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Corpus Christi Watershed

“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Extremely Rare Hymnal (1952)

Jeff Ostrowski · September 28, 2015

249 Sancta Missa HANKS to Corpus Christi Watershed, many Catholic hymnals have been made available for free & instant download. Several of these—such as Westminster’s DAILY HYMN BOOK—are incredibly valuable. Others are interesting mainly from a historical point of view. 1

The following probably falls into the latter category, but I still think you’ll enjoy it:

    * *  PDF • CANTATE OMNES HYMNAL (1952)

Will you help us continue our work? I have more hymnals I’d like to upload—including rare English hymnals I bet you’ve never seen—but we need your help.

A young lady here in Los Angeles is willing to scan these books, but I can’t ask her to do it for free.

    * *  Donate to Watershed

There’s a $5.00-per-month, $7.00-per-month, $10.00-per-month, and so forth.

Of course hymnals are only part of our work. None of our contributors—including myself—is paid a salary. But when our website malfunctions (for example) that costs money. You already know about the wonderful blog articles by our authors and probably noticed improvements to GoupilChant. However, there’s another project I’d like to complete if we can get enough monthly donors, and I just know you’ll love it! (That’s all I can reveal at this time.)

ALLOW ME TO MENTION just one more project. We’ve been creating rehearsal videos—about 25 so far—to assist choirs. Our goal is to eventually create about 150. To demonstrate what I mean, let me show you a lovely piece by (surprise!) Fr. Carlo Rossini:

    * *  PDF Download • Rev. Carlo Rossini “VERBUM SUPERNUM”

EQUAL VOICES : YouTube   •   Mp3 Audio

SOPRANO : YouTube   •   Audio

ALTO : YouTube   •   Audio

TENOR : YouTube   •   Audio

BASS : YouTube   •   Audio

If you don’t like the breath marks, you can ignore them. 2




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   The group who created the Cantate Omnes Hymnal still exists, and asserts on their website: “In the 1950s, our founders published the Cantate Omnes Hymnal—the first vernacular hymnal for Catholics in the United States.” In light of the link I mentioned above, this statement is absurd.

2   Anyone who has ever directed choirs in real life realizes there’s no such thing as “correct” breath marks. Breaths will depend on numerous factors: skill of the singers; acoustics of the building; tempo; contrapuntal considerations; number of singers; and so forth. A great singer like Matthew J. Curtis is capable of things an amateur singer is not. It’s kind of like the edition of Bach containing fingerings by Hans Bischoff. These can be quite valuable; yet some pianists ignore them—and that’s just fine.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Roman Catholic Hymnals Last Updated: January 13, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 15th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (13 July 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and propers for this Sunday are also provided at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

We cannot exaggerate our indebtedness to Dr. Julian’s “Dictionary of Hymnology,” a monumental work, without which we could not have reached the high standard of accuracy, as to both texts and authorship, which we set before us when entering upon our labours.

— Committee for “New English Hymnal” (1906)

Recent Posts

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