I should add that they are more than happy to have anyone's help here, especially in typesetting. They both have the template and are very happy to send it to anyone who asks.

This project was announced 9 days ago.

Behold the power of small teams.

i should add that Noel has been working on this for three years, so the project isn't just 9 days old. It is a matter of given flight to something already very much underway.

"I should add that they are more than happy to have anyone's help here, especially in typesetting. They both have the template and are very happy to send it to anyone who asks."

"i should add that Noel has been working on this for three years..."

Noel is not the only one who as been typesetting hymns for years. I know that there are many people on this forum, myself included, who have also done much of the same work--I'll bet that the same work has been duplicated 10 times by people on this forum. Perhaps it would be in order to place a call for people to submit to Noel and Jonathan their scores that they've already produced. Also, for those who use Sibelius the MusicXML cross-platform sharing filetype could be used. Getting the data of a hymn inputted is really not very difficult, especially with lyric import features that both programs currently utilize. And, formatting is a breeze especially if one is utilizing "house styles". It seems to me that the grunt work on this could get done very quickly with the help of this community.

Also, in regard to the "list"--Why not just typeset and post online as many public domain hymns and texts as we can. Then discussion and editing can begin and, in due time, a decision could be made about what will go into print. I don't think that anyone would completely agree on what should go into a hymnal, but if pdf files are available online you can print and use what you want, when you want. Come to think of it, perhaps even CPDL could be utilized at some point since we're talking about public domain choral music.

As we continue to work on the PBEH project, we are now assigning hymns to be transcribed in various versions of Finale or in Sibelius - the Sibelius ones saved in XML format, as we explore cross platform compatibility for the future of this project. Or other notation programs that export in XML format.

If you have time to help and want to transcribe hymns, please email noel directly at

noeljones@usit.net

Let him know what program you are using, you will get sample files to transcribe. Finale users will get a template and we are hopeful that someone will work off a Finale XML file and create a corresponding Sibelius file.

That's still in process and we'll post the list when it is stabilized for comment and criticism etc. for now, you can write jonathan or noel. believe me, they are very very anxious for input and help

The list of titles isn't even stabilized but you're recruiting assistants to do the actual typesetting? That doesn't sound like a project that allows for much positive input from interested CMAAers. "Sure we see your point, but this one is already typeset so we're going with it." Somebody was criticizing the qualifications of NPM judges the other day. Who are the people making the decisions for a publication to go out in the name of the CMAA? Doctors of Liturgical music? Techies with skills on Sibelius? It's beginning to strike me as more of a case of "the usual suspects" than one can put forward for the NPM's competition. It seems that the time for comment and criticism concerning the list of hymns to be included is before rather than after that list is stabilized.

What is the email address of the typesetters?

-

Yes, there will also be a struggle between what we like as individuals and what people like in the pews. We sang Holy God We Praise Thy Name this morning, and a parishioner who loves chant and what we do otherwise said to me: I can't stand that hymn! I was amazed since it seems to be one of the few that is universal in the English speaking world. For that matter, if A Mighty Fortress stays in, I would still never program it for fear that one soul in the pew associates that hymn with rebellion against Rome. The key thing here is to keep the big picture in mind even while thinking about the details.

It is really difficult to know for sure. In my own parish, I don't want to expend any capital on getting people to know new hymns in English since we see our primary development area as the Ordinary and Latin hymns. Old hymns, then, work as a kind of grounding so we can progress in other ways. I've talked to others who use chant week to week who say the same. On the other hand, it is hard to excuse forgoing excellent work to keep using mediocre work. In the end, it has to be a balance (to use a cliche).

I should add that the OCP Heritage Missal that we use has about 10-15 hymns that are truly usable. Somehow we get by.

I am shamed that there are texts and a few tunes i don't know, will remedy the situation!

A question, is the tune GUTE BÄUME BRINGEN a deon deal for "At the Name..."?

But perhaps KING'S WESTON is not public domain.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

On Noel's working list of hymns, No. 178 is listed as "The Day You Gave Us" sung to St. Clement.

I would beg, beg you for the original words "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord".

The Charles Wesley hymn “Wretched, helpless, and distrest” (which I don't expect to find in PBEH) is in the distinctive Wesleyan meter of 76767776 for which the most well known tune is perhaps Amsterdam (which probably won't be in PBEH either, unfortunately) , also the tune for Praise the Lord Who Reigns Above:

1 WRETCHED, helpless, and distrest,
Ah! whither shall I fly?
Ever gasping after rest,
I cannot find it nigh:
Naked, sick, and poor, and blind,
Fast bound in sin and misery,
Friend of sinners, let me find
My help, my all, in thee!

2 I am all unclean, unclean,
Thy purity I want;
My whole heart is sick of sin,
And my whole head is faint;
Full of putrefying sores,
Of bruises, and of wounds, my soul
Looks to Jesus, help implores,
And gasps to be made whole.

3 In the wilderness I stray,
My foolish heart is blind,
Nothing do I know; the way
Of peace I cannot find:
Jesu, Lord, restore my sight,
And take, O take, the veil away!
Turn my darkness into light,
My midnight into day.

