Well, yeah, we know that we folks on the forum don't reflect the average point of view on Catholic church music. We're on a mission from God. That is, we're out to implement the Church's teaching on sacred music and make the liturgy beautiful, which is part of the New Evangelization.

I think there are three problems with the discussion so far. One is the implicit comparison of cash-flow and profit in the two markets: the liturgical music market is never going to be the size of the software one. It might be thought this would make a commercial 'free' liturgical music operation less than feasible, but sales and marketing costs scale, too; and if the point of the exercise is to use professionalism to increase market share rather than to generate big fat dividends, the entry barriers might not be insuperable (if Jeff O and Adam B are reading this over breakfast, I hope they haven't choked on their cereal at the mention of those dividends).

The second problem is that people seem to be forgetting that Adam's posts have been to some degree tentative and exploratory. As I read it, he's observed some analogy between an established 'open' product market and a nascent one, and wonders what lessons the newcomer might learn. All analogies break down sooner or later, but they're useful tools for thought and discussion.

Finally, there are producers of goods here who seem to think that the free/not free options are mutually exclusive. Unless you're the compositional equivalent of Richard Stallman I don't think that's so. Some system producers, individual and corporate, distribute through both models; or rather, they distribute over a spectrum of models, from 'free' to not so, according to inclination, circumstance and demand. Perhaps note and word-smiths might do the same. After all, singers have been doing that in churches for years.

Kathy is correct. Free and open will not change the status quo.

Finally, there are producers of goods here who seem to think that the free/not free options are mutually exclusive. Unless you're the compositional equivalent of Richard Stallman I don't think that's so.

I agree with this. A market thrives when there are many,many different business models operating simultaneously.

And speaking of Richard Stallman...
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html

And then again, the second most effective thing it does may be this very forum, which costs a fraction.

The point to consider that free and valuable are not necessarily linked. Brand name and valuable are linked. CMAA is not (yet) the brand of choice for consumers. How do we get there?

I think we should do a TV commercial at the super bowl.

Noel, I think much of that depends on where you are located. Locally, I don't find any great demand from congregations to change anything. They are mostly happy with what they have had for 40 years. My own place has tried to hold to good music, but the pastor is getting older and his health could go either way. Who knows what will happen next.

I believe the Knoxville bishop - someone can correct me if I am wrong - doesn't drive anymore since a stroke damaged his eyesight. While he probably hasn't gone out of his way to promote chant and polyphony, I haven't noticed him doing anything to prevent it, either. He seems somewhat uninterested in such things. I don't think they get much of his attention.

Better running a car off the road than a diocese.

Good question, Kathy. I have wondered why musical rubbish in this country spreads everywhere. I know that the U.S. culture, or lack of it, is widely imitated elsewhere. Perhaps that is part of it.

A voice crying in the wilderness has claimed all along these sorts of encounters do not indicate dysfunction (and dystopia, I've heard that word all week about American culture!) whose origin is ecclesial, not liturgical.

Some might consider
the idea of licence
unacceptable,

for who is to say
the artist should be constrained
or impose constraint?

Practicalities,
alas; our ev'ryday needs
argue otherwise.

Adam:

I don't get your thinking. I have the right to make my creations free or not. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't have the right to commercialize my IP?

I knew the former vice president was an anarchist when he spelled p o t a t o e.
But he was no Sacco and Vanzetti!

Proposed new rule for forum:
Any discussion involving debate or disagreement must be conducted via rhymed verse.
(Advice or general conversation may remain in prose.)

@Adam: Chonak mentioned the haiku; he didn't say anything about rhyme.

Straw man, straw man, it's a straw man
what dear Kathy said of "free"
wages or just compensation
aren't the point (well, not for me).
As I've mentioned, o'er and over,
getting paid is really fun,
but I can't condone text patents
Fed-enforced at point-of-gun.

Anarchy is not 'gainst commerce,
heav'n forbid! (and Tucker, too)
Pirates, merchants, knock-off artists
are more cap'talist than you.
Break the bonds of mercantilism,
soon then you will realize
that IP, like all good Gummint,
is a pack of stinking lies.

Oh but, yet I'm still off topic
one need not agree with this;
though I fly the flag of freedom,
my post was no tre-a-tise.
I have no want to convert you
to the libertarian side
I just want the doors of music
to be opened and flung wide.

Free and freedom, price and license,
these things have some cool effects,
letting awesome build on awesome,
no one knowing what is next.
That's the hope I have for music:
innovation uncontrolled.
That's what software has to show us
(plenty software still gets sold).

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer's praise!
Then might the verse of arguing
No longer fill this place.

(Tune: ISTE CONFESSOR)

Just incidentally, I don't mind free IP
But it's not central, is it, to our mission?
If it's not working, there's a working model:
Our competition's!

