Take a closer look at the hymnals you mention.

Each edition of the Saint Michael Hymnal weeds out more and more of the folk stuff. We have the 4th edition and there is very little: a few Taize things and On Eagles Wings and Be Not Afraid. There are many great hymns to choose from and I have never needed to resort to these items. Compare that to Breaking Bread which has over 1000 choices and I am stuck trying to select the lesser of two evils week after week. A fifth edition of SMH is in the works, but I do not know what the plans are for the new edition. Hopefully it will be completely free of all the bad stuff.

Half of the Lumen Christi Hymnal is devoted to Office Hymns. Lumen Christi, however is also embarking on a new project.

There are several threads on this forum that discuss the pros and cons of the Brebeuf hymnal.

If I were embarking on a hymnal project I would first determine my intended audience and scope. Is this primarily for a choir or congregation? A seminary, religious community, or an average parish, etc. Will it be used primarily for Mass, the Office, devotions? Sure you can have a sampling of all these things, but one book can't be all things for all people and all situations.

My biggest critique of the mainstream hymnals (OCP, GIA) is that they claim to have it all and while they have a lot of pages, they are missing what I would consider essential items. They have few hymns suitable for the the Blessed Mother, the Saints and especially the martyrs. Heck, few of the hymns even praise or mention God and resort to singing about gathering together and other "social concerns". Few of the hymns affirm traditional Catholic teachings of Sacrifice amd sanctity, etc.

While the other hymnals you cite do much better at this, they are often dismissed by pastors because they don't include the readings, or a complete psalter or complete Kyriale, etc. etc. well what is the book supposed to be? a Missal, a psalter or a hymnal? It can't possibly do all these things well without being too large to be put to practical use.

All plainchant should be in chant notation, not round note heads and certainly not quavers. (The English Hymnal of 1906, edited by RVW, is the only major hymnal that I am aware of which employs chant notation. It is past time to follow this precedent.)

There should be at least three hymns for every solemnity (most solemnities seem to get short shrift in nearly all hymnals). The three hymns should be one with a processional air, one of theological substance for the offertory (if no anthem is sung), and one for the dismissal.

Hymn tunes should be avoided that lack a certain dignity, e.g., Moscow, etc. There should be a bare minimum of contrafacta, and any contrafacta that appears should be rigidly scrutinised to see that text and tune really do compleiment one another. One sees in too many other hymnals (such as Worship IV) numerous examples of very poorly matched texts and tunes, whether contrafacta or not.

Davido,

One other thing. Everything musically in the book should point to God, and be beautiful. The editors should make a conscious effort to avoid anthropocentric worship and ugliness. (They're not always the same thing, but sometimes they coincide.)

I will echo Chris - avoid anthropocentricity at all costs.

A few four-part selections would be nice for inclusion, perhaps for those hymns attached to solemnities, or for the most well-known tunes.

There are lots of tradition and Catholic culture reasons to use square notes, but in your opinion, what musical benefit do square notes offer?

A five-line staff gives the accidental impression that the chant is intended to be sung at the absolute pitches indicated on the score, and that can make transposition harder for singers. Square notation is clearly a relative-pitch system.

In addition, the shapes of neumes convey gestures that are not as clear in round notation.

Chant notation reveals far more information than what note to sing, it informs how to sing the chant, it informs nuance, vocal inflexion, and rhythm that note heads don't. As for 'the people' being unable to read chant notation, I've been witness to too many instances in which 'the people' do quite well reading 'square notes' to swallow such twaddle. At work here may be that old inclination to blame the people's supposed inability when a more positive approach would yield surprising results.

I have yet to see an example of note heads that conveys the characteristic nuance and rhythm of chant that is communicated by chant notation, and I have seen and tried singing quite a few examples. Using note heads is to suggest that chant is only a matter of singing the right pitch and that all notes are equal. This is not chant. To my mind, any hymnal that would be taken seriously will present chant notation.

People can read chant notation. True, they are not expected to read the likes of Pascha nostrum (the alleluya verse for Easter Day which is challenging even to a chant virtuoso), but they can read, and read very well in chant notation their responses and ordinaries, and hymns. And yes, I am aware that the 1940 and the 1982 do not employ chant notation and regard this as one of their shortcomings.

Give the people this opportunity. I have heard from numerous folk that they find chant notation easier to read than modern notation.

My boys find the chant notation easier to read than modern notation.

I agree with the sentiments above that, given the lack of any intrinsic rhythmic variety in the individual neumes, square notation provides a more obvious picture of the melodic gesture that is easier to grasp at a glance.

To me, a good hymnal

1) has the hymns printed in four parts in the standard pew edition. Where there is a unique keyboard harmonization not consistently in four parts (e.g. Engelberg), print that too. I would not be an organist had I not spent hours in my elementary-school years playing through my family’s evangelical hymnals, for my own enjoyment and sometimes to accompany their singing.

This is what makes the singing in many Protestant churches so good – that for the bulk of the verses, everyone is singing in the register where their voices function best, and a nice, rich sound is produced, even without clever organ accompaniment. Obviously, there’s maybe 5 parishes outside the Ordinariate who could sing thus today, but none will ever learn to do so if they don’t have the music printed. There’s nothing to lose; those who don’t read won’t mind having extra notes, and those who do will be glad to sing something more interesting by the 10th verse of Stabat Mater. Then, also, families can play and sing them in their homes, as my family still does regularly. (It would also be a blessing for my choirs, so they don’t have to be reading Xeroxes, or toting giant spiral-bound accompaniments with them.)

