Going through the New Living Parish Hymn Book is my further education in traditional hymnody. The CWB I and II had a lot of this as well and there were a few in AOV and the other collections. For some parishes, like Chris’s, these songs are most of their music liturgy and they are how that assembly effectively sings and prays. It’s not the usual repetoire in the parish I play at, but I do drop in the very occasional traditional hymn when it fits the liturgy. If we still had an organist we probably would do more, but they can be played on a guitar at a pinch.
Having grown up Presbyterian, some of these tunes are familiar to me but the more strictly Catholic ones I am made aware of by causing flashbacks to my cradle Catholic wife when she hears a tune and can recite the entire text from pained childhood memory.
There are pdfs of old public domain Catholic hymnals about on the internet but they don’t look much like what is being described as traditional today. For example, from Australia, the US and England:
Looking at 1952 The Hymnal of Pius X, the English language hymns there are less than half the book and very few of these are still sung. While the Catholic Church’s traditional music could be said to be Latin chant, that wasn’t so across the whole church in time, place or position (ie not often for the laity). NLPHB has several songs translated to English from Latin chants with a tune based on the original chant made somewhat metrical, but that didn’t become the standard for Catholic hymns. Another approach for a traditional Catholic music method would be creative use of modes for cantors of psalms such as suggested by Chris Wroblewski.
Many of what we call traditional hymns are borrowed from Protestant hymnody so are a rather recent tradition for Catholics. It seems that by the time of CWB I and NLPHB we have a lot more hymns that have survived to the present, as the better traditional hymns from other denominations are collected from their Lutheran and Anglican origins. They had been singing in the vernacular for centuries and had better tunes often originally sourced from popular secular songs of their day. What that means is that Vatican 2 was as much responsible for the use of what we now call traditional hymns in the Catholic Church as it was for leading to folk mass style hymns.
Not everyone has collected umpteen hymnals, like your foolish correspondent, and not every parish still has old full music hymnals lying about in a back room to pillage, so where to source them is an issue. I rely on the melody line Together in Song for the melody and basic chords of old hymns to make backings, but it would only suit keyboard players who just use the chords for their left hand. CWB II has well set out organ music but lacks chords and is probably too unwieldy to use live… and is out of print.
I know GIA and OCP have their traditional hymnals, but there are also many online sources of hymns like the Open Hymnal and Liturgy Share, as well as those in Hymnary to collate your own public domain hymn collection without buying expensive hymnals.
Willow also has individual sheets of traditional hymns to purchase for download. Their advantage is the excellent layout and the option for chords.
Monica O’Brien recently had something to say about traditional church songs:
Why Traditional Hymns Still Matter
Some people may assume that traditional hymns only appeal to the older members of our faith communities. While it’s true that many of us associate these beloved hymns with childhood memories or significant moments in our faith journey, I believe their enduring appeal runs much deeper than nostalgia. These sacred songs have accompanied generations of Christians through life’s joys and sorrows, celebrations and losses, moments of certainty and seasons of doubt. They have stood the test of time because they express profound truths of faith with a depth and poetry that continues to speak to the human heart. Their melodies have been sung in tiny country churches and great cathedrals, at baptisms and funerals, in times of peace and in times of upheaval. At Willow Publishing, we’re passionate about supporting the rich diversity of music available to today’s Church. Contemporary songs and newly composed liturgical music bring fresh insights and new expressions of faith. At the same time, traditional hymns provide a sense of continuity, connecting us with the countless believers who have sung these same words across centuries and cultures.
So I suppose they are all good reasons to get back to the New Living Parish Hymn Book.
I’m happy for readers of this blog to recommend other sources for well set out hymns to help musicians play for mass and also to fill the gaping lacunae of my knowledge in this area.
BTW, I am continuing to fine tune my approach to these hymns in Band in a Box. There are very few styles for church organ pieces (four out of thousands to be precise), so to approach these hymns I now add the bass line from the organ music to each chord and use the soloist line to enter at least one other line from the organ music in addition to the melody line. I am trialing different organ sounds and they should start showing up soon in the backings. They still sound too mechanical just not as awful as they once were.
I’ll start by referring to comments from Pope Leo at his Wednesday General Audience (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-08/pope-leo-general-audience-sacred-music-sacrosanctum-concilium.html) Sacred music, he said, is “part of the liturgical action and is not merely a decorative part of the celebration.” The clergy need to read this as well as musicians!
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It is true that much of the traditional hymnody that Catholics sing today are authored by non-Catholics, but a big majority are translations of hymns from the Divine Office, which is Catholic.
When I first came across the Pius X hymnal, the first thing I noted was the poor quality of the hymns – it’s no wonder few get used today. I wonder if the Westminster Hymnal, a far better offering, got much use here since it was British. Perhaps not, given the large number of Irish priests in earlier years.
