What Should Catholic Hymnal Editors Know?

Lots of new congregational hymnals on the market for U.S. Catholics.

There is Worship 4 and Gather 3 and Lead Me, Guide Me 2 and Oramos Cantando from GIA.

OCP doesnโ€™t seem to mention it on their website but I believe theyโ€™re planning to revise JourneySong to come out in 2012.

There are several hymnals from the โ€œtraditional/conservative sideโ€ competing for a small but growing market:

the Vatican II Hymnal from Corpus Christi Watershed,
the Adoremus Hymnal from Ignatius Press,
and St. Michaelโ€™s Hymnal from Linda Schafer and Br. Michael Oโ€™Connor, OP.

Weโ€™ll have occasion to talk more about all these hymnals.

But for now, letโ€™s step back from the hymnal contents and look at the prior issue of the editors of hymnals โ€“ the background and knowledge editors need to do their work of editing.

What qualifications shouls hymnal editors have? Iโ€™ll start the conversation with this short list. (Iโ€™m limiting myself to English-language hymnals.)

Knowledge of the reformed liturgy: an understanding of all the reformed rites of the Catholic church, and a vision of the role of music in the reformed rites. Because there are competing visions of the meaning of Vatican II out there, it is now more necessary than ever for editors to be well-informed in liturgical theology and well-read in liturgical scholarship.

Experience and practical knowledge in promoting congregational song. This includes the ability to recognize melodies (of Mass settings, or refrains and antiphons, of hymns) that are and are not singable by congregations.

Practical wisdom on layout and presentation. For example, knowing what a congregation needs (clear font for text, music for all sung items) and what it doesnโ€™t (guitar chords, page references for accompaniments, planning help and advice alongside congregational repertoire).

Understanding of the role of the choir in Catholic worship so that appropriate distinctions are made between things sung by choir and things sung by congregation. Choir editions should help the choir carry out its unique ministry rather than duplicate the congregationโ€™s role.

Knowledge of Gregorian chant in Latin and English, with good sense about the available repertoire, what is appropriately provided to congregations, and how it is best laid out to encourage congregational participation.

Openness to cross-cultural expansion of congregational repertoireโ€“ both because Church documents call for cultural sensitivity and because the canon of English-language church music is being expanded in many directions (culturally, linguistically), as seen in so many recent hymnals.

Then there are so many things needed to edit the hymns.

Knowledge of the liturgical role of strophic hymnody in Catholic worship, including both the extensive history of Catholic congregational vernacular hymnody at Mass and the wide latitude granted to liturgical planners by current Church legislation. A vision of how hymnody relates to the rites, and how hymnody relates to the Mass lectionary, is very important.

Knowledge of the [ever-changing, ever-growing, ever-being-redefined] โ€œcanonโ€ of congregational hymnody in all its historical depth. A good hymnal editor should be a hymn/hymnal geek, with a large collection of hymnals from many traditions. A lifetime of regular attendance at Hymn Society conferences would be a great help.

Knowledge of the sources and reference material so that wise editorial decisions can be made about melodic and textual variants. On the editorโ€™s shelf should be Julian, Higginson, Westermeyer (Let the People Sing), Routley (the one on texts and the one on tunes), and the like.

Commitment to ecumenism and love of the ecumenical richness of hymnody. Catholics have sung vernacular Protestant hymns at Mass in every era since the Protestant Reformation. (Yes, this is really true. For further info, see chapter 23 of my big book.) The reformed liturgy offers an excellent means for ecumenical convergence between Catholics and other Christians, and the editor should know how to make good use of Protestant hymnody.

What would you add to or change in this list?

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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Comments

39 responses to “What Should Catholic Hymnal Editors Know?”

  1. Can’t add much more to what is already written above but a hardback book that is also easy to hold (especially for small children and elderly people) not too cumbersome, and with a couple of ribbons to mark places. I especially liked the Worship II hymnal that my former parish bought in 1991 (and still have today) that had the three year cycle of readings and responsorial psalms and refrains. They’ve never purchased a missalette in 20 years. Whatever hymns are chosen, publishers should make sure the theology and doctrine of the words is correct for Catholic usage. Would also like the printed official introit, offertory antiphon and communion antiphon for daily or Sunday Mass without music. It would be nice too that the order of the Mass be easily accessible and compact especially for inquirers who are beginning to attend Mass. It would be nice to have a brief wedding section as well as funeral section (order of Liturgy).

