Vatican II Hymnal          V I E W   V I D E O

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750 pages long • Complete Readings for all Sundays and Major Feasts (Years ABC) • First Hymnal ever printed to contain complete texts for the Sung Propers • More than a hundred pages of Mass Settings (Roman Missal, 3rd Edition) • Complete texts in Latin and English for Ordinary & Extraordinary Forms of the Mass • Beautiful Hymns, including more than 100 pages of Communion Hymns • Chabanel Responsorial Psalms, Garnier Alleluias, Motets, and much more!

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  Sample Pages     •     Contents (PDF)     •     Q & A     •     Foreword     •     Cover Art

Hymns & Mass Settings (Organist & Choir Scores):
        Section I  •  Mass Settings & More • download for free  or  purchase the 232-page book
        Section II  •  Hymns • Organist Scores • download for free  or  purchase the 196-page book
        Section III  •  Hymns • SATB Choir Scores • download for free  or  purchase the 191-page book
        Section IV  •  Special Cantor scores  •  forthcoming
Responsorial Psalm Harmonizations:
        Section V  •  Years A, B, and C • download for free  or  purchase the 152-page book
        Section VI  •  “Ad Libitum” Psalms (a cappella) found on pages 57-92  247-page book
Gospel Acclamation Harmonizations:
        Click here to view organist scores for Vatican II Hymnal Gospel Acclamations.
Sunday Liturgy Resources:
        Click here to access resources that are added each week for the Vatican II Hymnal.

BIG NEWS !!!  This just in !!!
Order 250 or more hymnals to receive gorgeous, complimentary bookplates with your parish name, city, & state!
Those ordering 250 or more hymnals will also be sent three (3) complimentary copies of the following:
          Organ Accompaniments for the Mass Settings (beautiful, durable, spiral-bound, 232 pages)
          Organ Accompaniment books for the hymns (beautiful, durable, spiral-bound, 196 pages)
The Vatican II Hymnal saves money and trees! (read more)

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N.B. 100% of the Mass Settings included in the Vatican II Hymnal have been approved for Liturgical Use in the United States by the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship. The entire Vatican II Hymnal has also been approved by the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

1. I ordered a review copy. Why are the pages so thick ?

The review copies are (by necessity) printed with low quality binding and thick pages. The official hymnal is being printed with beautiful, durable, sewn binding and very thin pages.

2. Where can I find accompaniments to the music contained in the Vatican II Hymnal ?

Accompaniments are being posted online at ccwatershed.org/vatican.

3. When will the Vatican II Hymnal be available for purchase ?

We will start shipping out our Hymnal towards the end of September 2011.

4. How many pages is the Vatican II Hymnal ? How large is the print ?

The book is 750 pages long. The size of the texts (for the Readings) is slightly larger than that of GIA’s RitualSong.

5. At what price will the Vatican II Hymnal be sold ?

We believe each hymnal will cost approximately $15.00. If you are interested in purchasing this Hymnal, we need to know about it as soon as possible. Please send us an E-mail.

6. Does your book have songs like “On Eagle’s Wings” and “Be Not Afraid” ?

The hymns in the Vatican II Hymnal can be viewed here (PDF). Many beautiful hymns were included, including more than 100 Communion Hymns.

Songs like “Eagle’s Wings” were not included, but congregations who use such songs can certainly keep their old hymnals, to be used in tandem with the Vatican II Hymnal. In Catholic churches, it is very common to have more than one hymnal in the pews.

7. You kept the traditional language in hymns, including the “Thee’s and Thou’s“—why ?

In the 1960’s, the idea was put forward that congregations could not understand words such as “Thy,” “Thee,” and “Thou.” In a recent poll, Catholics were asked if they understood the word “Thy” (which occurs thrice in the “Our Father” at Mass). 100% of the people polled said they did understand the word “Thy,” and so we have retained the traditional language, since the Church desires the liturgy to be as reverent and elevated as possible.

