Looking forward to seeing some of your opinions on this. I've stated mine before. I'm curious if there have been any text/music changes since the gray books.

@romanticstrings My own issue isn't the lack of rhyme, although rhyme is arguably definitional in the tradition of English hymnody; it's the rather dry and prosaic tone the texts take, plus the very poor fitting of text to melody.

One example: the way the assigned melody fits the translation of Audi benigne conditor gives you a stress pattern of "O lov-ING ma-KER hear THE pray'rs".

I will be very pleased if anybody involved in the preparation noticed this and fixed it. The gray books were six years ago, which is a long time to leave something that bad go unaddressed.

Anyone who wishes to examine the the new hymns for themselves without buying the book: google "icel gray book hymns" and add various phrases like "christmas" or "easter" or "psalter." I think everything but the proper of saints is online, in a file directory at the website of the CBCEW (bishops of England and Wales). Hopefully the long wait has meant plenty of time for revision.

I appreciate the clarification Marc. That makes me optimistic.

It's good to remember that the purpose of the hymnal is to PRAY the Office, not attain an academic perfection we set. It is not easy to translate hymns of the Office.

Why Shakespeare Could Never Have Been French is a brief discussion of the importance of translation into styles and meters which suit the target language. I'd say there's a strong case to be made that rhyming hymnody is idiomatic of English.

So I bought it anyway and will try to write a decent review when I've had more than a cursory look at it. Some first impressions, then:

I'm happy to see a lot textual/musical changes since the Gray Books. Audi Benigne conditor was the first hymn I looked up—my "proof text," if you will, given the problems with the draft—and it sings MUCH better. (Elsewhere, there are still too many instances of melismas on weak syllables like the second syllable of "gentle.")

The setting of the Te Deum is very nice, though it may be a bit tricky to sing if you're used to anything other than the "tonus simplex" in the '74 Graduale, the basis for this book's setting,

I'm also happy to see inclusion of texts that aren't in the Liber Hymnarius: two hymns for Our Lady of Guadalupe (sadly not all four) and three for Christ the High Priest (I didn't know this feast existed). In the case of the latter hymns, though, I think there might have been a mistake in attribution? The feast dates to 2012 but the book cites my dude Anselmo Lentini, who died in 1989, as the hymns' author.

The indices are fantastic and are broken down into:
A: composers/sources/authors,
B: Gregorian melodies
C: metrical hymn tunes
D: Latin titles
E: English titles
F: celebrations (hymn numbers for every saint/feast)
G: Proper of Time (the hymn #s where each season begins, separated by major and minor hours)

This sucker is heavy. It would be best to photocopy pages for you/your choir rather than hold it in your hands. Pages are tightly bound (sewn?) and the book will lay flat without struggle.

If anyone has questions about anything in the book like hymn tune assignments, I can answer them as best I can.

You think it is heavy! You should use the Summit Choirbook!

We use it daily and I really wish the music was in chant notation because many are pitched too low.

The metrical hymns are pitched rather too high and too few. We use them when we don't have time to learn the chant ones and we need to learn it by tomorrow! It's all a work in progress!

I, too, noticed the melissmas. I am used to the somewhat "more simple" tunes of the monastic hymnal.

We use it daily and I really wish the music was in chant notation because many are pitched too low.

The metrical hymns are pitched rather too high and too few

I have never felt obligated to play a hymn in any particular key. Granted, there are certain hymns where the ranges are wide that don't permit all that much play, but those hymns aside, any pentatonic hymn, for instance, can be shifted up or down quite a bit depending on where it falls in the scale. Choristers need things high. Others need things low. We regularly shift our polyphony down a step or two because our altos are aging and can't sing all that high anymore. So be it.

(This is why I'm a big fan of modern organs including transposers. I feel no need to get snooty about making the broad claim that every church musician should be able to do it in their head... if they can, so much the better, but so many can't. Why not offer an automatic transmission for those who can't drive stick shift? Then things can be put aright whenever they don't fit well otherwise, for whatever reason.)

I appreciate the comments about keys and transposition!

If I know the music or the piece is on the simple side, I'll happily transpose it to whatever key is needed.

If the piece is not familiar or more difficult, I'll take advantage of the transpose feature.

One thing - since we don't have a choristers, so far I've never had to transpose anything up.