OCP replacement copies
  • tandrews
    Posts: 174
    Hello everyone,

    I've found lots of keyboard accompaniment pages from our OCP binders have gone missing at the Cathedral. I've attempted to make replacement photocopies from other binders, but apparently OCP uses paper that isn't quite 8.5x11 size and their 5 hole punch diameters are bigger than normal. I called OCP and that got me nowhere.

    Has anyone else had to deal with this nonsense? Does OCP even offer a replacement page service? I mean they send out new music every year to replace old hymns in those blue binders, I would hope I could simply say "also, resend hymns X, Y, and Z with this new music since they've mistakenly wandered off.

    /rant
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 548
    (Time spent messing around with accompaniment binders + revising despicable partwriting by Alstott et. al. + replacing pages each year + figuring out where corresponding songs are in Choral Praise and xeroxing same for choir purchasing a new copy each time a new member joins) ≥ (amount of time needed to master figured bass and harmony, such that one can accompany at sight only from the melody line in the pew edition + printing legitimate harmonizations from real hymnals for masses with choir)
    Thanked by 1MNadalin
  • btodorovich87
    Posts: 101
    Ditch 'em. GIA FTW.
    Thanked by 2tandrews MNadalin
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 904
    The OCP binder system is terrible, both in concept and content. The only legal way to obtain replacements is to purchase a completely new binder with everything. You could try asking the publisher for specific replacement pages, but I doubt it.

    Other options: borrow one from another church to make the necessary illegal copies, or purchase a digital copy and print the pages you need. The file is print restricted, but there are ways to work around.

    Improvising your own accompaniment from a pew book is probably the best option.

    I also subbed recently for a church that subscribes to an online OCP digital music library. It allowed me to view and print all the music I needed for that weekend (congregation, keyboard, guitar, choral and instrumental parts were all available). However the cost was over $1000 per year! Not sure how a struggling parish can justify that expense, especially when a permanent hymnal is so much cheaper.
    Thanked by 1tandrews
  • francis
    Posts: 10,828
    have NOTHING to do with OCP
    Thanked by 6MarkB Earl_Grey Earl_Grey hilluminar youngcatholicgirl tomjaw
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    [One thing I like about Francis is his loquacious , ambiguous opinions.]
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,416
    Yes!
    Studies in succinctness.
    No beating around the bush.
    Exemplars of directness.
    Always right to the .
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    What do you need, exactly? I kept a very old copy of the OCP accompaniment, but disposed of most of the junk. I've been thinking of pitching the whole thing, however, so if someone needs some of the pages before I do...
    Thanked by 1tandrews
  • tandrews
    Posts: 174
    Thank you TCJ for your help. We actually have a spare in our choir loft that I've been raiding at the permission of the priest who owns it (he doesn't care for it either, thankfully). It's an imperfect system, as the numbering is all off (not that it matters since it's all alphabetical order anyway). I'll PM you what we would need.

    Mostly I just wanted to share my frustrations with OCP, it seems to be a rite of passage around here. One day we can ditch it. The handmaids next door supposedly do book burnings for the missalettes every Advent I (after all, we mustn't throw the word of God in the trash), so I might need to join them when that comes around!

    Small aside, this reminds me of a previous parish where I noticed IATBOL was in E or F major back in the '80s. Now that would be a hoot today.
  • tandrews
    Posts: 174
    You could try asking the publisher for specific replacement pages, but I doubt it.


    This is the part that drove me nuts when I was on the phone with them. They won't do that. Heaven forbid they anticipate accompanists lose a page when racing off to a funeral or a little child tears it out of the binding during Mass.

  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    OCP : Obsessive Compulsive Predators?
    Thanked by 4Incardination tandrews tomjaw CharlesW
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