Liturgical Press
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    I've read numerous comments of people "liking what they have seen" with Liturgical Press's "Celebrating the Eucharist/Sacred Song" materials, especially as a better (not to mention MUCH cheaper) alternative to the OCP throwaways. What I'm wondering is if anyone has any real experience with it.

    I hope to switch our Newman Center choir off OCP's Heritage Missal to Sacred Song, but I'm wondering if the Psalm selections (in particular, the Basilica Psalter) are usable, if the evident lack of a choir edition is going to be a problem, and just general observations about LitPress's offerings. Our music directors seem open to change, and are especially eager to dump the Owen Alstott Psalms (really, does anyone actually like them?). They probably wouldn't want to run too far from the mainstream given quite limited rehearsal time and the obvious turnover of a university campus (though they have used some of Fr. Columba Kelly's English settings, since we're a hop, skip, and a jump from St. Meinrad). Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on "Sacred Song?"
  • G
    Posts: 1,401
    Never used Sacred Song, but my parish has C the E in the pews.
    The Basilica Psalter, and the Gregorian psalm tone settings of the Lectionary psalms were used very frequently.
    Sometimes the choir sang 4 pts on hymns out of the accompaniment edition, and I often altered the psalms from the Basilica Psalter, (with very little trouble,) to sing them in parts.
    Didn't care for much of the Psallite Project, (am I remembering that name correctly?)
    As modern hymnals go the choice of hymns each month wasn't bad, albeit limited.
    The people in the pews really liked them, (format, type face, weekdays, etc,) and made their displeasure known when the Liturgy Committee was considering switching disposables.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    Thanks, G. It's helpful to hear from someone with real-world experience using it.

    A little more Googling, and I did find a "Cantor/Choir Resource," which seems to have had a few different publishing dates (and maybe revisions? I'm seeing different ISBNs on different sites): http://www.litpress.org/Detail.aspx?ISBN=9780814630792

    Anyone ever see this? A comparatively VERY large portion of it is available at Google Books as well, though, frustratingly, not the indices: http://books.google.com/books?id=Afc3ADkYkB0C&lpg=PP1&ots=gLiUNoYYJu&dq=Sacred Song Cantor/Choir Resource&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
  • Heath
    Posts: 966
    A small parish I do on Sunday mornings uses Celebrating the Eucharist. Basilica psalter is pretty decent; only rarely do I switch the antiphon due to the difficulty level for the congregation. Verses are tasteful . . . for the most part. There's a few verse settings which are down right nutty . . . extreme ranges, chromatics . . . Crazy.

    Hymns are decent, though often a seasonal favorite is missing for an unknown reason. Also, many "modern" texts set to familiar melodies that reflect that "contemporary" theology that fills up a lot of OCP and GIA offerings.
  • tdunbar
    Posts: 120
    The Sacred Song congregational text has a great price ($3)..I assume it is text only? (have some on order)
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    tdunbar, Sacred Song is a full (paperback) hymnal that they print every three years. It doesn't include any of the Mass texts; that would be in Celebrating the Eucharist (seasonal, includes weekday readings, one edition standalone, the other readings only) or the Living Liturgy Sunday Missal (annual, just Sundays, readings only). You're right about the great price. I'm looking at Sacred Song and Living Liturgy together, and the total cost for 50+ and taking into consideration that you only need to buy a new Sacred Song every three years would come out to $3.17 per set per year. That's significantly cheaper than anything OCP offers, and it also blows them away in content.

    I should note that LitPress has gone out of their way to be very helpful in answering my questions and providing me with samples. My experience with them thus far has been exponentially better than dealing with OCP (where, last year, when I simply wanted to downgrade (er, upgrade?) from Breaking Bread to the Heritage Missal, the sales rep questioned me on that decision about 3 or 4 times, wanting to make sure that I understood there was less music in the latter).
  • tdunbar
    Posts: 120
    Thanks, Mike, for the info
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I just looked it up and it is encouraging to see a Catholic music publishing talking about propers and Latin chant.
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