Greetings All—
I've been discussing with my pastor how to approach school masses, and it seems that an intervention of sorts is not uncalled for. While we have song books, [sic] the possibility of me making worship aids for school masses is now on the table. This would allow me to trim away many/most undesirable hymns, and reintroduce traditional hymns which are almost completely absent from our school masses. Nothing is set in stone, but I'm mulling it all over in my mind, and would like to come up with a proposal for the pastor and principal. We are an odd case in that we draw kids from all over town, and many of our kids don't attend mass here on Sundays. While this seems a bit of a bummer at first, it does mean that any impact we have on the children here would have a life beyond just our own parish's borders. It also means that we can provide them some meat that they may not be receiving at their own parishes.

Sadly, what the parish does on Sunday, and what the school does during the week bear little recourse... And much of what's been happening at the school masses has not been under my control. We are hoping to improve that dynamic, and improve the continuity between how the parish formally expresses itself musically on Sundays and what the kids are learning at school. The song book we currently have is a literal roundup of GIA's greatest hits, a third of which we cannot even sing because of who wrote them. Another third is theologically quite dubious. Selections are currently made by a school teacher (who is not the music teacher) and I'm basically a fancy accompanist. Since I am the DM for the parish (a prominent parish, at that) it's time that we shift this dynamic and put the house in a more proper order. The pastor agrees. That said, it is a kid-gloves situation, and I cannot be a bull in a china shop.

My current line of thinking is I should compile a collection of, say, 50 hymns "that every child should absolutely know". Focus on just those 50 hymns for the year (we only have one school mass a week anyway). (Well, these hymns and a few basic chants such as the Marian antiphons and mass xviii) In this case, I'm not looking to necessarily "trad pill" the hymnody; just to expose the kids to hymns that they should all recognize / know.

If you were to laser focus on just the most important hymns (text and/or tunes) what, in your estimation, would they be?


To start: (these are just what jump to mind immediately in no particular order)

Alleluia, Sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Kingsfold)
Hail, Holy Queen
Immaculate Mary (Lourdes Hymn)
Be Joyful, Mary, Heavenly Queen (Regina Cœli Jubila)
Now Thank We All Our God (Nun Danket)
Holy, Holy, Holy (Nicæa)
At the Lamb's High Feast (Salzburg)
Crown Him With Many Crowns (Diademata)
People Look East (Besançon)
Take Up Thy Cross (Erhalt uns herr or Breslau)
Let all mortal flesh (Picardy)
Faith of Our Fathers (St. Catherine)
I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Ellacombe)
Be Thou My Vision (Slane)
Come, Holy Ghost (Lambilotte)
Rejoice the Lord is King (Darwall)
As With Gladness Men of Old (Dix)
Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People (Genevan 42)
Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise (Llanfair)
Holy God We Praise Thy Name (Grosser Gott)
When I survey the wondrous cross (Hamburg)
Ah, Holy Jesus (Herzliebster Jesu)
Passion Chorale
Once in Royal David's City (Irby)
To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King (Ich Glaub An Gott)
Good Christian Men Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo)
Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All (Sweet Sacrament)
At the Name of Jesus (King's Weston)
Lasst Uns Erfreuen (multiple possible texts)
Praise My Soul the King of Heaven (Lauda Anima)
Praise to the Lord (Lobe den herren)
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above (Mit Freuden Zart)
Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing (Nettleton)
O Filii et Filiæ
Sing of Mary (Pleading Savior)
For All the Saints (Sine Nomine)
O God our Help in Ages Past (St. Anne)
The King of Love My Shepherd Is (St. Columba)
Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days (St. Flavian)
All Glory Laud and Honor (St. Theodulph)
Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus (Stuttgart)
St. Thomas (In His Temple, Now Behold Him \ Now My Tongue the Myst'ry Telling)
O God Beyond All Praising (Thaxted). [and Adam's text, Do not Stand and stare in Wonder!]
The Strife is O'er (Victory)
Christ is Made the Sure Foundation (Westminster Abbey)
On Jordan's Bank (Winchester New)
What Wondrous Love (Wondrous Love)


I'd like to know what I'm missing, and if you have pushback on any of the above. In addition to these, I'm POSITIVE I'll have to at least include some of what we otherwise tend to wish to avoid, if for no other reason than to avoid a total shock to the system for everyone involved. That would mean things like "Take and Eat" or "this Day was made by the Lord" (Walker) "Praise to You, O Christ our Savior" (Farrell). Things that I can stomach as not "bad" in se, but "we could do better".

My hope is that I can come to a meeting presenting a positive option, listing a bunch of well-known (and beloved) hymns as happy alternatives to what is being done now. This cannot be an exercise in my esoteric love of obscure hymns. It also cannot be perceived as trying to force a quasi-TLM agenda. This is not the time or place for that discussion (read: on this forum post or in real life). On the bright, while making simple worship aids for the kids will be no small amount of work, it would make for a very straightforward solution for the school children. And I already have hundreds of files in Dorico, so most of the ones I listed above won't take much time to generate at all. Just a change of template and export.

[And since someone is bound to ask: we are not in a position to purchase new school hymnals or song books; the mere suggestion of putting down the current ones which are only a few years old—even only partially—will be bitter enough.]

Any help or wisdom would be appreciated.