There is such a hymnal Gavin. It's the chapel hymnal from Franciscan Steubenville. Trouble is, one cannot purchase even a copy of pew or accompaniment unless you have some formal connection to FSU. I do have a pew copy.
Thing is also, I don't think Mr. Maher and the other featured stylists actually accurately noted all their syncopations (as MJM notes), they likely had comp majors or setters nuance the scores for accuracy to performance. But that has tons of precendence, if only the oft-maligned double dotting of Be Not Afraid.
If PW Catholics were brave enough, they'd stop subsidizing Chicago and Portland and spend their money WITH BETTER RESULTS on songs from the Hillsong Collective. They're liturgically and musically more honest anyway.

Charles, are you referring to Hillsong United music being better??

My main argument against using "contemporary" music in the Mass it is that it moves so far away from the standard of Gregorian Chant.

Here is a video called: "Contemporary Sacred Music: does it exist?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjMu7ujibpM

benedictgal, my guess is you probably were referring to a different type of "contemporary," correct? :-) :-D

Astute readers will note that I'm not interested in discussing whether or not this music is appropriate. I know it's not. Most all of us know it's not. There's no point in debating it, unless we just want to talk to ourselves for the amen chorus. I'm asking whether anyone thinks there is a market for it. Will people buy it?

I was prompted to wonder this, as I'm going to attend a baptism later this month. Out of curiosity, I checked the parish's web site, and found a music listing. Everything was written in the 80's. They have a piano ensemble and some sort of "choir". I presume they pride themselves on the great shiny contemporary music they do, yet nothing on the list was written in the past 30 years. My first church job was in a praise band in a Catholic church, and we actually DID do some new music, particularly Tom Conry. Except it was all at least 10 years old when we introduced it.

So again, are there really that many (or ANY) Catholic churches out there saying, "what we need is something new in this idiom!" Or is the "contemporary" style merely rehashing a few decades that a lot of people don't even remember?

Every generation has had composers of serious contemporary music and composers of popular or entertainment-style contemporary music. The liturgy deserves new serious music. Our contemporary music today is the music of living composers such as Kevin Allen, Peter Hallock, Peter Latona, Gerald Near, Leo Nestor, Arvo Part, Richard Rice, Ned Rorem, many contributors to this forum & countless others I haven't named. This is the real contemporary music of the early twenty-first century. You'll find wonderfully
crafted, truly inspired and liturgically appropriate music from each one.

But didn't Gavin ask about a Catholic market for P&W? I assume he meant Catholic parishes, not straying Catholics in evangelical denominations.

Actually, we are saved by grace alone. It's by "faith alone" that many Protestants mistakenly think we are saved.
Eph. 2:8

Exactly! Grace alone doesn't work. You can't go around saying ohhh Jesus' grace saved me, and then knife your brother in the back, and do other atrocious sins, and hide behind that statement. Christ left us with commandments as well. Love one another as I have loved you. When we love as Christ instructed us, that will reflect in our dealings with others and life, the merits that Kathy suggested, become evident. It's not just, ohh I am saved by grace alone. The "Protestants" as suggested, believe yes, faith alone in that saving grace, is what gets them their free pass. That's a scary line of thinking.

Let me also clarify that a bit, not all "Protestants" believe in that line of thinking, but many do, and a lot of those churches are evangelical and non-denominational oriented churches.

Thanks, Michael, for answering my question. What you describe is quite different indeed from what I've experienced among Michigan Catholics.

