150 Indispensable Catholic Hymns?

28 Replies to “150 Indispensable Catholic Hymns?”

1. Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones

2. Adam, sorry if this disappoints you, but I am a true skeptic of all such lists. It's not as if the Church has trod here before and none of those efforts had any lasting effect.
   Two fairly recent (in Church time) efforts illustrate my reticence: 1. The Snowbird Statement, which was primarily concerned with Msgr. Mannion's efforts to uplift the quality of sacral and aesthetic beauty in RC worship. However, the signatories as an adjudicating panel did not constitute a thorough representation of catholic praxis; 2. The "White-List" proposal of about 5 Autumn's ago, when the USCCB voted to table a plenum vote and refer the issue to the dioceses of Portland and Chicago, much to the Bsp. of Oakland Vigneron's chagrin, as he wanted to tag along a discussion of the role of propers and that became a huge, lamentable afterthought.
   I don't disparage either See, but Abp. Vlazny and F.Card.George haven't exactly burnt rubber or let the midnight oil burn out with any alacrity with the "White List" project.
   Besides, though I don't believe the strophic hymn music form is a "dead letter" issue, that better, finely tuned texts from the pens of folks such as Kathy and Adam W. and many, many others shouldn't be excluded from tune assignment because of a "fixed" medium repertoire.
   It is so a subjective enterprise, I almost believe that "approved texts/tunes" should be either/or a local parish or diocesan deliberated project.
   And that's why I also believe the major publishers are being very lazy and unentrepreneurial by not considering how they could re-tool their subscription/(disposable) product lines with "boutique" or designer hymnal offerings in this digital age.
   No one can tell me, in this day and age, that they couldn't electronically setup and edit a book with 800 titles or so submitted with plenty of advance lead time, and then require a substantial parish/diocesan subsription minimum. It's a win/win, and they still rake in the lucre. If we're locked into either a vernacular only, or some rationed balanced Latin/vernacular scenario, then this is, IMO, a solution that is much more realistic than a "universal" national hymnal where the credentials and decisions of the editorial board and their ecclesial overseers will forever be questioned and challenged.

3. Hmmm, it appears our lists would look substantially different.

   Just a few off the top of my mind that are missing:
   O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
   Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending
   Wake Awake (Wachet Auf)

4. I'm not disappointed in your thoughts at all, Charles. But I think that you're viewing the idea of a "list" based on terms other than those which I've put forth. Do read my preface again carefully. This would be a small selection of hymns in the pews for a parish that has embraced the proper texts of the Mass as the norm. In such a case there might only be a need for one or two, if any, hymns to "select" in any given liturgy.

   I think that this line in your response is the most supportive of your comments:

   "It is so a subjective enterprise"

   The difference between the perspectives that you and I have put forth, I would submit, could be summarized in liturgy that is objectively received vs. liturgy that is subjectively created.

   The 150 hymns that I'm looking for here presuppose that the norm for the parish using them is one that receives the liturgy as it is normatively given in the liturgical books.

5. @Shawn – If you have the opportunity to compare our lists I would love to know what you would add or take away from the list above. This is not even 100 hymns, though. I'm looking for 150 of them.

6. It might be helpful to asterisk hymns that are historically Catholic and then leave the ones that have been absorbed from other traditions to fight over?

7. Here are some more to consider:

   At The Name of Jesus
   Be Thou My Vision (ditto)
   Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation
   Come Down O Love Divine (a serious omission)
   Christus Vincit
   Comfort Comfort Ye My People
   Eternal Father Strong To Save (the US Navy Hymn)
   God Father Praise and Glory (O Most Holy Trinity)
   Hail Redeemer King Divine
   I Clasp Unto My Heart This Day
   In Dulci Jubilo
   My Song Is Love Unknown
   O God Our Help In Ages Past (how did that get omitted?)
   O Morningstar How Fair and Bright
   O Praise Ye The Lord
   On This Day
   Praise to the Holiest (but the Pius X Hymnal tune)
   Shepherd of Souls
   The Royal Banners Forward Go
   Ye Sons and Daughters

   and divers fine psalm paraphrases that I will forego for brevity's sake. But it's good to have all the seasonal psalms covered metrically, not for use as responsorial psalms, but because they are very useful as seasonal hymnody.

8. Thank you for these Liam. What I posted is just a working repertoire of hymns at my own parish. It's not a list that is proposed as a standard by any means. I'm very glad to hear conventional wisdom speak to this issue!

