I second the PBC. It's a fantastic book. If you need to invest in a hymnal, you can use the St. Michael Hymnal, Vatican II Hymnal, or as others on this forum will recommend: the St. Isaac Jogues Missal.

I personally use SEP, so I can vouch for its quality as well. Right now, I am looking at implementing the Graduale Simplex, so I'm also using Aristotle Esguerra's Choral Graduale Simplex because it has nearly the same melodic content as the GS, but it's in English.

Also, thank you for Jazzercising the forum.

I am surprised that amongst the hymnals recommended above the Lumen Christi Hymnal was not mentioned. This would be worthy of very, very, serious consideration.
And, not to be overlooked is The Catholic Hymnbook, English, Gracewing Publications, which is far superior to any American Catholic publication.

The Lumen Christi Hymnal is unique in that it contains about 170 very well-chosen hymns and tunes useful for Sundays and solemnities throughout the year, plus another several hundred hymns from the divine office, which would be useful for both the office and the mass. These latter are set to the plainchant tunes as in Liber Hymnarius. The translations are untampered-with originals with no savaging of texts for to placate gender nuts. The only unfortunate happenstance is that the plainchant is in modern noteheads rather than chant notation - but this would doubtless have appeal to the weak-hearted. (I hope that you get this book!)

Godspeed!

So far is this all within the small group of interested people? Their excitement sounds good, but I hope you'll plan to make changes slowly when it comes to the parish's Sunday Masses. Get your priest singing the dialogues for a while.

I'd recommend doing one piece of chant such as the Communio at every mass rather than wall to wall chant at one mass you're allowed to "take over." First of all there's more chance it will be sung musically and well. Second, if you're going to move into being Music Director you have to get to know people at every mass and give them a chance to know you. So give everybody in the parish a taste of chant rather than overwhelming one particular mass.
If you want the challenge of a whole mass, pick one without a regular constituency: a special evening mass for Sacred Heart for example, that is already inclined to appeal to the devout who will likely appreciate your efforts the most. Or the weekday mass on first Fridays. Check out the schedule of Solemnities falling on weekdays for the year. These things will mean sacrifices have to be made by your group such as attending all the Sunday masses on a weekend or coming on a weekday evening. This is how a group shows they have a heart to serve others and are not just a special interest group demanding attention for themselves.
Good luck. Sounds like a great vocation.

Some ideas:

1.) Look at what has been done before. Keep what is good, transition things away from general popular rubbish. You don't want to change anything too suddenly and end up with the parish and the clergy off-side!

2.) Pick a good congregational mass setting. The parish might already be using a good one, but otherwise, look around for one.

3.) Take the ICEL Chant Mass seriously, as it is intended as the common "Missal Tone" mass for the English-speaking world. In fact, encourage the congregation to learn it so that they can sing it on weekday masses when there is no choir or organist present.

4.) Don't go full-out on chant straight away. If your parish is used to the "hymn sandwich" you'll need to ease them into it. A good way to ease the parish into it is to retain the entrance hymn, chant the offertory antiphon, then sing a hymn or motet and use the communion antiphon (with maybe just a few psalm verses) and then the hymn. Pick a good occasion to switch to chant introits, such as first Sunday of Advent or Lent, and even then you can have introits some Sundays and processional hymns on others.

5.) Don't use lots of Latin straight away. If you're from one of the parishes that used to have guitars and tambourines until they realised that no-one was under 45 in the "Youth Band" you'll best look into English Plainsong - ICEL Chant Mass is a good way to ease people in.

6.) Sing "Kyrie eleison" instead of "Lord have mercy" whenever the music presents the opportunity. I made the switch one Sunday about 18 months ago. No-one noticed, no-one said a thing about it, so I just kept doing it.

7.) Have some "regular favourites" in the hymn selection. The sort of hymns you know everyone will sing with some enthusiasm. Popular choices include: "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"; "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"; "All People That on Earth Do Dwell"; "Let All Mortal Flesh"; "The Lord's My Shepherd" (that last one is actually about communion more than "shepherds")

8.) Have some regular "seasonal hymns." Eg. This year I used "O Sons and Daughters" for the first few Sundays of Easter, and added "Thine Be the Glory" on the 4th Sunday of Easter. From Ascension Sunday, I use "Alleluia, Sing to Jesus" every few weeks up to and including Christus Rex. From Epiphany to Lent, I use "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" to the same tune. "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" is the Seasonal hymn for Advent, with "O Come, Emmanuel" only on the 3rd and 4th Sundays.

9.) Use the same hymns on the same feast days. I know this can get boring, but congregations eventually develop this association, and start to understand that the church has its times and seasons each with their particular music to look forward too. I always look forward to "Firmly I Believe and Truly" on Trinity Sunday for Example.