8. Why doesn’t your hymnal include 800-900 hymns ?

There are only fifty-six (56) Sundays per year. We have about 200 beautiful, carefully-selected, solid, wonderful hymns. We do not see a need for 800-900 hymns.

9. What sets your hymnal apart ?

Probably the best way to find out is to order a review copy, but here are a few reasons why we believe you will love this Hymnal:

1. The Vatican II Hymnal is the first hymnal since the Second Vatican Council to include the texts of the Sung Propers, with Latin Incipit, for every Sunday and major feast. (click here to learn about Sung Propers)

2. The hymns have been carefully and painstakingly chosen. The hymns included are solid, beautiful and beloved. No secular style music was included in this hymnal.

3. The Hymnal has been painstakingly typeset, with lovely fonts and beautiful engravings.

4. 100% of the Mass readings at Mass (First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Second Reading, Gospel Acclamation, Gospel, etc.) for all Sundays and major feasts have been included.

5. Numerous Mass settings using the New Translation of the Roman Missal have been included.

6. The entire Mass Ordinary for both Ordinary & Extraordinary Forms have been included (Latin & English), as well as all four Eucharistic Prayers.

7. Numerous other wonderful items have been included (Antiphons, Motet Translations, etc.).

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Feel free to view the DRAFT COPY of the VATICAN II HYMNAL (29 April 2011) — [click here to view all 502 pages]

Notes about the Vatican II Hymnal:

When will the Vatican II Hymnal be Available?

The answer = soon. Perhaps by 20 May 2011.

The Goals of the Vatican II Hymnal

(A) For the first time EVER, we include the Graduale Propers (translated into English, with Latin incipits) in a hymnal. That is, Introit, Gradual, Gregorian Alleluia Verse, Offertory, and Communion are all included. This hymnal is ideal for those who are singing the Gregorian Propers or the Simple English Propers, because the congregation will be able to follow along perfectly.

(B) We also include the complete texts of 100% of the readings (Years A, B, & C), as well as the Responsorial Psalm texts and Gospel Acclamations.

(C) This hymnal PUTS AN END to parishes paying HUGE amounts of money each month to buy disposable Missallettes.

(D) This hymnal will provide the complete set (Years A, B, and C) of Chabanel Psalms, for parishes who use them.

(E) We also provide a massive and carefully-selected collection of good & beautiful Catholic hymns. There is no “junk” in our hymnal.

(F) The hymnal is absolutely the most easy-to-use hymnal ever created. You literally open the hymnal up, and it tells you what to do. This is fantastic for many of our volunteers, who don’t have time or energy to spend preparing for Mass. For instance, if you are responsible for a Mass on Sunday that has no Gregorian schola or choir (in other words, just a cantor or cantor/organist), this hymnal is your “dream come true.”

(G) This is a hymnal for serious Catholic priests to give their musicians: there are no heretical hymns, no goofy hymns, no inclusive language, no secular-sounding songs, etc.

(H) This hymnal contains an astronomical amount of beautiful Communion hymns, whereas so many of our modern Catholic hymnals have only 1-2 decent Communion hymns included.

Propers, not Hymns

Graduale Propers are the ideal, so we went to great lengths to include 100% of the Propers. However, in our current circumstances, it would not be advisable to immediately get rid of all the hymns that folks are used to. Also, some parishes have 7-8 Masses each weekend, and it is (sometimes) impossible to have a Gregorian schola or choir sing the Propers for each and every Mass (each and every Sunday and Holy Day).

How we Selected our Hymns

Imagine that you are responsible for the 7:30AM Mass on Sunday, when there is no choir, no schola, and sometimes no organist. You need to choose a “solid, stable, well-known, non-goofy, easy-to-sing” hymn for the Entrance Hymn and Recessional. That’s where the Vatican II Hymnal comes in!

For each and every feast (even feasts like the Baptism of the Lord) we provide wonderful, well-known, much-loved, non-goofy choices. You cannot go wrong! After all, the 7:30AM Mass (with no choir) is not a good time to teach the congregation a new and difficult piece they’ve never heard before, especially if the procession to the Altar is very short (so you only sing 1-2 verses anyway!).

