Adoremus Hymnal or Worship III Hymnal?

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I was thinking of purchasing a different kind of hymnal (I had been getting OCP’s Breaking Bread for so many years), and I was thinking about getting a more traditional Roman Catholic hymnal. Has anyone had experiences with the Adoremus Hymnal or the Worship III Hymnal? Which of the two has more in it? Which has the better quality in music if I am looking for a more traditional hymnal?

I heard good things about both, so I’m not too sure.
 
CatholicZ09 said:
I was thinking of purchasing a different kind of hymnal (I had been getting OCP’s Breaking Bread for so many years), and I was thinking about getting a more traditional Roman Catholic hymnal. Has anyone had experiences with the Adoremus Hymnal or the Worship III Hymnal? Which of the two has more in it? Which has the better quality in music if I am looking for a more traditional hymnal?

I heard good things about both, so I’m not too sure.
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I don’t have enough experience to speak with any authority about any of them sorry.

However, the Adoremus hymnal is the one I see in most of the pews and it seems to have many traditional songs.

May I ask, why do you want to buy a hymnal? Are you a music leader or do you play an instrument and want to play and sing the hymns at home?
 
I purchased an Adoremus Hymnal a couple of years ago and really like it when attending an OF Mass. I’m not fond of OCP or GIA books at all.

Best check with Adoremus to see if there will be a new issue coming out this fall. If it were me I’d get “The Parish Book of Chant”. It has just about all you’ll need for either form of the Mass.
 
I own copies of both but much prefer Adoremus. W III contains altered texts for many traditional hymns-- sometimes for inclusive language, other times just to “modernize” (for example, to remove Thee/Thou etc), and still others to remove images or ideas that somebody considered offensive (for example, the version “Lift High the Cross” included in W III has “military” sounding phrases changed or removed).

Secondly, Adoremus contains facing Latin and English texts for the Ordinary (though the English will soon be changing) as well as traditional Latin settings for the Ordinary (De Angelis, Orbis Factor, etc.)
 
My biggest gripe with the Adoremus Hymnal is that it’s published by Ignatius Press, which generally means you get shoddy work with an attitude.

For example, the new edition of the Adoremus Hymnal contains numerous errors. Hymn 303, “On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry,” contains at least seven typographical errors.

When I called the editors in San Francisco to point out the problem, they tried to tell me that I must be familiar with a different version. I insisted that they provide me with a revised version without all the mistakes or refund my money. The woman said she didn’t have time to talk to me and refused to refund my money.

I’d be VERY careful getting anything that’s been published by Ignatius Press unless you’ve carefully reviewed it first.
 
I believe that the Worship III Hymnal is no longer in print, but I would advise against it anyway. Their musical arrangements for organ are vastly superior to anything from OCP, but the theology is just as bad if not worse, and that holds true for its successors such as Gather. J.S Paluch used to make a good hymnal (We Celebrate), but they too have fallen into poor theology and inclusive language. Liturgical Press (Collegeville Hymnal) is not among the worst, but the missalettes and organ books are a confusing mess. Don’t bother with the St. Augustine Hymnal. It is basically OCP with a slightly better selection.

My personal favorites are the St. Michael Hymnal and the Vatican II Hymnal. The former contains many orthodox Spanish hymns (which are VERY hard to find elsewhere), while the latter contains a three-year Sunday missal. Both of these are hardbound and are completely orthodox. They also contain songs that are easy to sing by the average congregation, in comparison with many contemporary hymns designed for soloists.
 
I do like both hymnals. The Adoremus has more traditional hymns. I rarely see them in any of churches I’ve freelanced in, though. The Worship III is definitely better than the OCP hymnals, and I like their indexes in the back. The other thing to be aware of, though, is if the pastor would want the Adoremus hymnal. I have colleagues whose pastors don’t want them because they are “too traditional”. They are more open to purchasing the Worship III hymnals though. BUT it seems that more are getting persuaded to go for the Gather hymnal which I don’t really like that much.

Someone mentioned the Vatican II hymnal. That looks really nice as well, but, again, you have to double check with the pastor. Those kinds of hymnals… Adoremus, Vatican II and St. Michael can be a hard sell with them.
 
Have had my hands on hymnals in the past couple of weeks. Worship III touts in the PRINTED literature that it draws from both Catholic and Protestant composers (I notice that word is missing from the web-site ads).

This one has my vote saintaugustinehymnal.com/
 
Castello said:
Have had my hands on hymnals in the past couple of weeks. Worship III touts in the PRINTED literature that it draws from both Catholic and Protestant composers (I notice that word is missing from the web-site ads).

This one has my vote saintaugustinehymnal.com/
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The St Augustine hymnal is beautifully laid out, but be aware it has many hymns from non-Catholic composers (I’d say 30%). It’s a pity that this isn’t acknowledged. I don’t have a problem with this as many of the best traditional hymns come from those sources. Almost all the Catholic hymns in it seem to modern ones.
 
I’d recommend Vatican II Hymnal which, ironically, doesn’t fit most peoples’ ideas of what “Vatican II music” is!
 
YoungTradCath said:
I’d recommend Vatican II Hymnal which, ironically, doesn’t fit most peoples’ ideas of what “Vatican II music” is!
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True - it has a much more traditional core of hymns and settings than we see at most OF masses.
 
liturgyluver said:
True - it has a much more traditional core of hymns and settings than we see at most OF masses.
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And the music itself is thoroughly compatible with Catholic theology and in no way questionable to doctrine. It seems that absolute doctrinal fidelity was one of their major qualifiers for songs.
 
YoungTradCath said:
And the music itself is thoroughly compatible with Catholic theology and in no way questionable to doctrine. It seems that absolute doctrinal fidelity was one of their major qualifiers for songs.
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I agree - a fantastic and beautiful resource.
 
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