MUSIC MINISTRY WITH BOB HURD

I honed my performance chops as one of Bob Hurd’s supporting musicians, playing piano in his rock band in college, at his workshops at the annual Religious Education Congress in Anaheim and, of course, at liturgy. I eventually added electric bass to my arsenal. I even learned how to play banjo specifically so I could record that instrument on his song, “Anawim,” a bonus track from his second FEL album, Bless the Lord. From Bob, I learned how to accompany and support a lead singer, and we had good chemistry. I knew his phrasing, and I developed a good sense of the sound he was looking for. 

Because I knew how to write music notation, I was also Bob’s arranger, a skill that got me a job at FEL Publications, where I got my feet wet in the liturgical industry. My early arrangements were elementary but I was eager to learn and grow. Bob eventually moved from Los Angeles and we didn’t see each other for many years. 

From my second book, From Mountains High (Chapter Twelve, page 139) 

Bob Hurd was back in the recording studio. It had been six long years since he recorded Bless the Lord, his 1975 album with FEL Publications that was fraught with production disappointments. Hurd composed the songs on his two FEL collections while a student at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Saint John’s College in Camarillo, California. 

Hurd left the seminary in 1974 to pursue doctoral studies in philosophy at De Paul University in Chicago. He volunteered at a local Catholic Worker house, met Dorothy Day, and entered into meaningful discussions with her about social justice in Church and society. While working on his dissertation, he moved back to Southern California and began teaching at Loyola Marymount University. He participated in campus liturgies and worked part-time as a music minister in a Los Angeles parish. During this busy time of academics and ministry, Hurd’s five-year contract with FEL expired. He was now free to start over again as a liturgical composer and relished the opportunity to have greater artistic control over his next project. 

Followers of Hurd’s music noticed a marked difference between his FEL songs and the music he recorded for his new collection, Roll Down the Ages. For his music ministry communities, Hurd began composing songs that were more grounded in liturgy: 

“I also began to realize that I should be writing for an assembly—not my individual tenor voice,” Hurd remembered. “I began to think critically about melodic range and syncopation. While the center of gravity in pop music is the band or the artist, the center of gravity in worship music is 500 or 800 or 1200 people singing together. Finally, if music is servant of the word and the ritual, rather than an end in itself, one should start with the text, and let the text call forth a melody and chord structure. At the same time, I was growing in theological and liturgical knowledge…” 

© 2018, Pastoral Press, Portland, OR

Bob’s Roll Down the Ages album (1980) brought him back into greater prominence as a liturgical composer. This led to a succession of influential albums with OCP (Oregon Catholic Press): In the Breaking of the Bread (1984); Each Time I Think of You (1986); Behold the Cross (1990); and so many more albums recorded with his group Anawim. His new songs fit so well with the liturgy, with soaring melodies, Scriptural texts, and spiritual depth. Bob’s music was underscored by his commitment to Catholic social justice teaching, and he was a pioneer in writing bilingual English and Spanish songs for the multicultural Church. 

I happily followed Bob’s career from long distance and was proud of his success. We had a reunion in San Francisco in the late 1980s at a catechetical conference. By that time, we had both moved to the Bay Area, and he introduced me to Pia, his lovely fiancée. They invited me to their wedding, a joyful liturgy that featured a full-throated assembly singing Bob’s beautiful songs. I eventually started doing music with my friend again, playing bass and piano for his talented choir at the Sunday evening liturgy at St. Leander’s Church in San Leandro. It was awesome for us to be together again. There, at St. Leander’s, we finally started composing together. 

Next blog: Alleluia! Give the Glory 

Some of Bob’s most popular songs from the 1980s: 

In the Breaking of the Bread 

Power of Love 

I Want to Praise Your Name 

Come Unto Me 

Shelter Me, O God

Song of Blessing 

Create in Me 

Flow, River, Flow

O Sacred Head 

Behold the Cross 

God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow 

Pan de Vida 

Pueblo de Dios