Thanks to those here at CMAA who were kind and instrumental in suggesting hymns.

I am sorry to say
Lovely job? NO!

Re: the engraving - although November as a music font is far superior to the usual fare in modern hymnals, and the textual fonts are excellent (barring some questionable and gratuitous use of "old-style" numerals, and inconsistency in the dashes), the engraving itself is not of the best quality, especially the ledger lines and slurs. It takes more than adding the correct fonts to a Finale document to produce an all-around beautiful score.

There are some questionable editorial decisions as well: i.e. why are hymns no. 22 and 23 numbered differently despite featuring the same text? The standard convention is 22A/22B, or "first tune/second tune".

I don't see the purpose of the organ edition because there is no attempt to make the hymns more "organistic" other than painting over the entire book with one extremely broad and unsubtle brush of rhythmical simplification. If i.e. the inner parts were variously phrased to bring out certain musical or textual emphases, I would be more enthusiastic about the idea. This edition just ties together every single repeated note not in the melody, and therefore presents no additional information to the player at all.

I would view this as usefully as an "instructive edition" of Bach that purported to simplify the issue of articulation for amateur players by placing a staccato mark over every single note in the piece, regardless of context. Perhaps it could be of some use to the student who stubbornly insists on playing sempre legato, but otherwise it is of zero paedagogical value.

Maybe (H1940 & Lutheran Service Book use FIRST/SECOND TUNE and hymnals from my lifetime seem all to assign different numbers), but that wouldn't work with hymn board sets that have numerals only, as is most often the case. I've sometimes wished I could put up 202 or Ccij, to clarify whether "O come" or "Adeste" were meant.

Perhaps. I wouldn't view it as an issue, in light of the near-omnipresent hymn announcements by the cantor/otherwise assigned individual (and the organ introduction should surely settle the matter)

Pax, thanks for your question! I'm working on a solution that will allow sales of virtual products anywhere in the world while restricting sales of physical books. That said, we encourage customers in other countries who want physical books to get in touch! We can usually work something out. I'll post again when I've been able to solve the problem.

Mary

a_f_hawkins, the typeface used on the cover is Mason Serif: https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/mason-serif

PaxMelodious, I believe I've solved the pdf problem. If a customer provides a shipping address outside the USA for physical books, he or she will get a message that we don't ship there. He or she should, however, now be able to buy virtual products.

I'm really glad you brought this up!

I don't know if this is pertinent or not but I downloaded the topical index and it looks incomplete, for example under the Christmas topic, "O Little Town of Bethlehem & Silent Night" is not listed. There doesn't seem to be a Communion topic for hymns like "Sweet Sacrament Divine," or "Jesus, Thou Art Coming." For Blessed Virgin Mary, "On this Day O Beautiful Mother," "Bring Flowers of the Rarest," need to be listed. And there needs to be a topic for bad/ hard/ difficult times like we are experience now, hymns like "God of Mercy and Compassion," "My Soul Doth Long for Thee," etc.

If you want musicians to use these during the Mass, I think the topical index needs to more complete. Also, I think a general guide line to using the hymns could be part of your preface, introduction or the beginning of the Topic Index. Something like, "A good method for using these hymns for devotion at Mass is...." and list the proper times "Before Mass, Beginning of Mass, Offertory, etc." and then give topic examples.

Some of you might think this is not necessary but I think it would go along way to help those musicians that might be programing music for the first time.