces each piece of music as he would during a retreat.
All Watermead music has been inspired by a person or an event and many pieces have personal stories that others can relate to. As well as Fr John's spoken introduction the story of each piece, the CD is accommpanied by two word books containing the full wording and naming the person to whom dedicated.
2005 This is our 6th recording project. Rebecca and Matthew were asked to sing for this recording following requests from the people of St Joseph's parish, where they worshipped and regularly sang. The couple began singing together in 2002 when Rebecca joined the newly-formed choir, which Matthew had been helping with, and requested that they try a duet. They sang one of Alison's so far unrecorded hymns "I Call You Friends"
as a Communion meditation and people were so moved by their singing of the hymn that the couple started singing regularly together giving voice to several of our Watermead hymns. This recording takes its title from the first hymn they sang together and is a collection of our hymns and Alison's instrumental meditations.
This recording is produced as a CD and is also available as a download.
2004 This recording is a collection of some of the hymns, songs and music that began the Watermead music venture. The tracks chosen have been transferred to CD from their original cassette recordings, as examples of the growth of their music apostolate. The CD was initially put together as a limited edition gift for the people involved in those early recordings, but is now made available to anyone interested in sharing the development of their music - from the first recording of the hymn "Our Song Gives Praise" (live in the church) to the studio recording of "Vivan los Ninos" for the charity "Let the Children Live". Our Songs Gave Praise is a thank you to the people who began Watermead.
There are many more hymns and songs that we could transfer from our early cassette recordings and these will gradually become available as downloads.
2006 Our “Parable story” began one weekend in 2001 when Fr John found himself inspired to write eleven of the parable stories in verse. We had already set the parable of "The Lost Sheep" to music in 1996 for our children's recording, "A Little Child Shall Lead". We decided this new collection of wordings was to be a recording of its own - but who to sing them? Fr John wrote to Don Maclean
the then presenter of “Good Morning Sunday”, the best religious programme on the BBC. He replied immediately and invited us to send the parable verses. He later told us he thought it was a naff idea, setting the parables to music: but he liked what we sent! They made him laugh, he said, and he knew he could make other people laugh – it was an original idea for show business evangelisation! He agreed to make the recording and he was accompanied by Matthew and Rebecca and a small group of our young people.
"The Parables" is a continuously evolving initiative, which has so far seen us produce alongside the CD recording, a production for primary schools, “Parables Made New” and a musical, "The Parables of Jesus", for senior school - and for all ages.
Matthew (formerly autistic) originally recorded this as a surprise for his Mum on her birthday as a thank you for her love and encouragement over 40 years. He has made five recordings with Watermead music, his fine voice taking the lead on many of the songs and hymns, and especially with Rebecca on "I Call You Friends". Matthew also is one of our artists and his paintings and drawings are featured on many of our Watermead projects.
The CD was a collection of songs by songwriters and artists that have inspired Matthew's musical progress over the years.
When people asked for copies of the CD Watermead sponsored its production as a thank you to Matthew for his dedication and support since we began. We obtained the relevant copyright permissions for its reproduction (but only for United Kingdom distribution) and, with profits dedicated to charities involved with autism, we produced 200 copies. The CD has since sold out, although we may seek permission to produce more if requested.
Various people have penned and composed Watermead hymns and many of the wordings have also been used inside our mass cards and greeting cards, as well as in our books of prayer. Our songs and hymns are grouped below as collections, based either on the composer and lyricist or on a particular recording project. The composer's Opus number precedes each title listed (e.g. C1-01) and this number is also used to identify the piece when downloading its sheet music on our shop website. The wordings, recording samples and background stories to each are given on various pages on this website, along with information as to their recording and use on other of our Watermead projects. Follow the links below, where given, to the individuals hymn, music and prayer setting page to listen to a sample of the music, read the lyrics, obtain sheet music, recordings and detail of the stationery and books where lyrics have been shared. (NB Compiling this information is an ongoing process so do keep checking back).