2. Doesn’t cut verses. Leave that to the people actually using the book. Seriously, you have no idea whether I’m going to use Hymn X at an ordination with 500 people in procession, or at a tiny funeral. If you try to guess for me, you’ll be wrong.

3. Doesn’t change an author’s words. If you’re going to do the legwork yourself and translate a hymn from Latin or some other language, I don’t care if your language is modern or archaic, but don’t vandalize other people’s works. If you think a hymn is too dated, be intellectually honest and leave it out, instead of tinkering with it. Unless you make your living lecturing on 17th-century English poetry, your changes will stand out and seem risibly inferior. In an age when people can instantly google words they don’t recognize, it is unbelievable to me that people still want to sacrifice beautiful poetry for instant comprehension by kindergarteners.

4. Wasn’t designed by monkeys using Word 3.0. The printed matter is beautiful to behold. Text is logically arranged; music is cleanly engraved. Compare LBW/1982/Presbyterian ‘91, heck, even ELW, to any Catholic book, and don’t do it like the Catholic ones.

5. Isn’t burdened with the editor‘s/committee’s/publishing houses’ babies. Seriously, all the Catholic books today are like the current White House: full of unqualified people and their shoddy work because they’re friends with the guy who signs the checks. If I wanted to use your Lenten Penitential Propers for Cantor, Assembly, Handbells, Brass, and Keyboard, I would’ve already bought them from your website; don’t waste paper printing them for people who don’t want them.

Don't forget all the wonderful stuff in the old Westminster Hymnal by R. R. Terry. I also personally like the old Songs of Praise hymnal created by Percy Dearmer and R. Vaughan Williams and the Songs of Syon hymnal by Rev. G. R. Woodward (very rare).

May I offer this?

Yep, governments! as Belloc wrote:

The accursed power which stands on privilege -
(and goes with women, champagne and bridge)
Broke - and democracy resumed her reign!
(which goes with bridge and women and champagne).

We don't need hymnbooks, Holy Mother Church provides Graduals.

Thank you to those who have addressed the questions posed in the OP. Some great ideas here.

I think the tangent about square notes is a worthwhile discussion, however no one said anything that I haven’t already heard.

Discussions about Graduale vs hymnals are not pertinent to the OP.

I would still appreciate continued feedback on the two questions posed in the OP.
Thanks!

Hymn tunes should be avoided that lack a certain dignity, e.g., Moscow, etc.

Jackson: LOL I KNOW you don't like Moscow!
Hard to see that any hymnal could top the CCW offerings.

wean[ing] becomes much more difficult once it's "in the book", so to speak.

'Baking' is a potentially dangerous way to go: I've had to demonstrate once that Breaking Bread doesn't have anything much that isn't already in the GIA pew hymnal. If one isn't already in charge of selecting from what's in the book one likely won't be able to resist replacement of the book either.

I should mention that I have been forbidden to give square notes to the congregation.

Is that because they may like it and then move on to higher things?
I agree chant should be in Square notes on the 4 line stave, it does not appear to be a problem for anyone open to new things... I suspect Susan and co. would object, but we do not have Susans at our events. Which leads us on to this,

it is unbelievable to me that people still want to sacrifice beautiful poetry for instant comprehension by kindergarteners.

Which is insulting to children that seem to cope with square notes and beautiful poetry...

Q1. We have two Hymnals, the new one "Hymns old and new, 1987"
This was designed as a hymnal for everything from folk to new rite Latin Mass. The pew edition has no music, I think this is a downside. Also by trying to give something for everyone, it has too much dead wood that does not get used.
The choir editions are enormous and difficult to hold, and break apart within a couple of years.
Our Second Hymn book is "The Parish Hymn Book, 1968" this was in use here before the above, we have several sets, the remains of our own plus a neighbouring parish's double set (They had a brand new set that was never used) plus the London Oratory copies).
This has music in the pew edition, it is easy to hold, and has some nice hymns, sadly it also contains Hymns that no one can remember ever singing. It also has been slightly edited so some hymns are missing familiar verses. The choir copy is easy to hold, and is bound really well.

The O.F. uses Hymns old and new most Sundays only dragging out the 'Parish' a few times each year. At the EF we don't sing English Hymns so both books are useless. For other services such as May crownings I will put out the Parish with the Hymn numbers, but we are gradually doing away with singing English Hymns at these events... We have a growing number of families and the children have grown up hearing chat to it is more familiar to them.

Q2. As for what I would like... I think a Kyriale is a must, although I can't see everybody using it, some people have difficultly using the Latin English booklet Missal / UVOC style Propers sheet, having a third thing is really going to be too much. For Vespers etc. it is better to produce a booklet for each event, using a Liber is beyond certain members of the choir!
I agree it would be good to have a Hymn book with a Temporal and full Sanctoral cycle, but this is an enormous job, and perhaps be an enormous book.
Of course the Parish Book of Chant is excellent, but our Parish uses to many other pieces not in that book.