4 Naked of thine image, Lord,
Forsaken, and alone,
Unrenewed, and unrestored,
I have not thee put on;
Over me thy mantle spread,
Send down thy likeness from above,
Let thy goodness be displayed,
And wrap me in thy love.

5 Poor, alas! thou know’st I am,
And would be poorer still,
See my nakedness and shame,
And all my vileness feel;
No good thing in me resides,
My soul is all an aching void
Till thy Spirit here abides,
And I am filled with God.

6 Jesus, full of truth and grace,
In thee is all I want;
Be the wanderer’s resting-place,
A cordial to the faint;
Make me rich, for I am poor;
In thee may I my Eden find;
To the dying health restore.
And eye-sight to the blind.

7 Clothe me with thy holiness,
Thy meek humility;
Put on me my glorious dress,
Endue my soul with thee;
Let thine image be restored,
Thy name and nature let me prove,
With thy fulness fill me, Lord.
And perfect me in love.

AMSTERDAM is also sung with this text:

1. Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things
Towards heaven, thy native place.
Sun and moon and stars decay,
Time shall soon this earth remove;
Rise my soul and haste away
To seats prepared above.

2. Rivers to the ocean run,
Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source:
So my soul, derived from God,
Pants to view His glorious face,
Forward tends to His abode,
To rest is His embrace.

3. Fly me riches, fly me cares,
Whist I that coast explore;
Flattering world, with all thy snares,
Solicit me no more.
Pilgrims fix not here their home;
Strangers tarry but a night;
When the last dear morn is come,
They'll rise to a joyful light.

4. Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn,
Press onward to the prize;
Soon our Saviour will return
Triumphant in the skies:
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance will be given,
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchanged for heaven.

...there has been a shift from just creating a hymnal of 250 hymns to creating a CMAA online-database of Catholic Hymns, using a Finale template (sorry, Sib people).

Please throw us poor Sibelius users a bone and include XML files in the online database... please?

Yes, more on this by week's end

"3. English versions of the sequences"

Yes, the future of Catholic Liturgical Chant for the Mass will be Prosa ad Sequentia (Sequence Chants) adapted into English language to their original melodies. I am working on this myself as we speak.

Prose is the answer, the repetive, childrens style latin hymns you see in the divine office will not save our liturgy...
Only the sequence can keep the flock from being stolen as converts by the Eastern Orthodox ! because it is potentially as beautiful as some of their troparia/kontakion/asmatikon presently are.

One of many for the Mass for the Nativity of Our Lord...

Natus Ante Secula:

[la] Born before the beginning of time, the Son of
God, beyond perception, without limit,
[Ib] Through whom the workings of heaven and
earth was made, of the sea, and all things that
dwell therein,
[2a] Through whom the days and hours flicker and
then are rekindled,
[2b] Whom the angels in the celestial realm continually
proclaim with harmonious voice,
[3a] He had taken on a feeble body-without the
stain of original sin, from the flesh of the Virgin
Mary-through which the guilt of the first parent
and the lust of Eve might be wiped clean.
[3b] Hence the present short day, this day of brilliant
light, speaks forth, growing in length, because the
true Sun, the newly begotten Son, by the rays of
its light, had expelled the long-standing darkness.
[4a] Neither did the night lack the light of the new
star, for it struck fear in the knowing eyes of
the magi.
[4b] Nor was the light invisible to the shepherds,
for they were awestruck by the glory of the
heavenly host.
[5a] Rejoice, O Mother of God, whom, in place of a
midwife, angels surround singing "Glory of
God."
[5b] O Christ, only begotten of the Father, you who
have taken human form for our sake, restore
your humble servants;
[6a] And, O Jesus, you humbled yourself that you
might share in their suffering; deign to receive
their prayers,
[6b] So that you might deign to make them companions
in your divinity, O only begotten God!

[la] Natus ante secula dei filius invisibilis interminus
[lbl Per quem fit machina celi ac terre maris et in
his degentium
[2a] Per quem dies et hora labant et se iterum reciprocant
[2b] Quem angeli in arce poli voce consona semper
canunt
[3a] Hic corpus adsumpserat fragile Sine labe originalis
criminis de carne marie virigins, quo
primiparentis culpam eveque lasciviam tergeret
[3b] Hoc presens dies ista loquitur Prelucida adaucta
longitudine quo sol verus radio sui luminis
vetustas mundi depulerat genitus tenebras
[4a] Nec nox vacat novi sideris luce quod magorum
oculos terruit scios
[4b] Nec gregum magistris defuit lumen quos prestrinxit
claritas militum dei
[5a] Gaudet dei genitrix quam circumstant obstetricum
vice concinentes angeli gloriam deo
[5b] Christe patris unice qui humanam nostri causa
formam assumpsisti refove supplices tuos
[6a] Et quorum participem te fore dignatus es hiesu
dignanter eorum suscipe preces
[6b] Ut ipsos divinitatis tue participes deus facere
digneris unice dei


- Blessed Notker of St Gall

circa 880 AD (many Irish monks helped him and founded his monastery ;-)

The following link has the melody with text for Natus ante saecula:

https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/chant/690315