    1. I agree about hymn lyrics and theology. We sing way too many Protestant hymns. Some are lovely melodies, but some of the lyrics are not just not Catholic, they are sometimes hostile to Catholic teaching. Hymns are teaching moments if done right.

      1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
        Anthony Ruff, OSB

        I’ve never in my life seen lyrics “hostile to Catholic teaching” in a Catholic publication (or in a mainline Protestant hymnal, for that matter). I very much doubt there have been any.
        awr

      2. Jay Taylor

        I don’t see why the origin of a hymn should qualify or disqualify it for inclusion in the repertoire. I think there are many excellent “Protestant hymns”.

        My suggestion for Fr. Ruff would be a request that editors _not_ change the lyrics from the music as received from the source unless it’s essential to avoid heresy. Singing the same hymns with the same words as our Protestant brothers and sisters fosters ecumenism, something in increasingly short supply now that our “common” prayers will be said in different translations.

      3. Iโ€™ve never in my life seen lyrics โ€œhostile to Catholic teachingโ€ in a Catholic publication (or in a mainline Protestant hymnal, for that matter). I very much doubt there have been any.

        In a 2003, article, George Weigel citesFor the Healing of the Nations” found in the United Methodist Hymnal.

        Verse three

        deplores “Dogmas that obscure your plan.” Say what? Dogma illuminates God’s plan and liberates us in doing so. That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches.

      4. Karl Liam Saur

        Sam

        Dogma refers generically to belief; there are myriad secular and non-Catholic dogmas that obscure God’s plan. The reference is therefore equivocal not hostile (and equivocal and incomplete theological reference is not something unknown to Catholic hymnody).

      5. The theology of “Once to Every Man and Nation” clearly reflects its 19th century Unitarian theology. It was in the official Episcopal Church hymnal prior to the 1982 revision.

      6. Karl, the author, Fred Kaan, was a minister of the United Reform Church (UK) which according to the BBC “is not dogmatic and embraces a wide variety of opinions.” I don’t really see any reason to think that the meaning of “dogma” here is analogical. This UK church web site also talks about them being non dogmatic in the ordinary “religious dogma” sense.

      7. Gerard Flynn

        Clearly, S.J.H., you consider ‘different from’ and ‘hostile to’ to be synonymous.

      8. Karl Liam Saur

        Sam

        But that’s the joy of equivocal language; that meaning is by no means necessarily understood by those of us singing it. You’re finding hostility instead of equivocation. You’re entitled to. I am just entitled to find your argument unpersuasive.

      9. Gerard Flynn

        S.J.H., there are at least two non sequiturs in your posting:

        Since when did the B.B.C. become the arbiter of the dogmatic reliability of any church?

        An author/poet may belong to a particular church without any one of her/his compositions encompassing all of that group’s objectionable dogmatic positions.

      10. Since when did the B.B.C. become the arbiter of the dogmatic reliability of any church?

        The BBC is a generally reliable mainstream news source. Unless you have some alternate evidence that the denomination in question is dogmatic.

        An author/poet may belong to a particular church without any one of her/his compositions encompassing all of that groupโ€™s objectionable dogmatic positions.

        Sure, but as interpreters of a text, it’s reasonable to consider external evidence in sussing out its likely meaning. Wimsatt and Beardsley of Intentional Fallacy fame are dead and buried.

        Criticism of “dogma” from a minister of a “non dogmatic” Church is reasonably suggested to be more likely by his membership to be criticism of religious dogma than if he were an orthodox Jew or a Catholic.

        UPDATE: The “About Us” page of the United Reformed Church web site links to the BBC page and notes that it was “written by Former Moderator of General Assembly, the Revd Dr Stephen Orchard.”

