Four Part Harmony for Hymns?

[Usige]

If the parishes actually have hymnals you are doing great. Most in my neck of the woods use the OCP paperback missals like Choose Christ or Breaking Bread. Some parishes just project the words (no notation) onto large screens. I have never seen these with 4 part harmonies, but then again I try not to dig too deep into OCP publications. These theoretically save a ton of money, but technically require a new subscription each year. Over 4 - 5 years they tend to cost about the same as a good hardbound hymnal that could last 10+ years.

There are hardback hymnals that have 4 part harmonies, but often are sold as choir and harmony only/pew editions. I think when I bought my copy of the Adoremus Choir Hymnal the difference in cost was perhaps 4 dollars ($15 compared to $19).

I tend to simply provide my own baseline. Our choirs don’t tend to sing one so I don’t have any phrasing conflicts.

 

[MRittenhouse]

Also, MRittenhouse, welcome to the Catholic Church!! I joined 7 years ago myself. Don’t let the lack of 4-part harmony get you down too much. I would be tempted to try different parishes, and stick to the one that suits you best. I’m thinking that if you were Anglican, you might be used to rather higher-quality music than the average Catholic parish. Is there possibly an Anglican-use parish you could try also?

Thank you! As far as parish-shopping goes, it’s hard to tell from this list which is what, but I don’t think the Anglicans ever had much of a toehold here. There is one tiny Anglican church operating (an Episcopal refugee) currently in all of Utah, as far as I know.

I came from an Anglican church in Dallas that boasted a very vocal congregation. I could hear other men singing bass along with me. As someone above said, the melody line usually goes out of a bass’ reach several times in a hymn, and it’s disheartening to have to just fall silent then.

 

[Edmundus1581]

It is well known that Catholic congregations (in general) don’t participate well in singing, and that participation is particularly low among men.

Men and Liturgical Music.

 

[MRittenhouse]

My solution as someone who is a classically trained tenor: bought my own hymnal.

What a terrific idea! We’re a family of five, and I want our kids to learn how to sing from a hymnal. With two copies we could swing it.