However, with regard to the Communion hymns, we include many lesser-known pieces, because the Communion is a fine time to teach people a new tune. Say to yourself, “During the month of July, I will introduce a new Communion hymn that few people have ever heard before.” So, all during the month of June, you make sure to play the tune on the organ as a “Prelude” piece, or an Offertory piece, to get the tune in their heads. Then, when you start doing it in July, people pick it up fast. By the end of July, this new tune is now in your “repertoire.”

In a particular way, we realize that “once-a-year” feasts, like the Ascension, are definitely not a good time to teach people a new Entrance or Exit hymn . . . because by the time they learn it, the feast is over! That is why we were careful to place familiar tunes for these “once-a-year” feasts. During Eastertide, it might be appropriate to teach a new tune for Entrance or Exit, because Eastertide is never less than a month long, etc.

Again: without a choir, it is often not a good idea to try to “teach” people during the Entrance Hymn or Recessional Hymn (based on experience). “Teaching” can be done through careful choices of Preludes and Communion and Offertory.

The Same Tune . . . Again ??

So many of our Catholic hymnals choose 2-3 tunes (LASST UNS ERFEUEN, BUNESSAN, ST. THEODULPH, etc.) and set a billion and one texts to that hymn tune. Who wants to be singing the same hymn tune as Entrance Hymn during Lent, Eastertide, Ordinary Time, and Advent??!!! Nobody! This method is sheer laziness on the part of the editor, and we have avoided this method at all costs in our hymnal.

That being said, sometimes it is good to “re-use” a hymn tune. For instance, we use the same hymn tune (with different texts) as Recessional Hymn for Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday. The reason is, it’s not at all tiresome for a congregation to sing the same tune twice in a row. Furthermore, we use the traditional ST. FLAVIAN as the tune for Trinity Sunday. The reason is, the last time the congregation sang ST. FLAVIAN was during Lent, so it is not a bad thing to bring it back a few months later for a single Sunday. Also, when the melody “comes back,” people tend to sing with gusto. Furthermore, the organist can use registration to make a completely different piece out of ST. FLAVIAN when it is no longer Lent. Also, it would be a shame to “waste” an ultra-beautiful hymn tune by only singing it once a year. That is why we have, on occasion, “re-used” some truly great tunes.

Holy God We Praise Thy Name . . . Followed by Praise & Worship ??

Many of our current hymnals interchange radically different styles in their books, including secular & broadway styles. So, when you come to certain “less-known” feasts, and these modern Catholic hymnals (which included 16 billion decent Advent pieces and 40 billion Christmas carols) give you 1-2 options to sing on this feast, one of which is a goofy, difficult, unknown, highly-syncopated secular melody, what are you supposed to do?

We don’t do this in the Vatican II Hymnal. We provide beautiful, well-known, much-loved, non-goofy pieces for every single feast and Sunday Mass. The work is all done for you. Open the book, and there it is! You don’t have to be an expert.

In general, it was felt that the melodic and rhythmic structure of certain hymn tunes are better suited for Entrance & Exit than Communion (which, perhaps, should be more meditative). Sometimes, changing the organ registration can help in this area (“louder” stops for Entrance & Exit, “softer” for Communion). That being said, it seems absolutely possible that many hymns listed as “Possible use: Communion Hymn” could be used as Entrance Hymns or Recessional Hymns.

Layout of Hymns in the Vatican II Hymnal

In the old days, typography was limited to three choices, none of which was perfect.

(1) Some hymnals chose to print hymns like THIS, with the words separate than the melodies. However, this approach can make it difficult to sing an unfamiliar melody. (2) Others print several verses under the notes and then “run out of space” and print the rest at the bottom, like THIS. This has been observed to (sometimes) cause congregations trouble (unless they know the tune very well). (3) Still other hymnals indiscriminately stack all the verses, no matter how many there are, on top of one another, like THIS and THIS. Because of the “acrobatics” that the eye is forced to do, this can be troublesome in certain hymns, because it causes the eye to dart back and forth like this and this.

