I'm slightly confused at vetoing SLANE as a "unison" hymn but including several tunes in the survey that clearly work better in unison and/or that I have never seen in SATB arrangements.

"I'm slightly confused at vetoing SLANE as a "unison" hymn but including several tunes in the survey that clearly work better in unison and/or that I have never seen in SATB arrangements."

And that's why you are invited to comment. This is a quick list that is being pared down.

OF - or for a Novena or before/after a TLM for those that indulge.

"-- Can/should this hymn tune be sung well SATB?" Love to have your counsel on that. I think that we all know that it is not enough to merely like a hymn.

" Is this hymn text suitable to be sung, on theological grounds, by a Catholic congregation, regardless of whether it's at Mass or at some other act of worship?" Most definitely, and that is the highest fence to overcome.


And, as long as I have your ear (eye), does Joyful, Joyful have any place in a Catholic hymnbook? I have my opinion, what's yours?

I second Jackson's opinion, and Charles' on the subject of the hymn to the universal brotherhood of man.

You mean that eager brotherhood-of-man syncopation four bars from the end? Ah, imagine persuading a congregation to observe that.

What hymn [& tune] is "All ye weary" [BLESSED MOTHER]? Is it perhaps "Come hither, all ye weary souls" (Isaac Watts) or "Come, all ye weary oppressed" (Eliza E. Hewitt) ... or something else? Sorry to be so confused about this.

There don't seem to be but a few (if any) hymns &/or tunes in the list that were written within the past 25-50 years. Is this by intention? How are competent contemporary authors and composers of hymns ever to get their works into hymnals such as this? ...and I'm not talking about the schlock sacro-pop happy-clappy feel-good crud that is so pervasive in the usual suspects' song-books.

@CHGiffen Thumbs up! We must always take on the work to champion quality contemporary composers. Best from the past, best from the present.

I'm surprised not to see "Lo, He comes with clouds descending" not set to HELMSLEY (which is unison in the 1982 hymnal, but SATB elsewhere--several United Methodist hymnals come to mind.) Also, why not FOREST GREEN instead of ST. LOUIS for "O little town of Bethlehem"?

I think the idea is that unison hymns would be printed in the "Weekly Mass Bulletin" - since they would not take up as much space in a worship aid as 4-part hymns would.

Some time ago (2013) there was a thread on (ostensibly) the top 5 non-office hymns. The main results are summarized in the second page of that thread alphabetically, by title (my contribution) and also by hymn tune (chonak's contribution):

https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/9430/5-top-non-office-hymns/p2

The whole 3-page thread is interesting (re-)reading, but page 2 may be of use here. At least there were some more contemporary traditional hymns & tunes mentioned.

I’m really not sure about this idea. Why not just make a decent hymnal containing hymns to be sung in harmony and hymns to be sung in unison?

1) The extra millimeters required to print a hymn SATB in the bulletin can easily be gained by bumping the margins out slightly (and/or printing some prayers without ICEL’s silly “sense lines”).

2) If the people are to be given a book containing The Church’s Great Hymns And Songs, it would be sad to exclude items usually sung in unison, leaving the chant, Slane, whatever else out in the ether and then in the wastebasket.

3) I also am wondering about funerals and weddings and emergency liturgies that cannot now be foreseen (such as services many places held the evening of 9/11). Unless the parish also has the Lumen Christi Missal or something, having a pew book with only SATB hymns means any time the church wants to celebrate a Mass with music, someone has to put together a complete leaflet. What if the Internet or printer goes down; what if the person who can make the leaflets is incapacitated? What if a new priest decides he’d rather have Worship IV because “it has everything” and the pew books can’t serve any liturgy but a novena by themselves?

4) In Protestant churches, the denominational pew books have orders of service and liturgical music and hymns and psalmody – everything one could possibly need for any liturgy; leaflets are just a matter of convenience. There is always a fallback in case of local technical failure or technological ineptitude. It would be I think very unfortunate to go to the trouble of making a permanent book that is of no use by itself.