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I'm actually thinking of doing something similar to PDFrancine. Not to hijack the thread, but I am concerned that the Catholic Choirbook has more Latin than my choir will tolerate. Does the OEA or New OEA lean more heavily on solid English repertoire than Latin?

Thanks, Charles. That helps me a lot!

Thanks for the replies, everybody.

Scott, is the book you reference the same as the New Oxford Easy Anthem Book or does the absence of the word "Easy" mean that it's a different collection?

We have The New Church Anthem Book at my parish (Anglican), and it has gotten a lot of use. Out of the 100 anthems, there are 35 in our repertoire, with at least 10 more I'd like to work in over the next several years. A terrific book.

The "Easy" Anthem book is not easy,

That was my first thought the first time I perused it.

Placing old traditional hymns in English in the back of the Anthology plus some new ones in English including texts by Vincent Uher was to give people in the loft and the pews something that they could not complain about when you are starting to use TCCB Anthology.

The English anthems in it are because they are lovely for use at the OF, the Latin Motets as well.

And thanks to all for the kind words. I encourage any and all to buy a copy or copies for their choirs to help support the work if possible.

More than half of the free downloads (and this was a major surprise) go to Catholics in Africa and Asia where I am sure that it would be impossible to buy music from America - though shipping charges going overseas are often surprisingly low.

Look at the following anthologies:

OXFORD - New Church Anthem Book (lots of solid SATB parish choir rep)
OXFORD - Anthems for Choirs 1 & 4 for SATB choir
OXFORD - Anthems for Choirs 2 (indispensable SS or SA duets)
OXFORD - European Sacred Music (buy a reference copy and get free editions online)
OXFORD - Weddings for Choirs (soooo useful)
OXFORD - 100 Carols for Choirs; buy one of each Carols for Choirs for reference
NOVELLO - High Praise 1 & 2 are excellent if you have a couple of good SS/SA soloists

This isn't an anthem book recommendation, but a recommendation of an early XXth century polyphonic mass for double choir for any of you (tee-hee) who might have the resources and the liturgy to go with it. Namely, Frank Martin's 1922 mass for double choir, one of the most gorgeous this writer has ever heard. It is without question on a par with Vaughan Williams' G-minor mass. It is beyond question one of the most important settings of the mass of the early XXth century

We heard it at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston, this evening, the occasion being a votive mass of the Sacred Heart. Singing was the concert choral of UofH's Moores' School of Music under the direction of Betsy Weber of high esteem. Crista Miller, the co-cathedral organist and musical director played the Tournemire Sacred Heart Suite with sensitivity and a fitting understatement - and exquisitely registered. The chant propers were sungen by men and women in alternation, and being sungen in the duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-e-qual-beat-e-ve-ry-note-the-same school of rhythm, left much to be desired. The blend was good, The diction was good. But the chant was wooden, without nuance or semiological energy and life. Myopic, this school of interpretation is! They haven't heard yet that at Solesmes they are no longer doing the so-called 'Solesmes Method', nor did they ever, really. (Have any of these devotees of a sometimes-pretty-but-scholarlily-discredited interpretation ever read Dom Cardine, Fr Columba Kelly, or listened carefully to Alberto Turco?)

The Mass itself, though, by Frank Martin was splendid, and the Moores' School choir were quite exquisite and expert in execution of the early XXth century tonal vocabulary. It was a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated ad orientem and entirely in its native Latin, excepting, of course, the readings (which WERE NOT SUNG!!@!!!!!!!!!!!). Incense was used and much smoke was thrown about.

Except for the readings and homily EVERYTHING ELSE was sung, and the congregation responded well on all their parts of the mass.

There were about five hundred in the congregation, representing UH professors, students, music-loving Catholics, a few of my Anglican Ordinariate friends, a smattering of religious, priests, etc.

Frank Martin, who wrote this excellent mass in 1922, was a devout Calvinist. He wrote it as a profound personal devotion and kept it as a private spiritual matter to himself untill some friends who stumbled across it persuaded him to publish it some years later.

Some may want to consider putting it in their repertoire if they have the talent and resourses. (Um, did I say that it is a capella?)

Wow! Nearly thirty minutes of pure heaven. Thanks for posting the recording. This has left me quite humbled on this day before Ash Wednesday.