Yes, this is correct. GIA (formerly known as the Gregorian Institute of America, when its home offices were in my hometown of Toledo, OH), is a for-profit corporation. Once when I was talking to Robert Batastini, who is now retired but was senior editor and V.P., he told me that it was because of their for-profit status that they were able to carry a wider variety of music and serve as the sole American distributor for the music of the RSCM.

OCP (formerly known as Oregon Catholic Press, and before that it had a different name that indicated it was the official publisher of catechetical materials for the diocese of Portland) I believe is now also a for-profit corporation, or at least has restructured to be something other than an entirely NFP organization. World Library Publications/Joseph Paluch is also NFP.

This would be simple to check, as most states now have online databases of the corporations licensed to do business in that state, and typically the public information will include their status (501c3, etc.). WLP and GIA are both in Illinois (Schiller Park and Chicago respectively) and OCP is in Oregon.

(Howls of derisive laughter).

GIA seems to be ruled in part by snobby eclectics. "Worship III" has some rather pleasant Mass settings, but some bizarre eclectic hymns and, of course, "inclusive" language.

I miss the older version of the Worship III hymnal (before the ghastly new translations totally wrecked the venerable hymns). I agree that Gregorian shouldn't be a part of their name anymore. However, they do have some good settings by Richard Prolux (sp?). I love his Community Mass setting and miss hearing it. At least, GIA is slightly better than OCP because it does have some Latin within its catalogue. I just wish they would ditch Haugen and Haas.

One thing bothers me in those hymnals is that many chants are harmonized in 4 parts and in 4/4 time. (singing every note like a military march, because the louder, the better singing in the church, and think chant is not so pretty. Where's the beauty of singing chant?) People start to forget the sound of the chant. Why they cannot leave the chants as they are? They should also keep chant notation, and have the singers at least notice it's different, and the MDS can help people with it. The more they see it, the more they will feel comfortable.
Comfy + easy =joy in today' culture
(comfy and easy come after the hard work)
Sorry off the topic, again.

David, thank you for this outstanding analysis. It is certainly right that the low-brow music subsidizes the good stuff, a fact which goes a long way to explaning how it is that the actual employees of these publishers can privately express such disgust for their main products while still retaining their sense that they are doing the right thing. It's like a publishing group that produces trash fiction plus a handful of scholarly volumes of poetry. The trash is the benefactor and the poetry is the beneficiary. On these grounds, they figure that they are doing good work, since the good material--they reason--would never see the light of day lest they fob off the bad stuff on stupid consumers. So it is.

And you are right that they do not see how destructive this is. Most Catholics believe that these corporate entities, which are driven by profit considerations, are publishing on behalf of the Church. Catholics trust them to do what is right, whereas if Wal-Mart made Missalettes, people would NOT similarly trust the output (however, they would be much cheaper!).

The copyright/royalty/exclusive use racket is what gets my goat the most. This is a scam, and a very evil one that should be immediately smashed and destroyed forever by the Bishops and the Vatican.

See Stockholm syndrome

It's important to note that composers writing music for the service of the Church before the advent of copyright were paid as church musicians, not on a per-work/royalty basis. While Palestrina was probably paid a fee by the printers of his works, he made his living as a Vatican/Lateran musician. We need to be more explicit about rejecting the works of composers such as Haugen who stand explicitly and purposefully outside the Catholic Church while making enormous amount of money from faithful Catholics. We similarly need to reject works that exist only to sell un-needed commercial publications, whether or not the composers are Catholics.

The liturgical text copyright situation is diabolical.

Gavin, Jeffrey wrote a phenomenal article on this very thing several years ago about how poorly-educated (and often either poorly or overly-compensated depending on your point of view) musicians in the Catholic churches around the country have been led by the nose for years by the likes of the liturgical-industrial "big three" publishers.

