Marier was the director of music publishing at McLaughlin & Reilly Co. in 1953 when the hymnal was published, but it's not quite accurate to call it the Marier Pius X hymnal. There were others on the selection committee.
I have a copy, tattered, broken-spine, well-used edtion of the Pius X Hymnal salvaged from "traditional" music resources being tossed back in the early 80's. It's a treasure that I would never wish to part with, even in its dilapidated state.
It is a very different sort of hymnal... I have about a dozen copies of what I believe to be the choir edition and one organist edition... was their a congregational version? If so, what did they do for the polyphony? There's a lot of it for a hymnal.
I have the organist's edition of the Pius X hymnal. The pastor of the church I used to work for didn't want it, so I gave a donation and took it. I wanted to get a hold of it before someone looked at it and pitched it because it was pre-Vatican II. Now that I look back, I wish I'd have asked for the few choir editions that the church had, too.
Last night, October 17, there was a Mass at St. Paul's, Harvard Square, Cambridge, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Ted Marrier's birth; he conducted the Archdiocesan Choir School from this location for many years.
Actually, there were three editions of the St. Pius X Hymnal: (1) organist; (2) singer's (which included many accompaniments; and (3) a brief (paperback) congregational edition. I have some extra copies if anyone is still looking for them.
I have a copy (choir edition), rescued from the music director's office (a walled-off section of a large upstairs storage area of the church). It was the only copy left from my parish; I just couldn't bear to see it abandoned. Perhaps it will be inspiration for a composition or two.
I would love to have the Organist Edition, to go with my tattered copy of the Choir Edition which was rescued from items destined for the scrap-heap of a malapropriately named and entrenched "Folk Mass" group.
If you have a copy of the choir edition, I'd really like to have one. I rescued the organist's edition from my old parish, but I didn't get any of the choir editions they had. Getting one of them would make my "collection" complete for that anyway.
Please PM me with information on it if you can. I'm going out of town in a couple of hours and won't be back for two weeks, so I won't be able to respond for awhile. Thanks!
The St Pius X hymnal and the "NEW" St Basil Hymnal (1958?) are fantastic resources of the best music of our Catholic tradition. They still stand tall today.
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.