The Big Three (Good) Hymnals...which one to choose?!?!?!
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    It appears to me (and I am willing to be told I'm wrong) that Catholic parishes who wish to use a hymnal have three options that offer strong hymnody and respect to Catholic musical patrimony: The Vatican II Hymnal, The Adoremus Hymnal, and The St. Michael Hymnal. I am, frankly, struggling to figure out what our best choice is, so I thought I would present the situation to you, my colleagues, for suggestions, debate, and ideas that I might be missing.

    THE PARISH: Our parish is about 1100 families and offers 4 Masses per weekend (with an additional Extraordinary Form Mass twice a month). At two Masses, the ubiquitous "hymn sandwich" exists, the two others will begin singing the introit, offertory, and communion, as well as the Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia from Corpus Christi Watershed in Advent. The pastor is very supporting of sacred music. Currently the parish uses OCP materials. It will cease doing so on Advent I. The parish uses the Missal Chants and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

    VATICAN II (VII): I recently put this hymnal back on the list when I found out that the binding and paper will be more attractive in the production version than in the perusal copy. I am quite a fan of including the translation of the propers as well as the readings and Chabanel psalms being included. If we do not choose the VII hymnal, we will most likely print weekly sheets with the translation of the propers, the psalm refrain, as well as the readings, which would be a lot of work. There are around 200 hymns, which is plenty for us (and really, plenty for any parish). My concerns are thus: We sing the creed (Credo III in Latin or English) every week. VII doesn't have a musical setting of the creed. We currently use a pew booklet with all of the ordinaries and responses, but it was created to last a year or so, expecting that any hymnal we got would include all the ordinary music. So, we'd either have to continue to use the booklets and replace them as they wear out, or put the creed in the hymnal, perhaps on the back cover. It isn't something I want to do for 700 hymnals, but it is an option. Other than that, I appreciate how incredibly comprehensive VII is....but perhaps it's TOO comprehensive. For example, I'm not sure we will ever need to know the translation of Kevin Allen's motets...and the plethora of additional antiphons I don't think we'd ever use. I'm concerned that the average congregant may find it overwhelming.

    ADOREMUS (AH): I like this hymnal a lot. It's simple and straightforward. I do have to issue the caveat, however, that I have not seen the second edition. It has about 160 hymns, so it has the least number of what we're considering. That isn't a bad thing, though. I find that we, like most parishes, have a core repertoire of hymns that we use. So, the idea of a smaller hymnal is actually kinda nice. It has all of the Missal Chants, as well as 8 Latin settings of the Ordinaries and four English Settings. As noted, I haven't seen the second edition, but if it is like the first, I don't care one bit for having to make the congregation turn pages in order to finish a hymn. I'm also not a huge fan of the first edition's binding. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. I'm concerned what it would look like after 5 years or near daily use. Also, AH isn't available to ship until November 20th....that's cutting things close, but I suppose I could do two weeks of completely printed programs. The hymn selection also seems to be a bit foreign. Don't get me wrong, the hymns are lovely, but we'd be starting from square one, as many of the old favorites

    ST MICHAEL HYMNAL (SMH): This hymnal was at the top of my list for months. Again, I point out that I have an older version, but not the new edition...the hymn list for the SMH (like the other three as well) is on their website. SMH did some excellent revamping. They eliminated most of the fluff-n-stuff hymns that they used to have and really worked toward a solid hymnody. I'm told that some of the harmonization problems between the organ edition and the choral edition has been rectified. The binding is excellent and the printing is clear (at least it is in the old edition....I have no reason to think that it would change). As much disdain as I have for things like "On Eagles' Wings" and "I am the Bread of Life", I do requests for them at funerals on occasion. I assume the folks at SMH knew that when they included a half dozen or so of the "old standard" OCPish hymns. Other than that, all the hymns are solid. There are a LOT of them, too...440. Far more than VII or AH combined. 6 Latin settings of the Ordinary, as well as 12 English settings. I only have two real problems with this hymnal: 1. There are no readings, so we're back to a program. 2. The hymnal has been delayed over and over again....I'm concerned that I could end up having to do a ton of extra work doing extensive programs for another six months while I wait for it to come out

    There you go colleagues! I look forward to your ideas, thoughts, and suggestions..

    Adam S.
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 242
    We chose the Vatican II Hymnal because it is such a complete resource -- the only one that has the readings for Sundays and Holy Days, in addition to all the music that a normal parish could need for usual circumstances. As I've said in other posts, there is no hymnal that has every hymn a person could wish for, so the real question is: Does this have nearly everything I'd need? And in my opinion, the answer is yes. Regarding the Creed, I also thought that a workable solution would be to paste the Creed into the inside of the back cover (2 sheets). This is some work, true, but it gets the job done. Alternatively, a cardstock handout with the Creed on it, as was often done in the "old days," would be serviceable. My experience has been that one additional item in the pews is not too much; problems begin when congregants are expected to juggle more than two things.

