Re. the "Holy Week Chants" book, the 1961 edition from Desclee (275 pgs) has English translations of all the prayers, chants, and readings, unlike the Liber Usualis excerpt. Maybe we should scan this?

I understand the Liber Brevior might sell for approx $14/each. That's a big savings from the Liber Usualis ($158). Soooooo with a schola & choir, that might be very practical. Something to think about if you're only doing a Sunday EF Mass.

Dear All,

Thanks for the posts so far, which have been helpful to verify that there is indeed interest in reprinting the Liber Brevior. However, could anyone assist us to obtain about another dozen such replies from other interested parties, particularly scholas?

I really need a larger response to convince the management that investing in such a reprint will not end up as a financial failure.

Thanks and God bless.

PCPbooks

Interestingly, our schola started off by using the pdf files before we switched to Liber brevior. We found it much better to use a chant book since it's much more organized this way. Things like people missing the second page of Credo in the middle of Mass won't happen anymore.

I would definitely be interested in a high-quality reprint of the Liber Brevior in the $50-$80 range for reference (and out of curiosity!) I'm simply saying it's unlikely to be used by our schola. We struggled with the organization problems mentioned by vince and jan, but ultimately solved them by developing the right content and low production costs.

I think the Liber Brevior is great. The only thing I find about these old books (Liber Usualis too) is that they are hard to read from - the print is very small compared to the modern Graduale Romanum. It's difficult to distinguish a quilisma from a punctum sometimes. If this is going to be reprinted, any chance of increasing the size of the pages and print?

I agree with Robert. I don't have problem locating the quilisam in the book since I'm still young, but older members in the schola have problem distinguishing a quilisma from a punctum.

I've just put the Liber Brevior up for sale on Lulu.com, in case anyone is interested!

http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-book/liber-brevior/7582337

-Robert Maresh

Has anyone compared the different reprints? Is there any difference between the lulu version and the biretta books version (other than the lulu version seems cheaper)? The pcp (5 x 7.5 inches) version seems smaller than both of the others (6 x 9 inches), but it looks like the pcp version supplements with 5 added masses. The pcp version also has thinner pages, that are light and durable, but a bit translucent. And the pcp version has ribbons.

I'm considering ordering these for the schola (since the 25% lulu promotion and the recent drop in pcp's price puts both under $30 per book), but I haven't held the lulu version to test the quality. Can anyone chime in one way or another with a recommendation?

I understand the Liber Brevior might sell for approx $14/each.

I paid almost $40 for mine.

As I understand it, though, and I am new at the EF (still studying it to learn how to perform a sung Mass), the choir does not traditionally sing much of the Divine Office anyway (perhaps Lauds or Vespers), so the entire LU is not normally required. It'd be great to find a source that can provide the LB for $14 a piece, in case Fr. decides to perhaps one day include an EF Mass at our church. He probably won't, because we kind of have that type of congregation (grew up in the 50s and 60s, saw the liturgical changes that occurred and fell in love with 70s and 80s church music, such as Haugen and Haas).

On the bright side, though, to further my EF education, I am going to attend a Low Mass this week at Holy Rosary in Indianapolis. It will be the first EF Mass that I have actually attended. I have seen them on YouTube and that only furthered my desire to actually attend one. I am looking forward also to attending my first Missa Cantata at the same church, but I have to decide on a date to go, since they only offer one per Sunday, and one on the Saturday before.

More resources like this need to be available, particularly in newly typeset editions (instead of low-quality scan-n-print, which I find a lot of).

It would be better if this could be provide in a new type-set edition, rather than just a scan of the old books.

It would also greatly help if psalm verses for the Offertory and Communion Antiphons could be included, as at the moment we would also need to have copies of Communio.

The Offertoriale 1935, whilst an excellent resource to find out what psalm verses should be sung, is an annoyance as the psalm verses themselves are not set to psalm-tones.

Reading your comments, I had not considered the 'responsory' style of the Offertory Chants.

However, surely the Psalm verses for the Communion chants would be beneficial. I am surprised and dismays when I find that in most Latin mass communities, only the antiphons are sung for the Offertories and Communions, with other Latin hymns being substituted for the Psalm verses.