You might already be familiar with these, but you can use the Responsorial Psalm settings in the Canadian Bishops' "Catholic Book of Worship III" or those published by Novalis in the "Living with Christ" Sunday missal. As well the Canadian version of the St. Joseph Sunday missal includes simple chants for the Responsorial Psalms but no verse settings.

Canada has an official psalter: Psalms for the Liturgical Year (Toronto: Novalis, 2009).

Thank you. I will look into that right away. I hope the music is manageable.

Sorry Frater, I was replying to Mr. Ford. I will definitely contact St. Michael's. Do you have an email address for them?

It's true. The translation of the Mass is universal, but different bishops conferences may choose different biblical translations for their Lectionary. In the US, it's the New American Bible (with a title like that, perhaps some of the reason it wasn't picked up by the rest of the English-speaking world).

If I'm correct, I think I remember reading that once upon a time in the 70s and 80s, the USA had both NRSV and NAB lectionaries available and the priest could choose, and then eventually, the NAB was settled upon for the USA. I think there are other conferences that still allow a choice among a list of options, but I'm not sure.

Website: www.smcs.on.ca
e-mail: choirschool@smcs.on.ca

If you don't receive a reply in a few days, you probably should phone them.

Exactly. Please post the answer to this question if you are able to find an answer to it, Frogman. Until our pastor chucked the OCP books, I was totally unaware that our readings were different than yours. I wonder which lectionary is used in Britain, New Zealand, Australia, etc.

England and Wales - Jerusalem & Grail

The text in the Lectionary used at Mass is the Jerusalem Bible, the psalm text is
from the Grail Psalter.The texts can be found in the Lectionary or a Sunday Missal.
To find the correct Sunday consult a diocesan ordo or yearbook or Liturgy Office
website (www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar).

GIA offers a version of the psalms of Michael Guimont for the Canadian lectionary. The settings are not unlike R&A except they use more expanded harmony in the newly composed tones. Since GIA is administering the new Grail translation, I bet they're going to do their best to keep resources like this from becoming obsolete.

Forgive my density here, but
Is Chabanel not an option?

I smell an opportunity....

I believe that only in the US is the RNAB the required translation for the lectionary; its copyright is owned by the USCCB.

Almost all the other English-speaking/using conferences of bishops use the NRSV, although a few have adopted its predecessor, the RSV. Both versions are owned by the National Council of Churches, a religious organization currently consisting of 35 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, African-American and historic Christian denominations in the United States; the Catholic editions contain the Old Testament books in the order of the Vulgate.

Lectionaries only print the official translations of the readings, especially the psalms/canticles. Musicians are free to set other translations of the psalms/canticles when these have the imprimatur or have been permitted to be sung by diocesan bishops or national conferences of bishops.

Gordon Johnston has composed settings for all 3 Year of the Canadian Lectionary. The compositions are available on the Novalis website.

http://www.novalis.ca/Product.aspx?ids=1252220&lang=eng

A recording of the weekly Psalm is available on this website:

http://www.celebrate-liturgy.ca/index.php?id=48

Greetings – I am from a small rural parish in Saskatchewan, Canada and I thought that conbrio and others might be interested in hearing about the responsorial psalms we use.

First some musical context about my parish FYI: we use two older hymnals – the Catholic Book of Worship II (1980) and the original Glory & Praise. We have Sunday mass every second week (pastor travels from larger centre) alternating with a lay service. Our church is 100 years old and has awesome acoustics and our parish enjoys singing. Full capacity is 150 and we generally have about 40 people attend. Our music program is voluntary; we always play the organ (older Yamaha) and sometimes are joined by a guitarist. Though we sing some favorites from Glory & Praise we do sing many traditional Catholic hymns from the CBWII. Our main pastor is very musical and he will always sing the Eucharistic prayer; our parish knows the sung responses. We generally use CBWII mass settings (e.g. Somerville, Togni) but have been using some of the Chabanel mass parts (english) in the past year. Our parish enjoys trying vernacular chant/plainsong but have not made the leap to latin. I play organ part time and generally choose and sing the psalm; I am an amateur organist with my Grade 9 in piano who can carry a tune.

So back to the psalms: we typically (80% time) use the responsorial psalms in CBWII; I think many of the tones and responses are quite good (eg. G Murray OSB settings). The CBWII psalms use ICEL (1973) or Grail text. We occasionally use the Chabanel psalm settings (20% time) and I hope to use them more – it just takes more prep time as they are new to us. We rarely use a “psalm” (song) from Glory & Praise. We rarely use the new Gordon Johnston psalms printed in our Sunday Missal that is published by Novalis (CCCB) and corresponds to our new Lectionary (NRSV). Our pastor is fine with whatever setting we use - I think he is just happy that we sing them. We have not been told by our bishop or pastor to use the new Novalis (Johnston) settings so I don’t see us purchasing the Novalis psalter. To my ear, the Chabanel and CBWII psalms are more beautiful sounding and easier to sing. I am eager to learn more about the St Michael’s psalms mentioned in this thread as they sound like a good resource for my parish.

I feel lucky to be part of a musical parish that is willing to try some new things including re-discovering traditional Catholic music. Having a musical priest is a big asset. Because we have such a priest who is willing to sing his parts, we are planning to do a fully sung mass this winter that will include a sung gospel and hopefully the first two readings. Finally, I want to say that I really appreciate the work of the CMAA and the Chabanel projects. I stumbled across your websites a year ago and your resources have been very helpful, educational and inspirational for me – a non-professional music volunteer. I hope this post was interesting/helpful. Conbrio – I look forward to an update on how things develop with your situation.

If it were not true, we would never have had Ted Marier's wonderful psalm settings in "Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Canticles." The psalm translations in this classic hymnal were drawn from a variety of sources.

I had a nice and detailed reply that outlined the history of the Lectionary in Canada and the US but some how go logged out. So I will go with a point form version.

-I appreciate different translations as it gives us a clearer picture of what the original languages are trying to say, unity is not uniformity.

-The new Lectionary was published in 1969 and Canada and the US each chose different translations, Canada the Jersualem Bible and the US the NAB.

-A second typical edition of the Lectonary was produced in 1981.

-Both Canada and the US considered the NRSV which was produced in 1989. It was a revision of highly regarded RSV.

-Canada produced a Sunday Lectionay in 1992 and Weekday Lectionary in 1994 based on the NRSV with the approval of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

-1995, the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith notes certainly theological issues with the NRSV after considering it for the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

-The US proceeds with a Lectionary based on the RNAB, Canada recieves permission to continue to use the NRSV while working out translation issues with CDW.

-Canada halts planned NRSV Ritual Lectionary and Book of the Gospels (which is why you see so many binder "lectionaries" for weddings and funerals).

-Canada published a revised NRSV Sunday Lectionary in 2009. Plans for a Ritual Lectionary and Book of the Gospels are underway.

-For the Responsorial Psalm in Canada there are 2 options, settings based on the NRSV in the Lectionary or settings based on the Grail, like in the CBWIII.

Andrew,
I am interested in your set of responsorial Psalms. I have undertaken a similar project for my parish of the past year and a half, but I would love to see what someone else has done.
Thanks,
Peter