It’s far from ideal, but one possible source of mostly traditional music that is easy to get here is OCP’s Heritage Missal. The publisher describes it as 62 % traditional, 38 % mainstream, 0 % contemporary. It even includes a few Latin hymns beside Pange Lingua! It costs around $A100 as a downloadable pdf but (notionally) isn’t printable. It is nicely laid out and includes chords for almost all hymns. The overwhelming majority of hymns are available on OneLicense, so its easy to make worship aids (all be it with American spelling). Missals for congregations are unsuitable for Australia, would be very costly due to shipping, and are only licensed for one year. While my site provides ready access to a lot of public domain material, the Heritage Missal is one way of getting accompaniments of common copyrighted hymns and music. It contains 588 items (Mass parts, hymns and songs.) vs 656 in CWB2. That plus “Year of Grace”
(Connolly + McAuley), “Mass of St Francis”, “Mass Shalom”, and Colin Smith’s “Responsorial Psalms” series from Willow, and one would be all set to go!
The loss of CWB2 is a serious issue. We have insufficient copies, and there is no way to purchase either new or second hand ones. Projection is not viable in the cathedral, leaving only printed hymns sheets. Our other existing hymnal, unfortunately, is GIA’s Gather, 3rd ed. (30% traditional), and we may end up just putting the most used hymns from CWB2 into a supplement fitting to the back cover as the most practical solution. This will, annoyingly, result in loss of the melody-line.
Chris
Thank you for your advice as always. I don’t suppose the Australian Bishops could mandate a reprint of CWB II as a three volume loose leaf collection, and with chords?
The alternative to OCP’s hymnal is GIA’s Worship Hymnal (4th ed), which is 80% traditional and is $A160 for the looseleaf keyboard edition.
https://giamusic.com/hymnals-worship-4
It does feel odd though to go the OCP/GIA well for these songs.
cheers
Geoff
I have the Worship hymnal, and agree that it would have been the better option, but Gather was purchased ten plus years ago, so we’re stuck with it, and a second set of US hymnals from GIA is not going to fly. You can put me in same basket as yourself: someone who has collected upteen hymnals and a foolish correspondent!
Your price estimate for Worship is incorrect: from the GIA site, the price is in $US and shipping is $US193.10 (or $US489.19 expedited!) making the total cost around $A500! I was lucky enough to buy mine at half price from Willow when they had the clearance sale a few years ago. The Heritage Missal accompaniment is just a download, so no shipping. Its price is significantly higher for a shipped hard copy.
Strangely enough, I find that OCP tends to treat the old hymns with more respect than GIA though they can’t help themselves replacing “mankind” with “humankind”. If hymns are to be updated, find a good poet who will avoid words incompatible with the rest of the text! Worship’s strength is for modern metered texts specific to the gospel of the day.
I also agree, that a reprint of CWB2 in a more user-friendly format would be useful, but I have a feeling all the copyrights would have to be renegotiated as I recall that was given as a reason Willow couldn’t remove the David Haas songs from As One Voice
Chris
You’re right of course abiout Worship 4 – it is US dollars and shipping from the US is ridiculous and to be added. I’m happy to avoid new OCP and GIA hymnals entirely, but I still buy individual downloads from them as they are often the only legal way to access hymns. I’ll stay with my old copies of earlier editions as reference.
It’s no better with WorshipNow the “modern” Catholic American Hymn book – they are expensive and download only because they won’t ship outside the US at all.
It’s a pity screens aren’t an option in the Cathedral because then you are free of the hymnals and can go full public domain. It would almost be worth fitting out a side chapel for normal sized masses and using print outs for the big occasions. It would be one way to get Catholics to sit closer together.
It just should not be as hard to use what are frequently hymns in the public domain.
Geoff
Geoff,
Just for clarification, probably 90 % of the hymn music I use is public domain, but probably 80% the hymn texts are copyrighted. This means that copyrighted texts going into a hymn supplement get reported to OneLicense as used. A supplement of twenty something songs from Gather Australia was put into Gather when it was first introduced, and I’m now looking at the feasibility of expanding that to something like eighty. This might be expanded by using two booklets – one for the seasons, and one for Ordinary Time. Just thoughts at the moment!
Also, we have four screens positioned to make what’s going on in the sanctuary visible to people in the transepts and those whose vision is blocked by support columns. They are, however, virtually useless outside of the main Sunday Mass as there is no one to operate the camera at other times, and they are left on a wide angle view. With additional screens and an operator, it might be possible to show text on screens to the side pews, but there is no realistic way that this would work for those in the main central pews. Who wants to see the cathedral looking like a gaming hall?
What no keno in church.
I remember the columns now – I got to sit directly behind one for the Bishop’s inaugural mass.
cheers
Geoff