Hopeful Indications in "Trends"
  • Claire H
    Posts: 368
    Has anyone else noticed certain small but (I think) significant recent tendencies from some of the mainstreams publishers, specifically in missal/missalette cover designs? For example, the current WLP bilingual missalette (used at my parish) includes a Latin scripture quote around the image, and OCP missal covers sport icon-style images...the 2012 "Today's Missal Music Issue" actually has a zoomed-in chant manuscript for the cover artwork!

    I like to think that use of this type of artwork (in contrast to the often abstract or sloppy cover art used for quite a few years) goes along with and is an indicator of the overall positive attitude shift/movement to reclaim/reintroduce chant, etc, even among mainstream publishers (!).
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    Yes: We just began OCP.
    The Music Issue cover is better than the content.
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    Not only that, but the mainstream publishers are increasingly publishing material which relates to the propers. New collections are being introduced with settings for the Introits and Communion antiphons.

    There really is a trend going on; at one time, Ralph (who posted above me) was the only one in our diocese known to regularly use chant and other forms of sacred music (other than the cathedral). Today, there are several parishes known to be moving in that direction and using that material, a couple of which are not urban parishes but are in the heart of the suburbs. This was unthinkable just 5 years ago.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 489
    Thanks My friend: but I need fly under the radar.-and so do you!
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    PGA: You're right. More publishers are discovering the propers. My parish has been using some of these types of resources you mention, and they are very nice.

    We used this for Advent I
    Advent II and III (and maybe more)
    Listen and Read

    That second one takes from both the graduale simplex and the graduale romanum! It's awesome, and people have no clue you're singing the propers. Not that you should hide it, but you probably won't get much resistance this way.

    If you need to fly under the radar, I would highly recommend both the collections I linked to above for the Advent/Christmas season, but especially that second one.
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 417
    It sure seems like OCP and GIA are switching places... GIA is turning into the OCP of the 2000s
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    I don't know about that ... we just bought GIA hymnals, and they still seem to be the champions of more traditional hymnody; they also seem to be moving more towards the propers. And OCP does have the Trinitas collection ...

    The bottom line is the publishers are really not idealistic; they are into making money. The past 20 years has been all about contemporary music because that's what parishes wanted. If the trends shift dramatically, so will they. When chant is being sung in every parish, just watch GIA, OCP, and World Library boast of their "traditional" selections, that are "most appropriate for the Church" and are not "trite". They go where the money is and will do anything for a dollar.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I cannot say whether that is a fair assessment of GIA or OCP.
    At the very least, I can say- I hope it isn't.

    For sure, though- I can say that I really believe it is not the case for World Library (WLP).

    The problem (if you would call it that.... I wouldn't, really) isn't a misplaced intention (money, rather than goodness).
    The reason that WLP publishes music different than what members of this forum think is appropriate is that they have a DIFFERENT understanding of liturgy and music than you do.

    That does not make them greedy, or ill-willed, or anything else.
    At the WORST, it simply makes them incorrect.

    And, while I appreciate that many (most?) of the forum members here are ABSOLUTELY SURE of their own correctness, and of the wrongness of a liturgical/musical/sacramental/ecclesiological understanding that would permit things like Ed Bolduc's Mass of St. Anne (GLO-RY!), it is worth pointing out that many faithful, well-meaning, knowledgeable people, including a number of Priests and Bishops (some of them world-renowned experts on Gregorian Chant, no less) would agree and/or support WLP's (and all the rest's) understanding of such things.

    I would (humbly-as-I-can) suggest that if you disagree with the philosophy that drives the publishing decisions at WLP/GIA/OCP (or anywhere else), AND you want them to change, then the best course of influence (aside from prayer) might be to try the course that Jeffrey Tucker and others have taken, and build RELATIONSHIPS with the people involved.

    On the other hand, if you are more interested in being right all the time, and making sure everyone knows how right you are, then hostile rhetoric is probably your best bet. Carry on.

    (PGA- I recognize the irony of being accusatory toward you in reference to how I feel you shouldn't be so accusatory. I can only say:
    a) Please forgive my offence.
    b) I really don't think what you said was intended as malicious or accusatory. Rather, it was more of a reminder to me of the much more aggressive statements made by others with some frequency around here. So I used it as a jumping off point.
    )


    Now, In more positive news:
    Another change-tactic from the "good idea column" is on display here in the original post:
    Optimism.
    +1 to optimism.
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    Well, while they may have a different understanding of what is appropriate, I do believe that the market drives them. Far from accusing them of any malicious intent, I think my belief is actually the most charitable towards them. I do not believe that they are against chant or other true sacred music; I think they are providing what the market wants.

    If over the next 10 years, praise bands and contemporary ensembles fall into drastic disuse, I don't think they will push nearly as much of that music anymore. They won't push it against the market because their idealism believes that it should be done. By the same token, you see a renewed interest in this kind of music, I believe, because of the free market demanding it.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    PGA is absolutely right. I have dealt with numerous publishers and I have the rejection letters to prove what he is saying. At one point I was told my music is too "Catholic" and they need to choose music that is marketable. For them it is FIRST a business and the bottom line is indeed the bottom line for these entities.

    I ran into JG at WLP at last years liturgical conference. I asked him if he had any "new polyphonic motets in Latin". His simple and expected answer was "we don't have a big demand for that". Key word - demand.
  • Dave
    Posts: 64
    Don't get too hopeful about a conservative trend, at least with OCP. As a longtime (and unhappily so, because of parish circumstances) user of OCP materials, I can say that they switch from "traditional" to "non-traditional" images on their Respond & Acclaim books. In 2009, it was a lovely cover with a section of an Old Master's painting of angels. The next year, it was a 1960's quasi-Abstract-Expressionist stained glass window. After that, it was a contemporary painting of musical instruments. This year, it's the blow-up of the chant manuscript. OCP caters to customer bases, bottom line.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I've noticed a lot of people wanted to open up the treasury of sacred music that has been otherwise unknown to them. Sadly, very few people understand the function of music, and many of the well-meaning volunteers who sing for parish 'choirs' in fact have little to no music ability and were probably told that they should sing at church after a kareoke session, by people who don't really know what they are talking about.
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