9. I forget to mention the absolutely wonderful Again We Keep This Solemn Fast (ERHALT UNS HERR) for Lent.

10. A few more suggestions:
    In Christ there is no east or west
    Praise to the living God
    Let all the world
    Ye holy angels bright
    Be still, my soul
    The God of Abraham praise
    O worship the King
    Praise, my soul, the king of heaven
    Immortal, invisible
    All things praise you, Lord most high
    God is love
    God has spoken by his prophets
    Tell out, my soul
    King of glory, king of peace
    Come let us join our cheerful songs
    Christ, whose glory fills the skies
    When morning gilds the skies

11. Nice list. I would add:
    Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All

12. Come My Way, My Truth, My Life
    I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light

13. more suggestions:

    A Child is Born in Bethlehem / Puer Natus in Bethlehem
    By All Your Saints in Warfare
    Draw Nigh and Take the Body of Our Lord
    Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted
    Hail Thee, Festival Day
    Jerusalem, My Happy Home
    O Jesus, Joy of Loving Hearts
    Sing We of the Blessed Mother
    The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky
    The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns
    Virgin, Wholly Marvelous
    What Wondrous Love is This

14. As a comparison, the contents of some of the less massive Catholic hymnals:

    Catholic Community Hymnal

    Adoremus Hymnal

    St. Michael Hymnal

15. The list that was suggested by Adam is by no means complete. In asking for more titles that are in use at other parishes, I believe that he is open to the opinions of other music directors. Hymns that are currently in use, extracted from whatever subscription hymnal, are either traditional Catholic or borrowed from the Protestant hymnals. My problem with the latter group of hymns is the text. Why would we use hymns that were created "in protest" to the Catholic tradition? Many times I would cringe singing a hymn such as, A Mighty Fortress (Ein Feste Burg). Could we not limit our hymn list to those securely based in the Catholic faith?

    Also, as an aside to Charles – you are obviously a very erudite teacher and musician. Could you post a comment to us, your fellow musicians, in the style of a spoken comment, instead of the wording that might be used in a thesis?

16. Many hymn texts that are of Protestant provenance partake of absolutely no protest against the Catholic tradition. (And some can be theologically more sound from a Catholic perspective than some texts that have been authored by Catholics.) The non-devotional hymnody of the English-speaking world has for very obvious reasons has not been dominated by Catholics in the past, avoiding Protestant sources as a degree of purity the Church does not command today.

    Personally, I love A Mighty Fortress in its current English guise, much as I love various things that the Church has baptised from pagan or heretical use in the past (Catholicism is promiscuous and untidy that way; cuz we're not Calvinists….). But I didn't include it in the list because I know it (along with Amazing Grace) is controversial on this site.

17. "Also, as an aside to Charles – you are obviously a very erudite teacher and musician. Could you post a comment to us, your fellow musicians, in the style of a spoken comment, instead of the wording that might be used in a thesis?" RedCat, a fine and felicitous afficianado of felines, thereby a fellow of mine, as our home provides the fullness of food and fortune for eight of our furry friends.

    "Meow!"

    Your keen observation of my obfuscation, wrapped not unlike an obvious yet nebulous nugget of wisdom within a fortune cookie, came upon me as if the Green Monster of Fenway galloped towards me rather than I toward it to catch the drift of your fungo.
    Flattered I am; be certain of that. But alas, as attested to by errant verbiage lurking like dark matter all over our cyberuniverse, I have, and yet again, confess to having flunked "Strunk and White" not once, twice, but thrice times a-fraidy- in high school, undergraduate and post-graduate institutions of higher earnings that shoved me through their serpentine plumbing nonetheless, and with wild-eyed glee shoved sheepskins upon my person as I was unceremoniously deposited into the morass and muck of vocabularies long ago discarded. I fairly reek of lugubrious loquation, a lone, bereft left fielder waiting in the dark grass for the line drive that I will misjudge fatally, and which will at once dispose me to another field of dreams and relieve the world of the excess of random, meaningless words, phrases and mutterances from my lobes.
    All that said, I can name your song in only two notes: "Probably not."

18. Well, as a liturgist, I'd say you need metrical hymns for the Liturgy of the Hours, for Sequences, and occasional other uses in the Roman Rite where hymns are called for.

    I'd agree with most tunes listed above, but I would not shy away from non-metrical settings of Biblical texts (psalms, canticles, and more poetic Scripture passages). When I hear some church musicians speak of hymns, it's not always clear if they're limiting themselves to four-part organ music or not.

