In response to the request made by Noel, let's brainstorm suggestions for Catholic public domain hymns that ought to be included in the final cut of PBEH. New hymns already have a submission process. In order to prevent theological controversy on this thread, hymns of Protestant and Orthodox origin can be discussed elsewhere.
I'll start:
Long Live the Pope (St. Gregory #122) O Food to Pilgrims Given (St. Gregory #57) - tr. O Esca Viatorum O Come and Mourn (St. Gregory #21)
Also, does anyone know if the Cardinal O'Connell hymn books are PD?
Glory Be to Jesus (Arundel #78, first tune, pdf p. 128) - this was sung recently by Mother Angelica's sisters after the Solemn Pontifical Mass on the Feast of the Precious Blood.
I am a Faithful Catholic - Sunday-School Hymn Book, Boston (1896); Notre Dame Hymn Book, Liverpool (1905) - Lyrics here--PD in Parochial Hymn Book, #198, pdf p. 160, MIDI here (need to find scan of melody from PD book).
Is there a thread for PD hymns that should not be included? I know this phase of the project is for "collecting", not "screening", so I'll mention Cdl. O'Connell's hymns here, including "The Blessing at the End of Mass".
O Word of God Incarnate (1940, #402) Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light (1940, #25) Angels From The Realms of Glory The First Nowell Venite Adoremus What Star Is This With Beams So Bright Glory Be To Jesus (1940, #335) Sing of Mary Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee Father, We Thank Thee Who Has Planted (1940, #195) Humbly I Adore Thee Shepherd of Souls How Bright Appears the Morning Star (1940, #329) We Sing The Praise Of Him Who Died (1940, #340)
'cause we didn't get around to doing them for one reason or another. Any hymn may be brought up for discussion and evaluation if someone feels that it belongs.
The ones I recommend above are all rock solid selections. Do we have an accurate list of what's in and what's not? I took five minutes in one hymnal to come with that quick list. I am sure I can come up with a lot more. Hope this helps
12 hours ago on this page Jeffrey listed the link of hymns that are being considered and being transcribed.
Joyful, Joyful...should any hymnbook have altered Beethoven? While Beethoven's copyright has expired, should his music be presented in an altered form for any reason? Or any of your own music, for the same reason?
Thanks for including this, francis, as it's good to get the source of the tune, dated 1849. The text in the 1940 however was alted from the original, and thus the alt is under copyright. I'll avoid discussing whether the alt improved the theology or not.
Which reminds me...that this thread was intended just for the Catholic hymns--to be precise, hymns written or translated by Roman Catholics which were published in hymnals approved for use by the Roman Catholic Church. That's not to say that other hymns shouldn't be included...but they can have their own threads. For example, I've started a separate thread for liturgical hymn translations which specifically invites Neale's work by name. Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Anglican Uniate traditions can also have their own threads.
Glancing at the list of hymns on the official page so far, but without undertaking a comprehensive labelling scheme, it seems that PBEH will be about 50-75% Protestant in origin, which is more or less what one finds among the "traditional hymn" selection at Novus Ordo parishes today. One reason for the paucity of English Catholic hymns is that more than half of the pages in a traditional Catholic hymnal will be devoted to Latin music. But I think many good, public domain traditional Catholic hymns are still missing from the collection. I've only included a few so far. I would encourage people to think of others. We've had more philosophical debate posts about PBEH than we've had hymn suggestions.
"Glory Be to Jesus" is in The Lutheran Hymnal. Which reminds me, is anyone mining the Singing Church (aka the Lutherans) for hymns? I would sadly recommend Bach's metric versions of the tunes, since it seems there's no going back to the "bar rhythms", but a lot of the Lutheran theology is close enough that omitting a few verses leaves you with a superb Catholic hymn. And I'd better see all 14 verses to "O Sacred Head"!
"Glory Be to Jesus", if it's the same one I'm thinking of, is by Fr. Caswall. The tune in H '40 is "Caswall". I use the original 6 verses at my church.
I think every text by Fathers Faber, Caswall and Newman should be included, paired with whatever tune will work the best and/or be most familiar.
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