That's a pretty good list. Every one of them is overused.

Music becomes boring for organists and choristers long before it becomes boring for congregants. On that list, I can only think of two tunes that have more than a couple of widely used non-seasonal-specific texts commonly appearing in widely used Catholic hymn resources (yeh, a lot of qualifiers), and those two tunes would be the Amurkan ones, BEACH SPRING and LAND O'REST (the latter long referred to tartly by a SSJ sister as a "hurdy gurdy tune").

ABBOT'S LEIGH and THAXTED are vocal workouts for Amurkan Kathlick congregants. That's what makes them *tiring*, not exactly *boring*, for congregants.

I don't share the unease (or contempt) expressed by some on these boards over the years that it's bad or poor(er) practice to have more than one text associated with a tune. (Partly it's because back in the years when I had some responsibility with programming, I kept spreadsheets and through my data-keeping I was able to correct my faulty sense memory of what we were doing too much/too little of, as it were, and I realized may others in music ministry seemed vulnerable to similar faulty sense memory issues.)

I truly believe that PIP don't get bored of over-used hymn tunes. It doesn't mean they aren't overused though.

I was approaching list from both angles. All are set to many texts by publishers. Because of meter and familiarity, the tunes I listed are all too often used in place of unfamiliar tunes published with a worthy text. Personally, I believe that no tune should be used with more than two or three texts in a hymnal. Actually, I do like Beach Spring. And, Ode to Joy should have made my list.

I think any parish that could legitimately complain about those hymn tunes being sung too often is in an enviable position concerning music sung at Mass.

I attended a Confirmation Mass a couple weeks ago at a friend's parish and was subjected to OCP and praise and worship dreck. Bob Hurd's "Envia tu Espiritu"? Please spare me.

In an audition, when coal instead of a jewel is on the menu, one gives the lump demanded. It's in the nature of the audition.

And here's a PS on the origins of NEW BRITAIN which I find helpful in considering how tunes evolved in the early ages of cheap mass printing 200+ years ago: https://www.shenandoahharmony.com/2015/did-lucius-chapin-write-the-amazing-grace-tune/

CharlesW: Absolutely!

And, for a different context for one of the offenders, from 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeqcKKviqZY

Carol, I suppose "Ode To Joy" was the Alpha and Omega for that Sunday!

I dislike LAMBILLOTE but given its one-time-per-year use I can't agree that it's overused in any meaningful way other than musician boredom contrasting with Why Not Do Something Better? syndrome, which illustrates my initial point. I am not a fan of LLANFAIR either, but it usually only appears once or twice in Eastertide to variations on two basic text themes.

I strongly dislike RVW's Hail Thee Festival Day in its iterations. Organists tend to have orgasms over it and those who are allowed to program it get tempted to work its iterations over the liturgical year (sigh). It's a vocalise for everyone else. Not one of RVW's better efforts from a congregational singing perspective. (Festival Canticle is a pale modern echo of its more-frustrating-than-fun where-the-heck-are-we? structure, mercifully to only one text, and I am glad that my years of being in a parish that sang it seven Sundays in a row - to "unify the season" - are long past. Another creature adored by organists more than singing PIPs.)

I disagree about GROSSER GOTT. I don't tire of the latter as it's only got one good text normally associated with it, and it's sung much less in the past generation than it used to be as best I can tell from my travels. Maybe it's overused in traditional Low Masses or communities that still program it on the second Sunday of most months (I can remember those days), but not so much in the Northeast USA for a long time.

There may be a prosaic (pun intended) reason for overuse of non-iambic metered tunes: well known English(ed) hymn texts seem to be dominated by iambic meters and a treasury of tunes developed around that lode of texts. Not so much with other meters.

Looking for an Easter hymn which is not over used? (And is in no danger of ever having been.)

A marvelous hymn which is apparently unheard of outside the 1940, a profound hymn at the procession on Easter Day, is '"Welcome, Happy Morning!" Age to Age Will Say', sung to Fortunatus, a grand tune with processional gravitas. The text is by St John Damascene, and is rich in biblical references.

We sing it most years. Also, it is in TH82.

Whatever the tune is for "Bring Flowers of the Fairest"

I must disagree with the honourable Liam about Salve festa dies. When I was younger I didn't like it at all and thought it a fine example of confused dis-unity. As years have turned to decades, though, I have come to like it very much. I've even written challenging descants for all sections of it (and will mail them to anyone who might wish to use them).

However! I do believe that once a year, on Easter Day, is enough! It was certainly enough for its VIIth century author, none other than Venantius Fortunatus, whose focus was entirely on the absolute uniqueness and power of the Paschal feast. It should not be made into a multi-festal extravaganza. It is this unfortunate custom (over use) which has earned for it undeserved opprobrium. Repeating it on Ascension, Pentecost, etc. etc. is indeed extreme over use.
If our hymnals had more than two or three or four Ascension and Pentecost hymns with the same text rehashed for each, and all of which lack any festal gravitas or literary depth, we would not need to opt for yet another offering of Salve festa dies for a hymn and a tune of any real substance.