      11. Lynne Gonzales

        For some reason, this brings to mind a short phrase I’ve not heard often, but which made a big impression (otherwise I wouldn’t remember it!!):

        “Abused by dogma”…

  2. Bill deHaas

    Well thought out, Fr. Anthony.

    Make be off base but:
    – your first point may also include knowledge of ecclesiology per VII
    – how about something on sacraments/symbol language from VII era
    – ecumenism – very important historical and current advice
    – bilingual or conditions in which english is not the primary language

  3. Karl Liam Saur

    1. They should be giving much, much more emphasis than they have in the past to vernacular chant and song in general that does not need accompaniment and can become owned by congregations without accompaniment. Like the Snow setting of the Our Father, but across the entire liturgy. So that a congregation can gather and sing, largely on its own power, so to speak.

    2. There should be a much increased emphasis on resources for singing the Ordo (by both priests and congregants) and the Lectionary Psalter. The struggle over hymns vs propers should recede (somewhat) if this more important form of singing is given the emphasis it deserves. This is not a sexy issue, and it’s where far more work needs to be done.

    3. For metrical pieces, they should discourage rhythms/lines that vary from verse to verse where the congregation might be expected to sing them.

    4. More robust indices.

    5. At the level of music editing: I’ve seen too many choral settings of contemporary works that show the lack of a good editor, basic counterpoint flaws (in voice-leading and cadences) that trip up amateur singers unnecessarily, et cet. All works should be vetted by someone who knows the compositional art well.

    6. It would be nice someday to see an optional supplement (perhaps to be sliped into a cover pocket) that includes translations of propers texts for Sundays, solemnities and major feasts (those texts are not typically long).

  4. Speaking as one of the hymnal editors (of WLP’s “We Celebrate”) I felt proud to know that each item on the list above could be checked off by the folks here on our editorial team. More precisely, among all of us these characteristics are present – for example, anyone who needs to refer to Julian, Higginson, Westermeyer, Routley, or even Fr. Ruff’s Big Book can come to my office to borrow a copy (or use the copy I’ve put in our main reference library).
    WLP’s “We Celebrate” is at http://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/8460.htm

  5. Most everything Fr Anthony and Karl said.

    I have yet to see instrumental editions from GIA that didn’t give me the impression they were slapped together. Or just cut and copied from other arrangements. The error rate is probably near 5%, but it causes enough headaches to be a consistent problem.

    WLP tried to promote their new Lectionary Psalter effort about a year ago. There was a howling musical typo in the sample used for the layout on their brochure. I contacted them about it–but no word.

    There’s no way I’m going to invest in a published product that’s not been properly vetted by ensemble musicians. Too many problems with the GIA hymnals of the 90’s–every single one of them. I have yet to be convinced that WLP or OCP is significantly better.

    While I have no doubt about the quality of musicianship of people like David Anderson, Jerry Galipeau, and Alan, and the others I’ve known at OCP, I’ve yet to be convinced they take ensemble music seriously.

    Please, no more arrangements like “This organ accompaniment is not compatible with instrumental editions. Please have your pianist improvise on the guitar chords.” If need be, offer “advanced” arrangements of ensemble music that permit nice choral harmonies with competent instrumentalists.

    And definitely yes, a more robust index, please.

  6. Fr. Jim Chepponis

    I was privileged to serve as one of the five general editors for GIAโ€™s new hymnal, โ€œWorship, Fourth Edition,โ€ which should be available literally any day now. We worked for more than two years on this hymnal, and I believe all the editors fulfilled the qualifications listed above by Fr. Anthony. We took our job very seriously.

