Y WIFE and I raised our children for ten years in Los Angeles, where I served as choirmaster and organist for an enormously large Roman Catholic parish. I say “enormously large” owing to the massive number of people who attended Mass each Sunday. (We had five Sunday Masses plus Solemn VESPERS each Sunday afternoon without fail.) Without question, the hymn our parishioners sung with more ‘gusto’ than any other was SANCTI VENITE, the Church’s oldest Latin Eucharistic hymn.
Sung With Gusto • The congregation loved it so much, they didn’t sing it: they roared it. The Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal contains numerous versions in both Latin and English. I initially introduced it using English, but the members of the congregation enjoyed singing it in Latin even more:
Key Ingredient • When asked to identify the ‘key ingredient’ for a good parish music program, I always ardently recommend the Brébeuf Hymnal. Its tunes are stellar, its texts are powerful, its voice-leading is impeccable, and its ‘ethos’ is Catholic through and through. Recently, a mother of eleven children wrote to me regarding the Brébeuf Hymnal (which is what we have in our pews):
“I think the Brébeuf hymnal should
be in every parish because it is an
absolute treasure of Catholic artistry,
theology, and history. It both unites
us with centuries of Catholic tradition
and bridges that tradition to the present
by making the songs accessible and easy
to learn. Every week I feel like l’ve
been shown a new treasure, a song from
our rich Catholic heritage that I may
have never heard, but instantly love.
The theology of the songs is
inspirational and instructional.
Compared to the Protestant-inspired
hymn books I’ve experienced in the
past at multiple parishes, I feel
like this would go a long way in
helping categorize and form
parishioners in the true depth of
Catholic theology and spirituality.”
There’s no way I could run our parochial choral program without it.
Pius XII Hymnal • For the record, the following image shows how this same melody was used by the POPE PIUS XII HYMNAL (1959). That book was created by Rev’d Joseph Roff (d. 1993), a student of Healey Willan. Father Roff (a Catholic priest) was quite well known in his day as a composer opera, orchestral music, and Mass Propers—although I admit that I’ve yet to find anyone who’s actually seen a copy of Roff’s Propria Missae in real life:
I was heavily involved with the musical choices in the Brébeuf Hymnal—so I’m biased—but I feel our pairing is much nicer than Father Roff’s.
Negative Statements Can Help • I’ve contributed to numerous hymnals over the years. For instance, the Saint Michael Hymnal editorial team in Indiana solicited a whole slew of harmonizations from me. However, I’ve argued that the Brébeuf Hymnal has no close competitor. In other words, it’s not even a close call. But why specifically do I say that? Perhaps the best way to explain is by making a series of negative statements:
(a) Do not select a hymnal which is ‘reductive’. In other words, some hymnals begin with a Protestant book, remove all the heretical songs, and then give their customers whatever is left over. The Brébeuf approach was completely different. It began with the core treasury of Roman Catholic hymnody.
(b) Do not select a hymnal which has poor tessitura for the SATB lines. The editors of far too many hymnals are content to include bass notes greatly exceeding the range of a normal human being. This is unforgivable, because that’s often the precise moment when the sopranos go really high, requiring the support of a deep, strong, fundamental pitch.
(c) Do not select a hymnal which has overly-predictable, stale, boilerplate rhymes. The rhymes should come from the pen of a skilled poet. Moreover, if you want your congregation to sing, the language (“register”) should be somewhat lofty, elevated, or mellifluous.
(d) Do not select a hymnal with an excessive amount of ‘horse and buggy’ language which (even at the time it was written) was doggerel. This isn’t to say that archaic language is forbidden—if it be truly poetic. There are certainly texts in the Brébeuf Hymnal which employ somewhat archaic language, but there’s no doggerel. If you want to understand what I’m getting at, pick up the 1906 SAINT BASIL HYMNAL and carefully examine its poetry.
(e) Do not select a hymnal which, by means of certain ‘gimmicks’ (such as arranging the titles in alphabetical order) disguises the paucity of excellent hymns for certain seasons. This video explains better than I ever could why no serious editor would arrange hymns in that way.
Hopefully these thoughts of mine provided some food for thought.
If any of this doesn’t sit right with you, my inbox is waiting.
