Commonly Used Abbreviations on the Forum
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Forgot to add something: if you're looking for an abbreviation, try using [ctrl+f] or the find function on your browser, and search for the abbreviation you want.

    Add your own!

    [...]
    Thanked by 1bhcordova
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    I've taken the liberty to consolidate and alphabetize all the above. Perhaps this could replace this thread and/or be given a more prominent position? (While keeping open the option for people to ask questions as they come up.)

    AR - Antiphonale Romanum
    AUG - Anglican Use Gradual
    BFW = By Flowing Waters, Paul Ford's English-language adaptation of the Graduale Simplex
    CCW = Corpus Christi Watershed, non-profit foundation publishing sacred music
    CDWDS or CDW - Congregation for Divine Worship (and Discipline of the Sacraments). The office in Rome charged with regulating the liturgy for the whole Latin Church.
    CMAA - Church Music Association of America
    CN - Canticum Novum (Fr Anthony Ruff's new book of chant)
    EF - Extraordinary Form (ie, the TLM, or "Latin Mass")
    F: form.
    FACP - Full, active, and conscious participation; a goal explicitly stated by many progressive liturgists, and implicitly desired by many traditionalists. The exact meaning/interpretation is a source of continued debate, the crux of the matter having to do with both a matter of translation ("active" vs. "actual") and a matter of temperament (the question of what, precisely, constitutes "participation" in a Liturgical action).
    G&P - Glory & Praise (either the hymnal by that name, or the style in general)
    GABC - input notation for the chant typesetting program Gregorio: see gregoriochant.org for info
    GIA- (has nothing to do with the words the initials stand for.) Large music publisher
    GIRM - General Instruction of the Roman Missal
    GM - Gregorian Missal (version of the Graduale Romanum but with English translations)
    GN: Graduale Novum (edition of Graduale with melodies revised according to research in recent decades)
    GR - Graduale Romanum, the normative latin music book for the latin rite, mostly containing melismatic propers, but also the ordinary chants of the Mass and other music.
    GS - Graduale Simplex, the other normative latin music book for the latin rite, contains simplified antiphons (often seasonal in usage) for usage in the Mass for when the GR propers are too difficult.
    GT - Graduale Triplex
    IATBOL - "I Am The Bread Of Life" by Sr. Toolan; however, you're not the Bread of Life: He is.
    ICEL - International Commission on English in the Liturgy
    iij = sing three times
    IIRC = "if I remember correctly"
    IMHO / IMNSHO - In my humble opinion / in my not so humble opinion
    ITT = "In this thread"
    LC - Liber Cantualis
    LH - Liber Hymnarius
    LOTH - Liturgy of the Hours
    LU - Liber Usualis
    MC - Master of Ceremonies
    MCW - Music in Catholic Worship (1980s US Bishops document that was replaced by STTL)
    MP - motu proprio
    MSF - Musica Sacra Forum
    MS = Musicam sacram, 1967 document
    NAB - New American Bible (translation of the Bible currently in the US lectionary)
    NLM - New Liturgical Movement
    NPM = another group for Catholic musicians
    NRSV - New Revised Standard Version (of the Bible)
    OCP- Oregon Catholic Press- Large Catholic music publisher
    OEW = "On Eagle's Wings", sometimes snarkily called the "Yoo-hoo song" from its first words
    OF - Ordinary Form (ie, the "New Mass," or Novus Ordo)
    OP - The Original Poster (person who started the thread)
    OT - Offertoriale Triplex
    OT - Ordinary Time
    P&W - Praise & Worship
    PBC - Parish Book of Chant
    PBEH = the project "Parish Book of English Hymns" (see http://musicasacra.com/english-hymns-in-the-commons/ )
    PF: previous form.
    PG - Plainchant Gradual (or P&B - Palmer and Burgess)
    PIP - People in the Pews. That is, regular churchgoers.
    PP - a previous poster (or the previous poster) in the thread
    PTB - Pray Tell Blog
    RC - Roman Catholic
    RGP - Revised Grail Psalter
    ROTR - Reform of the Reform (as in, undoing the bad things that happened as misinterpretations of Vatican II)
    RSV - Revised Standard Version (of the Bible)
    SC - Sacramentum Caritatis
    SC - Sacrosanctum Concilium (Vatican II document on the Sacred Liturgy)
    SDPP - St Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter
    SEP - Simple English Propers, a book of english propers by Adam Bartlett for the OF
    SLJ - St. Louis Jesuits
    SP - Summorum Pontificum
    STTL - Sing to the Lord (US Bishop document on music in the liturgy)
    TLM - Traditional Latin Mass (or possibly, "Tridentine Latin Mass")
    USCCB - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
    V2 - Vatican II (Second Vatican Council)
    VII (Vii, V II)- Vatican II (Second Vatican Council)
    WLP- World Library Publications- Large music publisher
    YMMV - Your mileage may vary
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    Maybe you could add SSPX? Thanks!
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • Carol,

    Except in Europe the following are standard abbreviations:

    FSSP = Priestly fraternity of St. Peter, a 1988 off-shoot of the Priestly Fraternity of Pope St. Pius X

    SSPX (sometimes FSSPX) the group of priests gathered together originally under the auspices of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, forming the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.

    ICK, ICRSS, ICKSP, -- The Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest.
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    In another thread, we also found out that GUI = Gather Us In. Maybe you don't want to include that one?
    Thanked by 2Carol CharlesW
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    I think it is interesting that there is enough agreement/discussion about certain hymns that they have earned abbreviation status. A hymn must have earned "a reputation" to achieve abbreviation
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,167
    The only non-hymn piece I know of that is given an abbreviation is for "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" which is abbreviated IGSOY in some music fora and news lists.
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    "WPI" - Please translate. Thanks.
    Thanked by 2francis LauraKaz
  • Where Peter Is—a website founded by Mike Lewis which aims to provide a pro-papacy conservative Catholic voice.
    Thanked by 3WGS francis LauraKaz
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,108
    It took me a while to figure that out. I was confused out the leadership of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute got embroiled in Catholic traditionalist agitprop. Another God, another hilltop? I wondered (WPI and the College of The Holy Cross are on hills about 2.5 miles apart.)
  • HPSC Theodore Marier's "Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Canticles" hymnal
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    OCM - Ordo Cantus Missae