    I'll suggest that every parish needs some hymn texts: the Gospel Canticles and probably two or three different settings of each, even if they don't pray the Hours, the Te Deum, and important Scriptures that aren't in the propers: the Beatitudes, the Kenosis Hymn of Paul, for example.

    Then you have to consider the utility of this music: How much do you need for the liturgical seasons? How much do you need for the rites? How much will you gather from the cultural and ethnic traditions of the community? As a related question, what's the balance between American-bred shape note hymns and the Europeans–Germany, Britain, France, Italy, eastern Europe, the Celts, not to mention Latin America and the gospel/blues songs of Blacks. How much do you need for liturgical moments like funerals, the Communion procession, the welcoming of catechumens, and such?

    It's good to have musicians at the table on a discussion like this. But you're going to need sensible liturgists, too if you want this to rise above a personal choice top-150 list.

19. Todd, I can't tell you how much I look forward to your posts that begin with "Well, as a liturgist, I'd say…"

    As you know I am also liken myself a liturgist as I am currently studying liturgy on the graduate level and I will refrain from taking offense to this blatant insult:

    "But you're going to need sensible liturgists, too…"

    My preface above is clear and defines the role of hymns in the liturgy according to the liturgical (not musical) hermeneutic which I and many on this blog espouse. You have made it clear that you espouse a different hermeneutic. I think that it will be best to acknowledge this difference and proceed accordingly.

20. Hi Adam,

    No idea what you're talking about, but good luck with your projects, and blessings on the end of your Advent.

21. To Charles,
    I bow down in acknowledgement of your superiority. You put me well in my place at your footstool, cowering and mewing. Touché, Charles! We do share two likes: felines and the love of music worthy of our God and King!
    RedCat, BA, MA, CAGO, and 29 years of teaching music

22. RedCat, this hooman thinks you rule! I yield my blankie and wine box (no footstools!) to you and will try harder.Prrrrrrrrrrrrr. Prrrrrrrrrrrr.

    Adam, just for a change of pace, modern /metric strophic hymnody and a chant to consider from current OCP editions:

    *WE GATHER HERE TO WORSHIP Ironwood
    *I RECEIVED THE LIVING GOD Living God
    *LED BY THE SPIRIT Kingsfold
    *CHRIST BEFORE US Suo gan
    *WE WALK BY FAITH/IN TIMES OF TROUBLE Jesu dulcis memoria/Ave maris stella
    *ALL GOOD GIFTS Heilsman

    And a golden oldy:
    *COME, CHRISTIANS, JOIN TO SING Madrid

23. There are some specifically Catholic hymns which should be part of our heritage, in England at least:
    Praise to the Holiest (RR Terry's setting)
    Sweet Sacrament Divine
    O Bread of Heaven, beneath this veil
    Soul of my Saviour
    Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go (Faber's wonderful evening hymn)
    O Jesus Christ remember
    Hail, Queen of Heaven
    Mother of Mercy, day by day
    O Purest of Creatures
    Help, Lord, the souls which Thou hast made
    O come and mourn with me awhile (Resist the temptation to bowdlerize the second verse – FWF gets enough of that in Anglican hymnals)

    Faith of our Fathers is a plea for the conversion of England "…Mary's prayers shall win our country back to Thee/And through the truth that comes from God, England shall then indeed be free". A good one for ecumenical gatherings, as is Cardinal Wiseman's splendidly triumphalist "Full in the panting heart of Rome". I love and respect our separated brethren but they sometimes need reminding who built the medieval churches and cathedrals they currently occupy and why.

24. Daily, Daily Sing to Mary
    Star Above the Ocean, Maria
    and
    Take Up Thy Cross, the Savior Said

    come to mind. Maybe they've been mentioned, but I only know things by first line, and maybe these hymns have different titles that I'm not recognizing above.

25. Hope of the World, I Bind Unto Myself Today (St. Patrick wrote some of the text)!

26. Have no one heard of the St Louis Jesuits? The ones from North American Liturgy Resources? Well, they have some pretty cool hymns in their collection. My favorite is O Beauty, Ever Ancient by Dan Schutte, SJ

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28. Wonderful list! I would only add O Esca Viatorum (O food of men wayfaring) the tune by Louis Bourgeois works for both the Latin version and the English translation by J. Athelstan Riley.

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