http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2016/07/13/pray-tell-live-panel-discussion-with-hymnal-publishers/

PrayTellBlog does us all a needed favor by their live/podcast videos from NPM national conventions (saving many folk from yet another multiple $K expenditure.) The link to the interview with the BigThree publisher representatives (Micael Silhavy of GIA, Monica Rada of OCP and Alan Hommerding of WLP) provides insights into corporate market-think in Fr. Anthony Ruff’s topic of the state of “permanent,” hardbound hymnals.
What I found was, yet and still, inflexible concentration upon the notion of a pre-fabricated “market share” that touts the repertoires of the same select composers. This was evident with the initial conversation about Mass settings and a later analysis by Alan Hommerding regarding how little attention congregants actually pay to opening and reading Mass settings. That reality seems more of a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as publishers lazily count upon cash cows such as MOC/Angels and Saints/Community/Little German (GIA), Christ our Savior/Heritage (OCP) and People’s Mass and Unity (WLP.) The self-admitted reality that the retrofits still constitutes a reality that the available repertoire in a so-called permanent hymnal is anchored in an intransient status quo. There’s scant nobility towards unveiling new settings in a manner similar to OCP in the 80’s and 90’s, ie. Missa Oecumenica, Responsorial Mass of Proulx, Holy Family Mass of Schiavone etc. (along with Jerry Brubaker’s WLP setting by the same title. Worthier settings by Bob Hurd, Mike Joncas and others not so revered have no home in the hardbound market.
This dialogue as structured by Fr. Ruff, is a big discouragement because of reasons above, but also for the lack of discussion of under-marketed competitors such as ADOREMUS, VATICAN II, LUMEN CHRISTI and ST. MICHAEL’s. And a personal peeve I hold is that while publishers such as LuLu and Frog Press stand at the ready to publish parish, aka boutique hymnals, the Liturgical Industrial folk seemingly have no interest in becoming a force giving consumer editorial input into hardbound hymnal content, which cannot be all that difficult in the digital age to accomplish. Another absence was S.O.P. lack of mention about chant in any language, and particularly Gregorian Latin chant. There may be a growing NPM interest in cultivating chant, but that was in no ways present in this discussion.
The only possible good news out of this year’s panel is the eventual unveiling of GIA’s second edition RITUALSONG. But I’m not keeping a candle lit waiting for it. The weekly ordo and projection is most likely the best future for parish directors with a highly developed sense of repertoire.