New Hymnals

[woodyham]

We are considering updating our hymnals (we use Laudate - non updated) and will be buying samples from different compilers etc. We would also welcome comments from members on any recommendations you may have.

Many thanks

[Nick Baty]

With all due respect to the publishers of Laudate, I'm not sure there's enough new stuff included to make it worth changing from old to new.
We still have the old Laudate although they are rarely used as we now produce weekly service sheets.
A Calamus licence is much cheaper and far more flexible.
Still, I know that many here disagree with me.

[JW]

Laudate is so far the only hymnal with bishops' approval, but I understand Celebration for Everyone is going through the process. As noted in another thread, I do not know when/if a revised Hymns Old & New will be submitted for approval. These 3 are the most popular hymnals in the UK; there was also the 'Catholic Hymn Book' at Brompton Oratory but a google search suggests this is no longer in print?

One thing I noticed playing last week at a memorial Mass in a church where they have Celebration (plastic covers): a lot of the spines have come off, albeit after a number of years. This doesn't happen with Hymns Old & New (pages start falling out after about 20 years). How have the first editions of Laudate held up - I know they are only about 10 years old?

[Peter Jones]

A Calamus licence is much cheaper and far more flexible.

But Calamus doesn't cover everything. You got CCLi too?

[Nick Baty]

Calamus covers everything we use on a Sunday – apart from one or two items where we get direct permission from the composer. Laudate is used on weekdays.

[promusica]

A few years ago, our parish produced its own hymnal. After a period of consultation with music directors, music groups, cantors, clergy and parishioners, we had a list of around 324 hymns that we were already using, or were considering introducing in the parish. A typesetter was contracted, who compiled these into a melody-line-and-words hymnal, which we have been using successfully ever since. A once-off payment was paid to CALAMUS, and other copyright holders, for music not in the public domain; some Irish composers not included in the scheme gave their permission. A local artist supplied the cover art. The bishop gave his imprimatur and wrote a foreword. Towards the end of the project, just before printing, another parish asked to go in with the project, with their own cover (the inside was exactly the same); this allowed us to bring the cost down considerably. We managed to come in well under budget, at a cost of around €5.50 per book (compared with another, less-suitable, shop-bought one that cost around €10). The entire project took around ten months from beginning to end, but we haven't looked back. I would recommend this way to get a parish hymnal if there is enough energy from the music directors in the parish to co-ordinate the project!

[Peter Jones]

– apart from one or two items where we get direct permission from the composer.

Nice to see such good practice. (and direct permissions are not expensive)

[Southern Comfort]

How have the first editions of Laudate held up - I know they are only about 10 years old?

The paperback ones fell to bits in very short order. The plastic-bound ones are looking distinctly tatty, but no pages have fallen out yet.

[Southern Comfort]

(and direct permissions are not expensive)

Quite often, you can get them for free for one-off occasions. For homemade hymnbooks, for very little charge.

You got CCLi too?

We don't encourage anyone to buy CCLI in this part of the world, unless they are using a lot of CCLI material (and note that some publishers are now covered by Calamus as well as CCLI). CCLI is very expensive and really not worth the outlay. You do much better writing direct to publishers for permission, especially for one-offs or items that you don't use very often. Most of them are very amenable, and many give free permission. One or two of them, as we have already discussed in this forum, ask outrageous fees, but reduce them dramatically when you stand up to them.

[promusica]

Our parish-produced hymnal had around 220 pieces that required copyright permission. Of these, CALAMUS covered the bulk - really at a very nominal charge. Some of the American publishers and copyright agencies were charging around €25 per piece - making it cost-prohibitive if we had too many. One of the music groups had eightpieces which cost this. None of which they use now, four years later, as the group has now re-formed under new management (which doesn't support the idea of a congregation hymnbook anyway). Such a waste, but the consultative process had to be done!

[JW]

When buying new hymnals one needs to be aware that they may not contain everything you need. For instance, the following hymns have recently been requested at funerals which aren't in our hymnbook:

Jerusalem
The Old Rugged Cross
Going Home
Peace, Perfect Peace (Kevin Mayhew)
Let there be love shared among us

It can be somewhat frustrating!

[Nick Baty]

I wonder if there's a reason they're not included in your hymnals!

[alan29]

I like those loose leaf ones you see all over France. Makes it possible to add new things, slot in home-grown things and replace stuff to allow for new "translations."

[Southern Comfort]

They're called fiches, meaning (in this context) sheets of paper.

Loose-leaf hymnals have been tried in England a couple of times, but never took off, not even the fiche system with its heavy-duty clip and landscape A5 pages (as opposed to punched pages in a folder). Even in France, the labour involved in updating, say, 250 fiches hymnals is considerable, and many people don't bother to do it too often. I find French parishes far more often use a photocopied order of service sheet purpose-produced for each Sunday, rather than the old fiches which gather dust on top of the reed organ (replaced by an electronic keyboard)....

[gwyn]

JW notes:

When buying new hymnals one needs to be aware that they may not contain everything you need. For instance, the following hymns have recently been requested at funerals which aren't in our hymnbook:

Jerusalem
The Old Rugged Cross
Going Home
Peace, Perfect Peace (Kevin Mayhew)
Let there be love shared among us

Wonderful! A hymnal that contains none of the above is recommendation indeed. What's it called JW?