    Concerning the background of the five general editors, the preface to Worship IV states:

    โ€œThe hymnal committee of five chosen for Worship-Fourth Edition boasts over two hundred combined years of experience as pastoral musicians in parish, cathedral, and seminary settings, with additional experience as pastors and teachers; diocesan liturgy and music directors; staff to the liturgy secretariat of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; composers, writers, editors, and publishers; and members, presenters, and leaders in organizations such as the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.โ€

    The full preface (which presents the philosophy of the hymnal and provides information on the bookโ€™s contents) can be read here:

    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/hymnals_worshipIV_preface.cfm

  7. Terri Miyamoto

    They should have a good grasp of the role of typology in the Church’s understanding of itself and in the way we interpret scripture, and be able to see how our traditional language can lead to a supersessionist interpretation of scripture and prayer texts. They should have read Nostra Aetate and later documents concerned with the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

  8. This is probably not a practical comment, but what I remember best about the hymnals at church was that the print was too small for me (with macualr degeneration) to read – I gues large print hymnals would be too cumbersome?

  9. The idea of a hymnal actually held in your hand is something I associate with my youth in the Presbyterian Church in Australia – it was always blue and every second song was Horatio Bonar. Since I became a Catholic our parish has had projected words, so although we have some pew copies of “As One Voice” the most commonly used collection in Australia, I think of a hymnal as collection of worship music from which is selected appropriate music for liturgy rather than something I might actually have in my hand. The responses above suggest that is not the case in the US.

    The essentials Anthony notes are most wise, but I would add that the gift of musical ability does not necessarily also include the gift of understanding what amateur and near nonmusicians can acheive. When there are few paid musicians, let alone music liturgists, as is the case for most Australian parishes in the suburbs, unless that skill is also present, music that is inappropriate for a lot of situations is selected. Of the six mass settings chosen for Australia for example only half are playable with the usual basic resources.

    From an editing perspective it appears many musicians see what should be there rather what is actually printed, because they just know what the next note is going to be. I have discovered this while entering hymns a note at a time into a music program – you soon find the errors, as the computer has no musically correcting ear..

    1. Siobhan Maguire

      Siobhan Maguire
      “the gift of musical ability does not necessarily also include the gift of understanding what amateur and near nonmusicians can acheive”

      I’m not sure whether you say that we can or cannot expect this of a person with musical gifts.

      In any case, I assert that you CAN and SHOULD expect this of a person who is choosing music for congregational singing. And if your (unpaid, paid, professional, amateur) parish musician does not yet have this skill, then it is the responsibility of the parish to pay for training that will improve that person’s general music skills.

      The very important skill of judging what is appropriate for the unrehearsed assembly will increase with the other musical skills.

  10. Hugh Farey

    I get quite cross when words of hymns I thought I knew are altered to fit new ideas about inclusion (from ‘mankind’ to ‘people’ for example, although some are a lot more contrived). Perhaps editors should put a “what’s new” page into the front of new hymnbooks, rather like the one that appears with new editions of operating systems, to tell us what they’ve done.

  11. Bobby Stritch

    Technical, not editorial, request – an iPad edition for planning purposes. Why haul a hymnal between home and office?

    1. Karl Liam Saur

      Along those lines, there should be separate electronic modules for service music, psalter and hymnody. Bundling should be optional.

  12. Jordan Zarembo

    The best “sound” is often none at all. Silence is in such short supply in our hectic postmodern world. The world needs more low Masses. What better time is there for contemplation and for reflection than at said Mass? Often interior participation is much more intense than exterior participation.

    That said, sneaking a few hymns from The Hymnal 1940 now and again might not be a bad idea ๐Ÿ™‚ It is quite unfortunate that the Mass ordinary settings in The Hymnal can’t be used given their incompatibility with the new translation ๐Ÿ™

    1. Just not “Once to Every Man and Nationโ€ as noted above. ๐Ÿ™‚

    2. Jordan Zarembo

      That’s true, Howard. Not everything in the Hymnal 1940 is suitable. However, many of the hymns are fully orthodox masterpieces.