    As to the worry that the VII Hymnal is "too comprehensive," that's not a real cause of concern. Every hymnal has stuff that never gets used, and as long as the volume is conveniently sized, those extra pages are, well, just extra pages for you -- no harm or dismay to anyone. The nice thing about the hymnal is that it's actually beautiful inside -- it is not merely functional or utilitarian, but artistic, and inspiring. The woodcuts and decorations subtly communicate a sense of permanence, connection to Catholic tradition, and theological richness. It feels and looks like a Catholic book, and, I'm guessing, over time will be something that people are proud to have and use.

    To me, the Adoremus Hymnal is disappointing precisely for its smallness, its lack of repertoire. 160 hymns is a rather confined number; 200 is better. I hope the 4 English settings are good, because that's not much of a selection (cp. the VII, which has 11 complete settings in English -- Fr. Weber's St. Thomas More Mass actually has 2 of everything). There are several more English ad libitum settings besides, and, in comparison with Adoremus, more Latin settings of the Mass. Again, the mere fact of the selection doesn't mean "overwhelming" to a congregation; they're not being asked to sing more than one Ordinary simultaneously. It just gives the music director and musicians a better selection to choose from, according to circumstances.

    The St. Michael Hymnal does have a good hymn selection overall, and some of the new English Masses are nice, but it's not, as one might say, a "one-stop shop" solution for a parish's needs. I do believe JMO is right to say that the Vatican II Hymnal is the first and only comprehensive hymnal that embodies the Church's authentic vision for sacred music while retaining a place for the custom of hymns. The fact that each Sunday and Holy Day includes not just the text of the readings but also that of all the Proper Antiphons (!) means that whenever a schola or choir chants the Introit, Gradual, Communion, etc., the people will be able to follow along and see the organic connection of all these things to the liturgy of the day. In short, this hymnal is in a class by itself, as far as the "Benedictine reform" is concerned.

    And last but not least, make sure you get hold of a copy the VII Hymnal in its official production version. I can't believe how much better it looks and feels than the prototype.

    Peter Kwasniewski
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Wow. Any of them would be great in OUR pew. Jealous.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    While any of them would be better than what we've had to deal with in the past (and likely will have to in the near future locally), I tend to agree with Prof Kwasniewski on a preference for the Vatican II Hymnal, even granted its one shortcoming in not having a single setting of the Credo (for which an insert attached to the inside back cover would make great sense and really is not all that difficult to achieve - I've seen countless hymnals from all denominations with such pasted in inserts).
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    Thanks for the comments. I think we are moving closer to a decision, but would welcome any further feedback or suggestions that anyone has.

    Adam S.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I am so sorry that I do not have time (AT THIS MOMENT) to add my input on this wonderful discussion.

    However, I would like to point out that the Review Copies that were sent out are NOTHING like the final copies.

    The final copies are . . . the most beautiful, durable books you ever held, and I am not even kidding.

    Adam, when you got your Review Copy, we tried to always make people sign a statement that included a section that TALKS about the fact that the Review Copies were much lower quality.

    Was this a failing on our end? If so, I apologize.
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    I LOVE the St. Michael Hymnal, its selection, and its variety (as well as having a few more standard songs as well as Mass settings from big publishers). However, it is lacking in one major area: its lack of a Psalter. I'm of the opinion that, if you are printing a worship aid every week and do not sing anything at weekday Masses, there is no need for a hymnal apart from perhaps a small self-printed booklet with standard music for funerals and the like. I would consider buying SMH if I could supplement it with a publication like Liturgical Press's "Living Liturgy" Sunday missal, which includes a nice Psalm setting, but would much rather have something more comprehensive like Vatican II or even GIA's Worship.

    I'm not a huge fan of the Adoremus Hymnal because of its selection of hymns. It has always smacked to me of being a "throwback" hymnal rather than being truly in continuity with our liturgical tradition. Many of the hymns chosen are quite sappy, and I feel like they only made the cut because they were popular in the 1950s. It's fine to have those hymns, but I feel like Adoremus has too many of them for how small the hymnal is. Of course, that could change with a new edition.

    I really want to like the Vatican II Hymnal. It's great for what it is (with only public-domain music), but I've never been in a parish where it would be a useful standalone resource. It would be GREAT for daily Mass in many places...except that you don't need all the Sunday readings for a daily Mass. 200 hymns is enough...but you're bound to leave out some major favorites (and many of those 200 have very archaic language ("thou" and "thy" are fine; "didst" is pushing it) or are otherwise unknown). It's also lacking in Latin chants...understandably due to the Parish Book of Chant, but that kind of puts it out of reach of a parish that wants to use some Latin but not need the full PBC.

    Really, I'm quite happy with Liturgical Press's 3-year paperback Sacred Song hymnal. Its only downsides are that so much space is taken up with the Psallite project, which isn't helpful if you aren't going to use it, and that too many of the hymns are simply new texts set to the same hymn tunes. I'd much rather see some more Vaughan Williams, and a bit more on the contemporary side to make it more approachable to the typical parish - it's sort of in no man's land with regard to the intended audience (though I get the impression that they get a lot of their subscriptions from religious communities). In our campus ministry setting, the only thing I would likely replace it with would be Worship IV (or printing our own weekly or seasonal booklets).
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    JMO....no worries. It could well have been that I missed what told me that the prototype was just that...a prototype. I look forward to receiving the production version and making our final decision.

    Adam
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    If having 200 hymns is no enough....you are singing too many hymns!
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