We have many arts, we need not one license.
And the things we make, we can sell or share.
May the music above, make us one indeed.
One, the cause it's all for.
One, the ongoing chore.
One, the God we adore.

1
Open Source, a free-for-all,
Some may choose to heed the call,
Others, no less faithful, guard their stuff.

2
May I, though, make one request?
When you're fin'ly put to rest:
Will your IP, free to all the world.

3. Copyright is much too long
This is the agreement song
15 years make sense, not 75.

But with any art, how do we enforce it?
If the Wesleys could/ not then how can we?
Will my verse reflect just my heart's own corset?
Just the thoughts of my mind,
Just my words, nearly rhymed,
Just the signified signed?

A
COLLECTION OF HYMNS,
FOR
THE USE OF THE PEOPLE CALLED
METHODISTS.
BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.,
SOMETIME FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD.
With a New Supplement.
LONDON:
WESLEYAN-METHODIST BOOK-ROOM;
2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.C.;
SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1889PREFACE.
1. For many years I have been importuned to publish such a hymn-book as might be generally used in all our congregations throughout Great Britain and Ireland. I have hitherto withstood the importunity, as I believed such a publication was needless, considering the various hymn-books which my brother and I have published within these forty years last past; so that it may be doubted whether any religious community in the world has a greater variety of them.

2. But it has been answered, "Such a publication is highly needful upon this very account: for the greater part of the people, being poor, are not able to purchase so many books; and those that have purchased them are, as it were, bewildered in the immense variety. A proper Collection of hymns for general use, carefully made out of all these books, is therefore still wanting; and one comprised in so moderate a compass, as to be neither cumbersome nor expensive."

3. It has been replied, "You have such a Collection already, (entitled 'Hymns and Spiritual Songs') which I extracted several years ago from a variety of hymn-books." But it is objected, "This is in the other extreme: it is far too small. It does not, it cannot, in so narrow a compass, contain variety enough; not so much as we want, among whom singing makes so considerable a part of the public service. What we want is, a Collection not too large, that it may be cheap and portable; nor too small, that it may contain a sufficient variety for all ordinary occasions."

4. Such a Hymn-Book you have now before you. It is not so large as to be either cumbersome or expensive; and it is large enough to contain such a variety of hymns as will not soon be worn threadbare. It is large enough to contain all the important truths of our most holy religion, whether speculative or practical; yea, to illustrate them all and to prove them both by Scripture and reason; and this is done in a regular order. The hymns are not carelessly jumbled together, but carefully ranged under proper heads, according to the experience of real Christians. So that this book is, in effect, a little body of experimental and practical divinity.

5. As but a small part of these hymns is of my own composing, I do not think it inconsistent with modesty to declare, that I am persuaded no such hymn-book as this has yet been published in the English language. In what other publication of the kind have you so distinct and full an account of scriptural Christianity? Such a declaration of the heights and depths of religion, speculative and practical? so strong cautions against the most plausible errors; particularly those that are now most prevalent? and so clear directions for making your calling and election sure; for perfecting holiness in the fear of God?

6. May I be permitted to add a few words with regard to the poetry? Then I will speak to those who are judges thereof, with all freedom and unreserve. To these I may say, without offence, 1. In these hymns there is no doggerel; no botches; nothing put in to patch up the rhyme; no feeble expletives. 2. Here is nothing turgid or bombast, on the one hand, or low and creeping, on the other. 3. Here are no cant expressions; no words without meaning. Those who impute this to us know not what they say. We talk common sense, both in prose and verse, and use no word but in a fixed and determinate sense. 4. Here are, allow me to say, both the purity, the strength, and the elegance of the English language; and, at the same time, the utmost simplicity and plainness, suited to every capacity. Lastly, I desire men of taste to judge, (these are the only competent judges) whether there be not in some of the following hymns the true spirit of poetry, such as cannot be acquired by art and labour, but must be the gift of nature. By labour a man may become a tolerable imitator of Spencer, Shakespeare, or Milton; and may heap together pretty compound epithets, as "pale-eyed," "meek-eyed," and the like; but unless he be born a poet, he will never attain the genuine spirit of poetry.

7. And here I beg leave to mention a thought which has been long upon my mind, and which I should long ago have inserted in the public papers, had I not been unwilling to stir up a nest of hornets. Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our Hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome so to do, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favours; either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.

8. But to return. That which is of infinitely more moment than the spirit of poetry, is the spirit of piety. And I trust, all persons of real judgment will find this breathing through the whole Collection. It is in this view chiefly, that I would recommend it to every truly pious reader, as a means of raising or quickening the spirit of devotion; of confirming his faith; of enlivening his hope; and of kindling and increasing his love to God and man. When Poetry thus keeps its place, as the handmaid of Piety, it shall attain, not a poor perishable wreath, but a crown that fadeth not away.

Kathy, that 1899 Wesley preface is one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for posting it. It's a masterpiece of good advice for hymnists everywhere.