Choral Music for Catholics

[noel jones]

Out of frustration with churches that illegally copy music and sing some rather horrid choices, I've created a Catholic Choirbook that is an attempt to feed the need of Catholic musicians to press PRINT on their parish copier, but legally. And the choice of music includes some great music. All of it in the public domain or under Creative Commons 3.0 which permits copying and sharing. It is published and available through Amazon.com, J.W. Pepper & Sons and Catholic Book stores.

So here's the guy from the USA trying to push his music and make money on your forum.

Actually, I know that a major reason Catholic churches do not have good music in their library is the expense of it. I know that a lot of you, possibly more than in the USA work without pay and end up payign for music you want to sing yourselves. So I hope that you will be glad that it and more is available to buy or download for free at http://www.thecatholicchoirbook.com.

I hope you like my idea. Spreading good music to help rid the church or poor music. Book 2, which will also be free for download, is in production.

Noel Jones, AAGO

[Southern Comfort]

Noel,

This is a kind idea. You might want to be aware that European paper sizes are not the same as US ones, though your 8" x 10" format looks as if it would work.

[noel jones]

Thanks, SC!

The paper size issue was a real concern when deciding on a format. The good news is that we realized that Adobe Acrobat Reader and Preview (on a MAC) both will let you select "FIT TO PAGE SIZE) with some options, so using the universal file format we did - PDF, solves the problem of the various page sizes that are common around the world.

The book as published is 8 by 10" to make the music large enough to read for older people in bad lighting. It's rare to find a choirloft with decent lighting. The number of pieces included were limited to make the printed book light and easy to hold for long periods of time as well.

[alan29]

I assume people are aware of this
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Cat ... cred_music

[noel jones]

Yes, CPDL is a REAL treasure trove - I also like to use this link:

http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Voicing

Nice to be able to find music for choirs that can't always sing SATB!

noel

[johnquinn39]

O Sacrament Most Holy

- This is very bad music indeed.

You get what you pay for. Is any parish that poor that they could not afford copies of, for example, Bob Chilcott's 'God so loved the world'. Or John Bell's 'Lord, you have been our refuge'?

[johnquinn39]

Noel,

You pose the question about your book: How Catholic is it?

'We choose music that ... does not bring to mind the secular world or church music commonly associated with non-Catholic services'.

In my view, this makes your book hardly Catholic at all.

John

[contrabordun]

? I'd read it as meaning exactly the opposite.

Noel has gone to the trouble of creating a resource and made it available gratis. Why snipe? Show me an anthology of church music containing nothing that nobody would find objectionable and I'll show you 2 empty covers.

cpdl's a fantastic resource - I use it a lot, but the quality of the editing is notorious and there's just so much stuff on there that it's not the place to start if you're just looking for ideas.

I'm not sure whether all of it would be legal in the UK, where copyright does not expire until after 70 years. I noticed a couple of dates of death from the 1950s.

[nazard]

O Sacrament Most Holy

- This is very bad music indeed.

You get what you pay for. Is any parish that poor that they could not afford copies of, for example, Bob Chilcott's 'God so loved the world'. Or John Bell's 'Lord, you have been our refuge'?

You are very free with your condemnation. Although not an exciting piece, I would put it well above average for any of the parish hymnbooks in print in the UK for catholic parishes at the moment. It has the advantages of being a simple tune that congregations like to sing, and well within the capacity of almost any parish choir to sing in unison. In England we seem to all use Nancy Bevenga's arrangement which Mayhew publish, which is not suitable for SATB. I think if I were to use this version I would change the starts of the first and third lines to what we are accustomed to as the congregation would sing that anyway. As Noel says, it is often used as a Benediction hymn, substituting for "Adoremus in aeternum", which I use myself.

The words are actually the last verse of a longer hymn, "O Lord I am not worthy" which is a communion hymn. For organists try playing the base line with your feet, the melody with your left hand and a dancing descant of triplets with the right - see if anyone recognises it.

Noel, thank you for calling your tune "Glastonbury Tor". It dominates this part of Somerset, and reminds us daily of the Glastonbury martyrs.

John, I will have a look at some Chilcott. I have been musing with the idea for a while, and its about time I did something.

[VML]

What makes 'O Sacrament most holy' bad music?

I am fascinated that a chant that is picked up in the singing regularly and readily by the most unmusical people in our parish at the beginning and end of exposition (even when there is no organist present) can so baldly be labelled 'bad music.'

[nazard]

What makes 'O Sacrament most holy' bad music?

I am fascinated that a chant that is picked up in the singing regularly and readily by the most unmusical people in our parish at the beginning and end of exposition (even when there is no organist present) can so baldly be labelled 'bad music.'

Well said. Its fit for purpose, which goes a long way towards making something good.

I just listened to Reading Phoenix choir singing Chilcott's "God so loved the world", and we might manage it in ten years time if everything goes well, but I doubt it. It is in no way a substitute for a little prayer the congregation can sing in Taize style like "O Sacrament most holy."

Mayhew gives a date for his arrangement of "O Sacrament..." in the late eighties. What did people use before that? I have looked in the Westminster Hymnal, the Leeds, Praise the Lord and the New Catholic Hymnbook, but drawn a blank. Does anyone have a good harmonisation?

I'm going to try Noel's in the morning.

[nazard]

I couldn't wait until morning, I have to give it a quick go before bedtime. Noel, the harmony is great - much better than the rather naive accompaniment I have been using. For other Brits, all you have to do is to change the soprano Bb crochet at the start of the first and third lines to Eb F quavers, and you get the tune we all know and most of us love. The harmony fits unchanged. I like the key of Eb too. It sounds much brighter than the C major Mayhew uses.

[Southern Comfort]

When I was growing up, we had a number of different tunes for "O Sacrament most holy". I'm not in my office and have no Mayhew publications to hand. Which tune are we talking about? Some of them were very sentimental — perhaps that's what John's objecting to.

[presbyter]

Sticking to the topic - which is not solely Noel's Collection but Choral Music for Catholics - these pieces:

http://www.magnificatmusic.com/Laloux.htm sound interesting but without a bit of a preview score to browse on't web, I'm limited to the publisher's description of his products. Preview scores are a "good thing" (and an aid to sales?)

(I have no interest to declare in this matter - by the way - I am not associated with Magnificat Music in any way, shape or form)

[noel jones]

There are two audio downloads - the O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo - of his here.

http://5-against-4.blogspot.com/search/ ... d%20laloux

I had never heard of him - stunning, absolutely glorious music!

Thanks for mentioning him, Presbyter. It's such great music that the church needs.