In the Vatican II Hymnal, we have attempted to solve this problem by taking advantage of modern typesetting technology. It will be noted (no pun intended) that we frequently “write out” each verse with notes above. We did this whenever possible, although sometimes it was still necessary to “stack” verses. However, we never stack more than three (3) verses, out of respect for eyes of those who will use our hymnal. In other words, instead of something like THIS, we give the congregation THIS.

More about Layout

We do not use archaic and unfamiliar note values, like this. Nor do we include very short hymns, like this, because by the time you turn to the hymn to join in singing, the hymn is already over. Sometimes, hymnals will include SATB parts, but this is (perhaps) not ideal, since (a) there is only one harmonization (no matter how numerous the verses are) which limits the freedom of the organist to enrich each subsequent verse with different harmonies; and (b) there are unresolved aesthetic issues with having a congregation attempt to sing in parts.

Attributions

It will be noticed that even attributions (revisions, translations, alterations or combinations of texts, alternate names of tunes, etc.) are kept to a minimum. The primary reason for this is because we now live in the age of Google. A person can learn everything he ever wanted to know about a hymn by typing into Google 3-4 words of any of the verses. There is absolutely no reason under the sun to include all this above each hymn. Needless to say, complete information will be given in the index.

Another reason why we limit how much information is included above each hymn is that much information included in our hymnals (with regard to attribution) is flat out wrong. Hymnal A claims that the first time this hymn was included in a book in 1616 … but what exact melody are they talking about? What translation? Hymnal B claims the first time the same hymn was included in a book was 1715, but (again) which exact tune and translation are they speaking of? Variants further complicate the scrupulous compiler, because many of the hymns are not more than 20 notes long: so three notes changed is a big deal !!! The same can be said of attributions for hymns that date before the 10th century. It is not always possible to make a reasonable attribution for these texts. Then, too, the hymn texts themselves have undergone unbelievable transformations over the centuries. One hymn expert put it this way:

Those who know the 55 volumes of Dreves and Blume’s Analecta Hymnica medii aevi know that there are variants upon variants in the texts of Medieval hymns, even of such well-known hymns as the Veni Creator Spiritus: their name is legion. A variant in a single verse is but a tiny patch of crabgrass on the great green lawn of Christian hymnody . . . .

Again: our goal is to make the hymnal as easy as possible to use. We clearly list the TUNE and the TEXT.

Final Thoughts

This hymnal includes EASY (yet dignified) hymns. One could easily use this hymnal for years and years without ever using all the hymns.

Experience has proven that 95% of our current Catholic hymnals contain close to 1,000 “hymns” (mainly songs). But how many are actually used by congregations on a regular basis? A very small percentage.

Some hymns, although very beautiful, were not included because they seemed (perhaps) slightly too difficult or had too great a range. An example would be “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending.”

That being said, if the choirmaster desires to utilize a special hymn not found in the Vatican II Hymnal, this could easily be included in the Order of Worship or Weekly Parish Bulletin. We also did not include many items that already appear in the Parish Book of Chant, because many parishes will use the Vatican II Hymnal in conjunction with this book (which has sold close to 10,000 copies).

Some parishes are not ready to give up their favorite “songs” at this point (Eagle’s Wings, City of God, Be Not Afraid, etc.). These were not included in our hymnal. Although beautiful, they do not seem to be written in a Sacred style, which the Church asks for during Mass. The aforementioned parishes should simply keep their hymnals in the pews. They can purchase the Vatican II Hymnal for the new Translations, the readings, Graduale Propers, and solid hymns, while not completely discarding their “favorite songs,” until they can (perhaps) be “weaned” off them permanently.

Obviously, the personal tastes of the editor entered into decisions made about hymn choices. However, it is hoped that (in general) even if a “questionable” choice was made, the users of the hymnal will “have an open mind.”

V2H