      Hopefully a consortium of the Anglo-Catholics crossing the Tiber will compile a new hymnal of favorite and orthodox hymns from The Hymnal 1940, The English Hymnal, and other hymnals of the Anglican traditions. That sounds like the fixings for a good four-hymn sandwich! ๐Ÿ™‚

    3. While trying to get “Sounds of Silence” earworm out of my noodle, Jordan, might I offer that “sound” is nowhere near synonymous with “music,” unless you’re John Cage maybe.
      Without taking anything away from your personal preference, the Missa Lecta is, and always has been as I understand it, an accomodation. I’m not arguing for or agin’ it, but if I’m truly invested in the Real Presence, that doesn’t just refer to a Eucharistic cosmology. Enjoining choirs of angels and saints in both real time and otherwise is not symbolic in my estimation, and the hymn unending is a music/language (mere words insufficient) that I long for more than does the hart for running streams. All this chanting and singing may sound like noise to some, but I figure we’re all just warming up for “The Show.” To each, his or her measure, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find Helen Keller leading one of those choirs.

    4. Jordan Zarembo

      Re: #28 by Charles Culbreth on October 14, 2011 – 10:03 pm

      I apologize Charles. “Sound” was not an accurate or charitable way to characterize church music or the sung Mass. All the Christian traditions, both pre- and post-Reformation, have lifted their voices, instruments, or both to the glory and service of God. The necessity of voice, string, and pipe should never be neglected in Christian liturgy.

      It is true that the early medieval church gradually permitted said Mass for the multiplication of votives and requiems. As is often true, the exception became the norm. The Council’s exhortation for more sung Masses was most timely given that many Catholics before the Council rarely attended a well-sung Mass. As I am fond of saying, the first time my parents attended Solemn Tridentine Mass was after Summorum Pontificum!

      Even so, John Cage and his performance art might also reveal another side of worship — the value of long stretches of silence. Sung liturgy of all Christian stripes often fatigues me. Any Chistian liturgy without a pause for at least a few minutes of silence exhausts my mind to the point where the spoken word dissolves within the folds of liturgical song. I often attend Sunday EF low Mass for this reason. I sit in the last pew of a basilica, far from the altar and in almost complete silence for the entire Mass. The priest and server’s gestures tell the progress of the Mass. In this silence, I contemplate the text and prayer in motion. A Mass contemplated in silence is akin to the unfolding of a complex mathematical equation before one’s eyes. This equation, however, is our salvation re-presented for the remission of sin and administered for the grace of souls: the absolute physics of creation given for us in forty-five minutes.

      For some, an intellectual presence of the cherubim is as sustaining as the most participatory Sanctus.

  13. I feel the need to explain myself. I live and grew up in the southern united states and am one of the few Catholics I know that did not move here from somewhere else. Protestants are very evangelical, and adhere to a sola scriptural/sola fide set of beliefs which is hostile to catholic teaching. Not all Protestant hymns are hostile to catholic teaching – I have never seen a Charles Wesley hymn I found offensive – but pick a hymnal published in the last 40 years and I will pick out a few songs for you that push the sola scriptural/sola fide position. Maybe I am too sensitive to it, but I have been beaten over the head with it a lot.

  14. Jack Wayne

    I think knowledge of the EF would be something a hymnal editor should also have (regardless of whether or not they endorse its use) since the OF Mass doesn’t exist in a post Vatican II vacuum.

    There are also more and parishes out there using both forms of the Mass, so I wonder if there might be an ever-growing market for hymnals that can be used for both. Of those listed above, the Vatican II Hymnal seems to be the closest thing to a bi-form hymnal/Missal currently available – though it’s unfortunate that it includes the whole OF lectionary, but not the EF lectionary. A church using it wouldn’t need the Ecclesia Dei books, though.

  15. Lynne Gonzales

    Somehow all this has me seeing $$$$$$$$$$$$ in front of my eyes…new sacramentaries, new hymnals, new music accompaniment books, new music for entire choirs….this is not the economic climate in which to introduce big changes that require big expenditures…I don’t know of one parish locally who actually meets their current budget…too many unemployed, too many who can bare make house payments (if they haven’t already lost their homes)….there are simply more important claims on $$$ than massive wording changes and expensive new books and music.

    1. Gregg Smith

      VERY good point…but Rome doesn’t care about that. All their needs (and our Bishops) are taken care of. Obviously they haven’t been watching CNN.

  16. Nicholas Clifford

    Congregational hymns are meant to be sung by the congregation. Why do so many stand silent, simply looking on, rather than joining in? But if hymns are to be sung, they must be real tunes, not merely ersatz “folky” warbles with no recognizable tune (as is true of many in “Glory and Praise,” for instance.

