very cool!

Square notes rule. I find it easier to sight-sing with square notes than modern notation, even though I've more experience with round notes.

It's too bad people are afraid of square notes. The music found in this is a perfect introduction to square notes, because of the simplicity of the music. Why treat people like they are dumb? Square notes aren't rocket science, especially in syllabic chants.

How about Gregorian Chant with round notes?

Is it the square edges of the notes that is intimidating or is it the ligatures? Or is it four lines as opposed to five lines? Or is it moveable DO?

Can you question each person and ask exactly what the intimidating part would be? It would be an interesting study.

From the heart the mouth speaks. (black)

We do some Chant with round notes and they are fine with it.
I don't really know what scares them. If I can convince them that its actually easier to read I'm sure they will change their minds but to this point most of the choir and the pastor are not interested.

So I either need to wait another 2 or 3 years to replace our current subscription or someone needs to come out with a missal like the LCM or IPM with round notes.

That is quite beautiful. (And it even has Be Not Askeered, so there's one objection dealt with.)
As to the objection to square-note, when it's not political, IME it is the four lines that give people who already read well caniptions. (Probably shouldn't admit this, but when there's a chant giving me trouble wiht intervals I add in a fifth and imagine a moden key signature.)

Save the Liturgy, save the World!

That's pretty cool Francis, I will have to show this to my wife. She's our accompanist.

G... you need to get a wife!

Not much chance of my parish switching, but I'd love to visit a parish that implements this. I hope Ignatius and Lighthouse consider publishing a list of parishes "worth driving to."

Francis,

is that hybrid only an example, or have you used it for any projects?

I just received a perusal copy of this resource.

On the whole, it’s an excellent job. The cover and inside pages feel like a higher quality paper than I’ve seen from LitPress, WLP, and OCP. The copy that I received had some misprints here and there, but one of the editors has told me that many of such have been fixed.

The Willan Mass setting is perhaps the biggest highlight here. It may well be the only non-freely-reproducible setting that I would consider introducing to my parish’s congregation. Kudos to Fr. Haynes at St. John Cantius for his fine work in making this music workable for Roman (Rite) Catholics!

There is almost none of the gender-neutering or text modernization that plagues so many published resources today, as a result of which most of the texts sing quite well and naturally. The only iffy spot that I found was “Good Christian friends”, which I find awkward but not unworkable—and, if there is one hymn to gender-neutralize, that’s probably it.

The selection of hymns is quite good: most of the standards are there, and there are some nice “surprises”. Some of them (e.g., “Crown him with many crowns”) could stand to have more of the verses. There are also a few conspicuous omissions, alas, e.g.: “O saving victim”/DUGUET, “How brightly beams the morning star”, “Angels from the realms of glory”.

To make the resource more tenable in “typical” parishes, there is a sizable selection of “pop”-style selections, including “Be Not Afraid”, “Here I Am, Lord”, and “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman”. Whatever one thinks of this aspect of it, there it is.

I’ve not made a thorough review of the current spate of missalette/hymnal offerings, but from what I’ve seen this is hands-down better than anything from the major publishers.

I think I would rather see the Bartlett propers, or something else that uses the Graduale Romanum’s texts rather than the Missal’s. The Missal antiphons are, IMO, more properly for speaking, not for singing.

I just received my copy. So far I like it. It has good hymn selection.

Laughing, hysterically!

Why treat people like they are dumb?

Working in a parish you should already know that you have nothing to fear from "dumb" people. The dangerous ones are the "smart" people.

Classifying people and treating them differently because you think they are dumb is dumb.

Sensitivity to all (or in other words, what would Francis do?) (not Koerber, the other famous one) is a great way to manage people in any situation. Thinking that they are dumb would seem to fall short of an ideal...

Are we all a bit overdue for a holiday now? After this week's Riu riu chiu a chorister turned me on to Ruben Dario's Los motives del lobo (with subtitles). Too many "fauces de furia" in the world already to make zero tolerance sound like a good idea.

It's heartening though that we're mostly politically correct enough to stand up for the dumb.

Who do we think we are: Professor Gruber? :-)

the alleluia is pretty short in the book of propers... (is the alleluia a proper?) My deacon complained it didn't give him enough time to travel. Is it good practice to play the alleluia.. then cantor.. then congregation followed by the acclaimation then another congregation.. ?

Classically, the Alleluia is a proper, because its verse changes, and there is a distinct Gregorian melody for each one. For the Latin texts, those melodies (Alleluia and verse) are in the Graduale Romanum. Those melodies provide plenty of time for the deacon's ceremonial actions.

But most modern "missal" books and booklets for the congregation use some simple melody for the Alleluia, and a psalm tone for the verse.

It sounds like you are presenting it in the usual way:

1. organ plays the Alleluia melody
2. cantor sings Alleluia
3. congregation sings Alleluia
4. cantor sings verse
5. all sing Alleluia

Have you found that provides enough time for the deacon's action and procession?

Re: the deacon needing more time to travel/ the music needing to cover the liturgical action, I would also ask whether incense is used. Incensations would lengthen the time.

"Half the people on the planet are of below-average intelligence."

Only if the mean (average) coincides with the median. The average yearly income in the United States is vastly higher than the median income.

For another example, consider the following nine numbers:

1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000

Their sum is 111,111,111, so that their mean (average) = 111,111,111/9 = 12,345,679; however, their median is 10,000.

The correct statement that Adam should have made is this: Half the people on the planet are of below-median intelligence.

Here endeth the lesson.

My deacon complained it didn't give him enough time to travel.

Organ improvisation at the beginning or the end to cover the Deacon's journey.

You can travel faster if you have more legs.

I looked at the sample on the web site. I respect Fr. Weber's work, but why waste typesetting on these chants, which are recitation formulas, not melodies? He has other options in his book. Does Ignatius really hold out so little hope for their congregations? Most won't put up with this liturgical minimalism for half a year.

I assume the distribution of intelligence follows (roughly) a bell curve. Maybe that isn't accurate.

Yes, the distribution of intelligence follows, roughly, a bell curve. If IQ tests don't have a normal (bell) distribution, then the tests are adjusted to get that. In other words, mental retardation is no more common or rare than being a genius, but less common than having intelligence in the 'average range'. Also, by definition, the average intelligence of a population is 100.