Best hard cover Catholic pew hymnal? Why?

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**I am working with my parish to consider hard cover hymansl for the pews.

Please include the reason for your suggestion and even a web-site that I can find out more.**
 
I would highly recommend the Vatican II hymnal. It contains absolutely no questionable hymns with iffy theology or trite melodies. It also contains translations for the propers, should you or your choir start/continue to use them. I would rate it 5 stars.

A complete hymnlist and more information can be found here:
ccwatershed.org/vatican/
 
The new Vatican II hymnal is great, and I can’t wait to get one for myself. However, since it doesn’t contain any contemporary hymns, it might be a hard sell to the “liturgy committee” of your average parish church. You should take a look at the Saint Michael Hymnal, (www.stmichaelhymnal.com). It contains the order of Holy Mass in both Latin and English, and many beautiful Mass settings both traditional Gregorian chants and dignified settings in English as well as entrance antiphons for all Sunday Masses in English. Most of the hymns are traditional with their original texts, not the Bowdlerized ones that we have been subjected to for the last forty years. This hymnal also contains all of the traditional Latin hymns as well as a large number of hymns in Spanish, which is important in many parishes. A few of the most popular contemporary hymns are also included, as well, since the editors recognized that these hymns are loved by many people. The inclusion of these contemporary hymns makes this hymnal a good transition from the usual OCP and GIA fare that people are use to. As much as we would like to see that stuff go, it might be difficult to wean your parish away from it cold turkey. The St. Michael Hymnal is beautiful and dignified, and might be more acceptable in the average parish where you probably don’t want to start WWWIII! Check it out for yourself.
 
I will be honest in saying that these threads begin with so much potential for meaningful conversation but are quickly quashed by people who pull the thread off topic. This thread was formed to discuss the best possible hymnal for a parish, not serve as a vehicle to sneak in snider comments about GIA or OCP music and post Vatican II music in general. We have a forum for traditional liturgy. As a result, I don’t really see the point of coming in to another part of the forum and bashing the tastes of others there. This post, I guess, is just a culmination of witnessing this sort of stuff in numerous threads, so it has been a long time coming for me.
Eitherway, you can find really wonderful hymnals at the GIA website. If you are mllooking for a more organ based hynnody, I would suggest Worship. You can purchase editions with the order of the mass and Sunday readings.

Hope this helps, and I appologizw for the rant if it seemed uncharitable.
 
superamazingman said:
I would highly recommend the Vatican II hymnal. It contains absolutely no questionable hymns with iffy theology or trite melodies. It also contains translations for the propers, should you or your choir start/continue to use them. I would rate it 5 stars.

A complete hymnlist and more information can be found here:
ccwatershed.org/vatican/
Click to expand...
We are now using the Vatican II hymnal. While I do love the various chant settings of the Mass, some of the hymns are difficult to sing and not all that lovely to hear (ie not especially melodic which makes a new hymn easier to learn for those who don’t read music or have much music training). I do recommend it, but a parish has to be careful when introducing some of the hymns.
 
Our congregation is going to get a new hymnal. We are leaning toward Journeysong by OCP. It seems balanced between contemporary and traditional. The congregation really sings the contemporary songs better than the more traditional ones. Congregational involvement is our number one goal with the hymns. (We would like to find some of the older second edition copies used, but don’t seem to be able to find any.)
 
As a church musician for many years, I’ve had most of them all: Lit Press’s Celebrating the Eucharist missalette, Glory & Praise (various editions), Worship, Gather (various editions), Muzak Issue, People’s Mass Book (1984 ed.), currently working in a Breaking Bread parish.

My recommendation would be based on what your parish’s primary repertoire is? Looking for traditional–I’d go with Collegeville Hymnal or Worship (although the most recent edition of Worship is NOT an improvement over the previous 3). I do not have experience with St. Michael or Adoremus, but those that do have written glowingly of them.

Blended repertoire–JourneySongs is good. Doesn’t include any GIA stuff, but you can get a companion missalette to fill that void. They are coming out with a new JourneySongs this year or next to stay current with the RM3ed. OCP tells me that Glory & Praise is not being revised or updated past the current (1997) edition. You might also give People’s Mass Book (WLP) a try. They came out with a new edition 'round about 2005 or so. The previous one was excellent, and the newer one has been expanded to include many of the popular hymns being sung today. I think its best attribute is it’s physically smaller than most, so the congregation will be able to hold the books with ease. That was the biggest complaint in a previous parish that used the green Gather WITH readings!!! The books were huge! Other blended ones to consider: Catholic Community Hymnal, which is also smaller in size and easy to hold, and RitualSong.

Contemporary–Any of the various Gather books, as well as Glory & Praise (see my comment above). Most of these also include some traditional hymns, but are mostly contemporary. I would avoid Spirit & Song and all of the other “youth” focused hymnals that the publishers are now spewing out by the truckload.

If it were me, personally, choosing books, it would be Collegeville Hymnal for traditional, and either the ORIGINAL Gather from 1988 or Glory & Praise Classic Edition (from 1990, the most recent one with the familiar blue cover) for contemporary.

Best piece of advice I can give you: Stay away from anything disposable that you have to repurchase every year (or 3 in some cases).

Hope I have been of some help!

Websites to check: www.giamusic.org (Worship, Gather, Catholic Community Hymnal, RItualSong)
www.ocp.org (JourneySongs, Glory & Praise)
www.wlp.jspaluch.com (People’s Mass Book)
www.litpress.org (Collegeville)
 
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