Hymnal/Songbook recommendations

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Iowander

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I’m helping organize a brand new parish, and I volunteered to check out hymnals/songbooks and missalettes. We pretty much only have personal experience with Oregon Catholic Press, but I’m sure there’s something better out there. What do you all recommend?

Bonus points for inexpensiveness. We’re new and don’t have much money.

While you’re at it, I’ll also take recommendations on pretty much everything else. We need just about everything you can think of.
 
Iowander said:
I’m helping organize a brand new parish, and I volunteered to check out hymnals/songbooks and missalettes. We pretty much only have personal experience with Oregon Catholic Press, but I’m sure there’s something better out there. What do you all recommend?

Bonus points for inexpensiveness. We’re new and don’t have much money.

While you’re at it, I’ll also take recommendations on pretty much everything else. We need just about everything you can think of.
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Inexpensive does not always mean that it is correct. While I can very well understand the budget situation, you do not have to resort to OCP.

I would try the Adoremus hymnal. It is solidly Catholic and well grounded. Plus, the hymns are traditional and easy to sing. Their mass settings are 100% faithful to the official texts. You can’t go wrong there.

GIA’s Worship III book is great. You might want to check with neighboring parishes to see if they have the older edition that they might not use anymore. The older edition does not the “inclusive” language edits that the newer one does. At our Cathedral, we bought the older Worship III hymnals from a parish in Austin that made the move to RitualSong. It was a great investment.
 
By Flowing Waters is excellent (though it’s more of a choir book–still useful to people in the pews), and I love the Parish Book of Chant. I agree that the Adoremus hymnal is also pretty good. You should check out the Simple English Propers project. Excellent resources there as well.
 
The one I’ve always wanted is the St. Michael hymnal (site is stmichael.findeight.com/). The new edition isn’t out yet, though. I don’t know if they print enough for a whole other church, or what the cost is. But it will be compatible with the new missal. If you click on New Edition>Hymns, there’s a PDF with a complete list of contents.

Edit: Looks like someone beat me to it! 🙂
 
benedictgal said:
GIA’s Worship III book is great. You might want to check with neighboring parishes to see if they have the older edition that they might not use anymore. The older edition does not the “inclusive” language edits that the newer one does. At our Cathedral, we bought the older Worship III hymnals from a parish in Austin that made the move to RitualSong. It was a great investment.
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There’s no hymnal better than the one you reference here. Its correct title is Worship II.
 
As for your new parish, I assume you’ll need vestments. Here are some very nice vestments, in both styles, with all the “fixin’s” for the EF too (that still may be used in the OF, don’t forget :D)

catholicliturgicals.com/

Gothics: (click details to buy them)
catholicliturgicals.com/vestments.php

Fiddlebacks (click details to buy them)
catholicliturgicals.com/roman_vestments.php

Copes for Benediction and Public LOTH:
catholicliturgicals.com/copes.php

Solemn Mass Sets:
catholicliturgicals.com/estore.php?catid=48

I hope tis is helpful! These will probably be the cheapest vestments you’ll find with this much quality (both in workmanship and overall style).
 
benedictgal said:
I own the Worship II. It’s a shame that it is no longer in print. :mad: I really enjoy it.
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I agree.

I also like the Worship III out of most of the more currently published hymnals. The Adoremus Hymnal is also good, but have found there tends to be more pushback from certain parishes, at least from the pastors, when it is proposed to get them.

I think investing in a good hard-cover hymnal is much better than going for the paperback ones. They last longer and you do end up saving more money in the long run because you don’t have to buy new music issues every year. My parish has had the Worship III hymnals for years and they are in excellent shape. Another parish who also uses the Worship hymnals has had them for at least 20 years - as long as I can remember from the time I was a little girl and they are also in great shape. I like the variety of hymns in them.

I also agree with BG about looking into buying used hymnals. I know of one parish that a colleague of mine used to work in which had gorgeous Adoremus hymnals because the pastor insisted on them. When he left, though, the new pastor promptly got rid of them and the music program there. I don’t know what he did with them, but I’m sure he sold them. They wouldn’t just throw them out. Although I worked at a parish once where the new pastor threw out all of the old St. Gregory Hymnals. I went through the trash can and was able to salvage a few (choral version and pew version) which has come in handy for a few freelance jobs I’ve had.
 
There’s only one problem with buying used hymnals. The order of Mass will soon be out of date. Can’t you just imagine the posts we’ll see here from people visiting a Catholic parish for the first time and being confused by the fact that the missal says one thing and the people pray another?
 
You can’t go wrong with the old St. Gregory Hymnal. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that it’s in the public domain. There’s a website which has an online version, which is downloadable, but I won’t post it until I find out for sure that it doesn’t break any copyright laws. The St. Gregory Hymnal has hymns in both Latin and English, and the least traditional hymn I’ve found in there is “Crown Him With Many Crowns,” which should tell you something…
 
Purchase a Kyriale and sing the introits, antiphons, communions, and ordinaries of the Mass. Everything else is bunk. 👍
 
baltobetsy said:
There’s only one problem with buying used hymnals. The order of Mass will soon be out of date. Can’t you just imagine the posts we’ll see here from people visiting a Catholic parish for the first time and being confused by the fact that the missal says one thing and the people pray another?
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That’s true I didn’t think about that. Come to think about it, though, at both the parishes I’ve attended which use the Worship hymnals now still have paperback missalettes I think published by GIA. For the one parish, they don’t always use the hymnals especially for our Latin OF masses, in which case we use a music program (although we have a music program for all the masses) with translations of the choral motets, the chants, etc. and because we’re in the city, they keep the hymnals and missalettes locked up whenever they aren’t being used.
 
With the new Missal coming out for use with Advent this year, I’d not buy anything permanent yet.

I will note for future reference that the Adoremus hymnal currently has the ordinary of the Mass in both Latin and English (left page/right page) with the rubrics. I assume the new edition will have the same. If that proves to be the case, I would opt for Adoremus - it’s just too helpful to have the rubrics and Latin right there.
 
not OCP would be my choice

I would not invest in permanent hardcover books for a couple of years until all the revisions are in place

go with a missalette for a couple of years before you make the investment

one encouraging thing about the changes in the Mass is the thought of all those Gather hymnals going to recycling, yay
 
baltobetsy said:
How sad is that?
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Yes, it is sad, but there has been a history of thefts of the hymnals as well as break-ins. The parish is open all day long (it’s the diocese’ cathedral) until about 5:00 p.m., so anyone can walk in, which is great most of the time. Unfortunately, though, you also sometimes have people with mental disorders who come in, desecrate statues, take books, hymnals, urinate in corners, among other things, including attacking people during mass or after. I witnessed one of the incidents. It was a woman and it took a few men to tear her off of the person she was attacking. Most of these people are homeless. It is tragic and sad, and one can’t/shouldn’t turn a person away because they’re homeless since most of the ones I’ve met in the church and outside of it are fine and friendly. They don’t ask for money. They are usually there to pray or think or to just come in from the cold/hot weather. But that topic is for a different thread.

The other parish is in the country, the church is open all the time… I could even sleep there overnight if I wanted to, since it was never locked. They leave the hymnals in the pews as there has never been an incident of theft or vandalism.
 
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