Incidentally, one of The Hymnal 1982's better offerings (at no. 219) is the Ascension hymn by A.T Russell, 'The Lord Ascendeth up on High', to a tune by Praetorius, Ach Herr, du allerhochster Gott. I even have a recording of this sung by King's and, taken at an elegant pace, it is grand. I commend it to all. It would even make a fine anthem for village choirs.

Finally: it has been noted that Hyfrydol is on (if not over) the borderline of being over used. A really beautiful alternative to it would be Blaenwern, a tune with an elegant sway which may be over used in Britain but is virtually unheard of on these shores and their hinterlands.

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I retired from teaching in 2012 - school May crowning was the last time I played the flower song.

It's not a hymn, but Palestrina's Sicut Cervus needs to spend some quality time on the shelf while his many, many other motets get a chance to shine.

My choir does "It Ye Love" once a year on the Sixth Sunday of Easter--because it is the proper communion text in the Roman Missal.

The Tallis we are currently working on is "Verily, Verily, I say unto you"--a very courageous text for a Recusant to set...

I have a difficulty, in that I need to supply music for daily Masses (without choir), which includes the proper antiphons and hymns (aka stuffed Mass) to keep everyone happy. We always conclude with the seasonal Marian antiphon--one could perhaps say that they are over-used, but since one could also say that they are a prescribed liturgical text, and that they change seasonally, I don't think they are. We also have a perpetual novena to St. Jude, which includes a hymn (replaced only when days such as Christmas fall on a Wednesday) set to Aurelia. Suffice to say, my "over use" of hymns might be far different from someone else's. We use the Adoremus Hymnal, and I am confining my list to Ordinary time...by the end of Christmas-tide if I have to hear Adeste Fideles one more time I might not be responsible for my actions...

1) AURELIA
2) LOBE DEN HERRN
3) ELACOMBE
4) RENDEZ A DIEU
5) OLD HUNDREDTH
6) ST. ANNE
7) LAUDA ANIMA
8) LOURDES HYMN
9) EISENACH
10) O DU FROEHLICHE/SICILIAN MARINERS
11) NICEA
12) TRURO
13) ST. THOMAS
14) WERNER

Many of these are excellent tunes, and the other side of the coin for my thinking them "over-used" is that they are generally sung extremely well by even a small Daily Mass congregation--so well, in fact, that I can often ornament the tune and play alternate harmonizations without throwing them off. So, six of one, half-dozen of the other.

I would guess Verily, verily isn't so much Tallis' second best piece as much as his next-to-least-tricky-for mixed-voices piece. I feel a little guilty about not doing more Josquin than Ave…serena (which no one tires of twice a year) but we probably esteem it higher than 15c musicians did for that same reason: the real jewels are Praeter rerum, Benedicta es and Pange lingua, which I can't bring myself to attempt SATB.

Hymn overuse varies from job to job (I rather miss AURELIA these days) but one that's always made me recoil is The First Noel. I finally put my finger on it: the refrain is the same as the verse.

I remember our smart aleck days from high school when we sang the dyslexic version, the first leon instead of the first noel. But we made fun of everything back then. Sometimes, still do.

We do 'Noel' once a year at Epiphany and the congregation sings it enthusiastically. Once a visiting priest would not leave the sanctuary until we sang all 6 verses. Several people commented that they had never heard six verses to that carol. I will think about it at the next Epiphany. Probably not before then.

Many of the saints including St. Louis De Mondfort, referred to Mary’s Psalter and the Rosary beads as flowers, particularly roses and even more so as the prayers we offer up.

No arguments there. I've often thought of Mary as having received from Her Divine Spouse a bouquet beyond measure and beauty when she accepted His proposal.

So, no quibbling from my end about the theology of the hymn. As for the tune itself - perhaps your choir/congregation has greater facility with it than ours. I'm pretty sure it first appeared to out choir under the title "Invitation to Scoop".

Amazing Grace needs to be expunged for all time along with How Great Thou Art

The hymn tune assigned to "Bring Flowers of the Rarest" in St. Paul's Hymnal (2015) is "Crowning Hymn." Like Don9of11, I know of no other hymn utilizing this melody, so how can it be overused?

One thing for sure, though--it was the most popular and well-loved hymn to Our Lady in the English language prior to 1970 or so. Nearly every graduate of a Catholic school for three quarters of the 20th century would have known the hymn.

About Taylor's version of O Filii et Filiae - I've encountered this a few times before and have always wondered why someone just had to sharpen the F. As if this were not enough, we have added eighth note passing tones in the second 'alleluia' and changed the melody altogether for the third 'alleluia'. While Taylor speaks of not 'changing the melody', all this does, in fact, change the melody, destroy the modality, and really sounds quite eccentric. Otherwise, I don't see that it's different from the 'urtext'. This is the sort of thing that was done to chant in renaissance and baroque times. Surely, we have outgrown such presumptuous tinkering with our plainchant heritage.