10.) Pick a setting of the Lord's Prayer and use it at every mass. You'll find in the Lumen Christi Missal, the "Australian Chant Tone" which is what every parish church in Australia uses. No-one ever seems to complain that they get bored with it. This would be the one that I recommend, but you might want to use the similar ICEL version.

11.) Sing the Responsorial Psalms (should really be called the "Gradual Psalm") every Sunday, and use simple ones that the congregation can pick up on easily. The psalm verses should be simple, Gelineau, Bevenot, Meinrad Abbey and Gregorian Breviary tones are all good and work well for English (though some of the Breviary Tones work better in English than others)

12.) Sing the Alleluia (or the appropriate acclamation during Lent) and it's verse every week. Use the Easter Tone VI during Easter, the O Filii et Filiae one for the latter part of Easter, and find a few others. I like to use the Tone 8 Melismatic Alleluia, but you really must persist with that one before congregations learn it.

13.) The sound of the organ should change with the passing of the seasons. For example, In Lent I do not use any reeds or mixtures, and as much as possible use only the 8' and 4' stops as much as they are necessary to support the singing. Makes for a big return of the reeds at Easter. Something similar applies to Advent and Christmas.

14.) Get children involved - start a "Cherub Choir" where they can learn some simple hymns and chants. This is an investment for the future where they'll be used to traditional church music and will be less inclined to want to start a rock band.

15.) PRAY, PRAY, PRAY and when you're done PRAY SOME MORE! Invoke the intercessions of the company of Saints and all the choirs of angels. People will try your patience sooner or later, but persist in the faith that what you are doing is for God and for God alone. Did I mention the most important thing? PRAY!

I'm a little slow to respond, but to Jazzer and any other forum members who are interested in buying CMAA books in bulk, please contact me or Matt Sciba at books@musicasacra.com about buying books directly. We can offer discounts for bulk quantities and savings on shipping. For 5 or less books, it is about the same as buying at Amazon with free shipping... for larger quantities, we can offer you some savings.

This goes for SEP, PBC, Simple Choral Gradual (SCG) etc. -- all our publications.

Your PDF has me wondering, Jazzer. Does the particular calendar for the dioceses of Canada list St. Isaac Jogues as "Canadian Martyr"?

The calendar for the dioceses of the USA list him and his martyred companions as "North American Martyrs."

OK it's September 26th up here... The Feast of "St Jean de Brebeuf, St Isaac Jogues and Companions"
CCCB Liturgical Calendar

@Jazzer: Are you familiar with this:
http://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/uploads/2011/10/CIS_5.3-1 Gloria, chant (choral setting).pdf

Sorry, I don't think it looks pretty.
I would like to change ours to this one in the fall.

+1 for Anonymous's Canadian Glory to God which @canadash reposted above.

Is this enough?

It could have been in all caps.

OK... I need an answer to this.. Maybe Adam Bartlett can even chime in if he's not too busy.

The stuff that he is working on now, all the PDFs that are downloadable on Lumen Christi... What (and why) the difference between that and SEP, and is that going to be replacing his Simple Gradual? what is the difference, and should I wait to purchase the simple gradual choir editions until the new publication is out?

At the moment, I am copying out the SEPs for each of my target masses. This is going well, but we want to find some way to help the congregation to sing the antiphons. We will be putting them in the bulletin, I think, but really want to explore getting solid books in the pews if at all possible. Now then... will the LC Simple Gradual PDFs still be available once the new accompaniment is published? Will the new versions match up with what is in the LC Missal still?

Sorry for all the questions... this is all a little vague for me atm.

Thanks!

This is a little anal retentive, but I actually have a large Excel sheet with which I keep track of when hymns were sung and at which Mass so I have an idea of what the congregation knows and how often they've sung it. Since I'm at every Mass, they tend to all blur together and it's amazing how often I think we just sang something but it was actually six months ago. It also beats shuffling through all my ordos each time I wonder.

No, it is good...I have heard of parishes that where the new music director chose good hymns, but because the records were not particularly thorough. they were unfamiliar to the congregation.

Yes, it is good, and practical!

Boring to many church musicians, but soothing and comforting to congregations.

Yup. Someplace or other, someone has proposed that the typical congregation can learn and use only about 60-70 hymns (10-12 of them Christmas carols that they've known since their youth.)

After that, it's all driven by musician-boredom syndrome.

They hired a nice, incompetent, replacement who works for nothing.

Ugh.

Melo, I wish you could explain that to a few priests that I know.

Yes, I think that sums up the whole problem quite nicely. Lack of competent people in DM positions is on my list of the 7 barriers to Sacred Music.

Oh, it was just something Noel mentioned years ago.

Quick!

Is there any way to (without breaking the law or spending any money) get a good trombone leadsheet for Mass of Creation?

Calling Mike O'Connor.
Nevermind.
Why?