One only need look as far as any parish that has been using OCP's "Bustin' Bread" or "Mucus Issue/Today's Missile" to see just how far the devastation goes. They subscribe to these services, then receive "planning mags" that guide them through the process of selecting every bit of music used, all of course from the publisher. They even go so far as to include their own little bits of propaganda which the unsuspecting "ducks" gulp down with relish. This then forms the way they come to understand the shape and direction of not just the liturgy, but the underlying faith de-formation that it feeds upon. Then open the file cabinets of their music libraries . . . drawerful after vile drawerful of music cast in the guise of choral octavos, mere lipstick and rouge slathered on the pig of awful congregational music they put in the pew editions, designed to give the "Contemporary Ensemble" or the "Choir" an opportunity to function in a way totally antithetical to the true purposes of a choir. Then, of course, you must purchase all of the "extras"; the b-flat and c instrument part books, the guitar accompaniments, the volume of "intro's and outro's" (no kidding here, folks. OCP actually published a volume of older versions of things with extended introductions and codas, and gave it this clever little moniker). All of this is loose-leaf, which means as they change the offerings in the throw-away editions, they send you updates to the binders. What the average Episcopalian, Lutheran or other Protestant organist is used to: a one or two-volume edition of the hymnal in larger print and with some special accompaniments) becomes a book rack crammed full of cheaply-made books that are either too flimsy to stand up (usually with wire binding) or too heavy to heave up onto the music rack without wrenching a rotator cuff (or as in my case accidentally catching a key on the lowest keyboard of the organ and breaking it clean off . . . grrr!).

And, after a few mind-numbing years of use of this program, the Stockholm Syndrome definitely kicks in. I myself was an OCP loyalist and it took years of careful study before I snapped out of it and realized that I was perpetuating a fraud. In my current situation we use the GIA version of this Saul Alinsky scheme, but since I know how the game is played, I know how to give the appearance that I'm "on board" without really being "on board."

I'm a free-market Capitalist, to be sure. This, however is wickedness beyond compare.

Gavin, you are correct. The problem has always been either inept or indifferent leadership, and often both!

David Andrew,

I'm always curious about whether folks become OCP loyalists in part (or in full) because of their conventions.

Kathy,

I inherited the program that was using OCP. I became more and more entrenched in the OCP/GIA/NPM mindset by going to the conventions, buying up all of the resources from Liturgy Training Publications (another publisher that's got LOTS to answer for), reading the likes of Gabe Huck and Aidan Kavanaugh.

Last summer I finally went through a total house-cleaning of all of my books, because the printed out articles and copies of the official Roman documents and Fortescue and the writings of the Holy Father were beginning to crowd out the shelves and spill onto the floor. Some of it I felt was so contrary to my developed understanding that I couldn't even bring myself to "donate" them to someone. Into the big blue bins with the three-arrowed triangle they went, with no guilt whatsoever.

@ M. Jackson Osborn: that's just the point. Up until I went to the NPM National in Indianapolis in 2007 (which, I might add I did not so much because of the offerings but because there were friends and colleagues I knew I'd run into, and it was a well-timed and much needed time away), I can't recall ever hearing anything remotely approaching completely unaltered, arranged or jiggered-beyond-recognition renderings of Gregorian Chant. Everywhere in all places it was the usual standards from the usual suspects. At the 2007 convention, the monks of St. Meinrad (just down the road from Indy) came up along with Fr. Columba Kelly, O.S.B., a noted scholar in the work of Dom Cardine and the semiologists, to present a "concert" of chant in its various forms. This by the way was just days after the release of the motu proprio. The wailing and gnashing of teeth, the hand-wringing was great sport to watch, I can tell you!

I don't consider myself a swivel-eyed conspiracy theorist in any way, shape or form. But given my age and experience I don't think it takes much in-depth study and reading to discover just how insidious the changes and de-formation the aggiornamento has truly undergone.

I doubt anyone would call Cardinal Ottaviani an aluminum foil helmet-wearing conspiracy theorist either, but just read his letters contained in "The Ottaviani Intervention" to get a real picture of how all of this got started, and just how quickly objections were dismissed and the controls over things like music and liturgical texts were put into place.

By the way, I realize that this whole conversation is a bit of an "old saw," and for some it's a chicken-and-egg blame game. On the other hand, someone very wise once said, "Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it." Just as was pointed out in another thread here about the term "schola," we need to recognize the mistakes that were made the first go-round, and do what we can to not repeat them.

Where's the list of the people taking these payof....I mean, fundings?

Should we publicize this...or ask for matching funds from them for Musica Sacra?

I can see it now: BOWTIEGATE

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