MM, I think we've crossed wires somehow and what I'm simply saying is construed as advocacy, which it never was. OCP's geographical proximity to Hillsongs' has nothing to do with my point. To illustrate, say the local theatre company wants to capitalize upon the cachet of ALW's "Phantom of the Opera" but can't afford to pay the rights/rental fees to mount the production. So they turn to a lesser knock-off version by some "lesser" writers at a lower-tiered publisher called, say "The Phantom and the Diva." Chances are, no one involved from the theatre company to the audience will be satisfied ultimately with the final product, even if done well, particularly if they're even remotely familiar with the Webber. So, what I was saying was that if you're stuck in a genre, you might be better off with the progenitor, rather than the knock-off.
Now, I believe Gavin might've been asking, are there new compositions appropriate for liturgy that stylistically fall between those honoring our native traditions, and those that are clearly crafted for fairly professional, classically trained performers. I think the answer is clearly yes. But to have a cogent, objective discussion of where one finds such works, we cannot rely upon generalizations and stereotypes. For example, One of OCP's best kept secrets, IMO, is Oakland composer Janet Sullivan Whitaker. Like me, she studied upper division composition with Dr. Frank LaRocca, who frequents this forum. She is also eclectic in her musical ventures and conversant in many styles, including classical eras. So, you will find in her catalogue chant emulations, gospel emulations, and, well, songs such as "In Every Age." She doesn't, again, IMO fit in the Maher/Booth/Hart demographic, though OCP has marketed her in that genre. But to dismiss her work out of hand because of the OCP association or their marketing is simply prejudicial. I don't want to further talk about Janet's work, I'd rather people find out for themselves and make their own assessments.
I see/hear the work of ATL composer Ken Macek and Iowa's Todd Flowerday also being outside of categorization. I'm quite sure the YouTube world as well as hundreds of other composers with or without formal associations with publishers of all stripes and sizes that likely have marvelous work that remains unknown. Think about that. I personally arranged virtually over half of a "major" OCP personality's last collection, and would stand by my arrangements as worthy in any market. In fact, I had to lobby the artist to give me that latitude so that, hopefully, any organist auditioning any of the pieces would recognize a wholly different approach for the person's "tunes" immediately and not round file it at first blush. Now imagine how many folk are "out there" in what I've called the "Mike Tyson" factor-the next champion in waiting.
I tend to agree, and have for a long time, with Jackson, that our liturgical menu choices are already saturated with pretty much all that we need nutrionally with the forms of music CMAA adheres to. But to equate that with waving away whole bodies of composition that aren't by Richard R or Kevin A or Arvo Part would be an injustice.
At the risk of seeming self-serving, please tell me what genres these pieces fall into:

http://youtu.be/RPolPEh8_XE

http://youtu.be/o7dzkbyCPUs

http://youtu.be/D27L-EQpsU4

Peace everyone.

Sorry, if I misportrayed your inquiry, Gavin.
Simple answer to your question; most likely "yes." However, in the real (and lamentable) world of what you've called a "market," in reality "no." Ossification is part of the process, branding they call it, until a product need shifts. Somebody shoot all the "Mad Men" of Madison Avenue, starting with Don Draper.
For that reason alone, I'm personally going to do the hard math and figure cost to benefit ratio of our incredibly huge budget for OCP pew books alone (and attendant accompaniment and psalter books) that we expend for pretty much the same thing each year, versus the weekly pamphlet ordo modality. And the pastor is now very interested in what figures emerge, not only for fiscal reasons, but liturgical continuity's sake. Deo gratias.

Charles, I think your probably right that we crossed wires in this, unintentionally, as I believe you are among the more talented posters on here, and I have enjoyed reading your posts. With what you said above, I do agree with you. My issue at heart would be the constant tongue lashing, a few high faluting posters, having been giving to the Catholic composers and publishers, such as in the case of SAH and David Haas music. Whether or not we agree with the styles of music, we should continue to nourish and support these musicians so that they may grow musically, and provide music that is more acceptable and sound. What transpired in that post regarding SAH and Haas music, was an outward display of non Catholic values and attitude.

The composer you mentioned, Janet, is an exceptional musician, and I appreciate her works. I believe it is because of musicians as such, we need to continue to be constructive towards them, and help them with a positive and constructive feedback, to help guide them in future compositions. This is why I would prefer to support Catholic musicians, over Hillsong musicians, for our liturgical Masses. We make mention the word "contemporary", and automatically, I think it get's misconstrued as evangelical praise & worship, and that, that should be the path. All the greats, including Bach, were considered contemporaries of their times, and their music was scrutinized as such, yet they produced music that has traversed centuries and time periods, all to find favor with others that have come after. So I believe with good support, and backing, Catholic musicians and composers deserve to be given a chance, regardless of their stylistic tones of music.

Peace!