    Protestants know this, and most Prot. hymns have good tunes and good words (of course there are some dogs in the bunch — think of “Onward Christian Soldiers!”) but they’re easily avoided. Hence the Wesleys, or the splendid Lutheran chorale tunes, or Vaughan Williams.
    On the other hand, I would agree that at times Silence is really important. Why do we need the organ warbling in the background as we take the Eucharist? Only because in we have been conditioned in our Muzak-driven society to think that silence is boring, and we must be somehow entertained with sound, however inane it might be.

    A further comment on Catholic and Prot hymns. In our church, at a recent Mass we opened with Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is our God” (splendid hymn!) and closed with Faber’s “Faith of our Fathers” (an OK hymn). But I wonder how many in the congregation realized that Luther’s “ancient foe” was, of course, Satan, whose work, as he saw it, was being done by the church of Rome, while Faber’s “fathers chained in prisons dark” were, of course, English Catholics suffering under the likes of Reformation sovereigns like Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. Perhaps we were just being ecumenical, conscious of the sufferings of Protestants in Catholic hands, and Catholics in Protestant hands.

  17. Nicholas Clifford

    Sorry if this loaded twice. I don’t think I quite understand the mechanics here.

  18. Michael Cymbala

    Having served on more hymnal committees than I can recall, I can honestly say that you have covered all the bases. I would, however, like to look at your โ€œsongs/hymns to be includedโ€ question from a different angle.
    Before you think about what songs you might like to add to a new edition of a hymnal, what songs would you remove from the previous edition? Space is a real issue. Imagine your favorite living composer. Quite possibly this talented and gifted person is your contemporary, a real person, who lived though the same renewal as you did, a kindred spirit, a friend, a pastoral musician who attended Scrantonโ€™s first NPM just like you did, a fellow laborer in the vineyard. Imagine having to tell that person that his or her most current, or maybe most favorite, composition will NOT be included in the next edition of the companyโ€™s hymnal. Therein lies the difficult work of the hymnal editor. In this era of prolific composition, todayโ€™s hymnal editor is not just someone who decides what WILL be included in the next edition of some famous book, todays hymnal editor is also the person that will decide what songs will NOT be included.
    Todayโ€™s hymnal editor has to come up with some pretty good reasons for excluding a song that a particular composerโ€™s spouse, friend, or grandmother just happens to think is the best thing since sliced bread! : ) Todayโ€™s hymnal editor has to take on the role of diplomat. And that important and difficult task, Fr. Anthony, is the only thing I can say you failed to include in your well-constructed list of requirements.

  19. M. Jackson Osborn

    They should know how to create The English Hymnal and The Hymnal 1940 into one (using the EH’s format: using its sqaure notes for chant, every one of the various indeces, and removing all the purely evangelical, unitarian and mawkish baggage. Also withstand the temptation to include even one three-hanky Marian song. A good start would be to have one or two Anglican Use members on the editorial staff, plus Catholic choirmasters, organists. and composers (such as Jeffrey Ostrowsky and others who are NOT publicised darlings of any of our publishing houses.

  20. M. Jackson Osborn

    What Catholic Hymnal Editors Should Know???

    That they produce the poorest hymnals of any denomination, the poorest choice of hymns, the poorest indeces the poorest (realy artless!) translations, the poorest binding, the most tawdry art, the poorest provision of quality hymns for the widest range of liturgical needs, the absolute lowest musical quality of unispired mass settings. The musical and textual quality of many Catholic ‘hymnals’ are, objectively, on a par with typical Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. books. And…. And…. And… if there is any plainsong it is given in round note-heads, not chant notation – and the texts are quite likely to be very poor translations very poorly adapted to the tune. And… And…
    These are the things that Catholic Hymnal editors should know — that they hardly know the first thing about how to compile, edit and produce a definitive hymnal (with an appropriate eccesiastical feel and aura) for the Roman Catholic Church — Anglicans and some Lutherans have come much, much closer

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