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Views from the Choir Loft

GIA Publications: “Painful Blessing Of A New Sensitivity”

Jeff Ostrowski · June 1, 2015

709 HYMNAL FOR THE HOURS GIA 1989 OT LONG AGO, I posted a review of the American Catholic Hymn Book. I mentioned how blatantly honest they were about their guiding principles. I also discussed their “schizophrenic” approach to the liturgy: one minute saying our liturgical tradition was corrupt, while the next using that same tradition to justify eliminating prayers to the Holy Trinity. They insisted that “competent musicians” never choose texts of poor quality; but when we opened up the book, we beheld a compilation of hideous texts alongside songs foreign to our Catholic liturgical tradition, such as “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

HYMNAL FOR THE HOURS (GIA, 1989) is not much better. The same “schizophrenia” is apparent in the Foreword where they attempt to justify, for example, avoiding an emphasis on penance during Lent while at the same time claiming to be in harmony with “centuries-old traditions” of the Church’s liturgy. They seem to be quite bothered by certain verses from the Gospel of Matthew—e.g. 23:9 and 6:6—but their efforts to eradicate Scriptural ways of referring to God were awkward.

To be honest, I don’t understand many of the lyrics in hymnals by the major publishers. Consider the fourth stanza of No. 185, published in the WORSHIP II HYMNAL (GIA, 1975):

Jesus Christ has gone to heaven;
One day he’ll be coming back, sir.
In this house he will be welcome,
but we hope he won’t be black, sir.

What was so unacceptable about the texts assigned by the Church? Why was it necessary for them to be replaced with such lyrics? I challenge anyone to thumb through a book of Propers like THIS ONE and locate a single prayer—just one!—assigned by the Church which is defective, unacceptable, or unworthy of the Church’s public worship.

Here’s proof for those who are skeptical GIA actually did publish this hymn:

705 Hymn Book GIA Worship II Hymnal 704 Hymn Book GIA Worship II Hymnal 703 Hymn Book GIA Worship II Hymnal


I’m not being “cute” here—I really have no idea what those lyrics mean. However, I do strongly agree with what GIA said in 1975:

702 Hymn Book GIA Worship II Hymnal THEE THY THINE


Unfortunately, GIA reversed course quickly thereafter. The damages of “erasing” Thee & Thine are discussed HERE.

I HAVE OFTEN MENTIONED a theory I call “learn a new word, see it within 24 hours.” The phenomenon happens to me constantly. I can’t even turn on a Glenn Gould recording in the car without immediately passing a street sign that reads: GOULD AVENUE. I suppose it’s just coincidence I am discovering all this nonsense (see above) right around the Sunday when our Church contemplates the mystery of the Trinity. So many modern hymnal editors seem to reject anything mysterious in our Faith. Yes, I suppose it must be mere coincidence…

For the record, here’s what I did to prepare for Trinity Sunday:

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Heretical GIA Hymns Last Updated: March 24, 2021

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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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Why do we never sing “De Spiritu Sancto” (St. Athenogenes) in our churches? There are a dozen translations in English verse. Where could anyone find a better evening hymn than this, coming right down from the catacombs? Our hymnbooks know nothing of such a treasure as this, and give us pages of poor sentiment in doggerel lines by some tenth-rate modern versifier.

— Rev’d Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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