Customer Reviews

Traditional Roman Hymnal

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As a professional music educator, I can without hesitation recommend this Hymnal to Catholic choir directors everywhere. While it is published by Angelus Press, the official publishing house of the SSPX, it will be perhaps most useful to those, like myself, who have been asked to lend a helping hand in restoring Gregorian Chant and traditional hymns to the liturgy in the wake of the reforms called for by Pope Benedict XVI.

The chants in this hymnal are reproduced beautifully, in an excellent and readable typeset, using traditional chant notation. This is a new book, ten years in the making. The Chants are newly digitally typeset; it is a beautiful and beautifully bound book. If one does not know how to read Chant, it is very easy to learn how if one is music literate. Many internet websites simply define the names of the nuemes and how to sing them.

In addition to the beautiful chants, there many hymns as well. The hymns are not like those that we find in the Ordinary Form Hymnals. For whatever reason, in the wake of the "reforms" of the 1970's, the Bishops in this country liked to behave as if the laity were musically and culturally illiterate. We were saddled with a criminally incompetent and banal English "translation" of the Mass, and also all the harmony was removed from our hymnals. These hymns all have four parts, so that the congregation can either sing the melody, or the harmony if they are competent and are so inclined.

Once one has familiarized themselves with the nuemes and listened to some good recordings like those available for download right here on Amazon, one can relatively quickly familiarize oneself with the main chants of the Mass, and other famous Latin and English Catholic classics.

If you are fortunate enough to have a pastor willing to say (or willing to allow a brother priest to say) the Extraordinary Form of the Mass at your parish, this hymnal will be absolutely essential. It provides a "one stop shop" for everything one will need. If you are fortunate enough to have a pastor willing to pursue the Benedictine reforms of the Ordinary Form, this hymnal will likewise be essential.

Some may balk at the idea of buying books from Angelus Press. The fact is that the SSPX has been in the forefront of preserving Tradition during a time when it seemed everyone was out to destroy it. Let us pray for a day when when the canonical relationship between the SSPX and Rome is regularized. Until then, I see no reason to avoid the excellent resources provided by the SSPX for the restoration of Tradition.

I love this book, but I found something better - The Parish Book of Chant.

Traditional Roman Hymnal is what our parish's newly-formed Tridentine (Summorum Pontificum) congregation of less than 50 people considered using, but it has English hymns better left with the OCPs. I believe that for people to appreciate Latin chant, both the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form should be immersed in it, including the Entrance and Closing hymns. Why use "Come Holy Ghost" when you have "Veni Sancte Spiritus?" Also, the Parish Book of Chant has the Ordo (with English translations) for both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms of the Mass, which TRH does not have.

TRH was the best hymnal until the Parish Book of Chant. Thus, we're using the latter and relieved that we won't have to apologize using a hymnal published by SSPX.

Pius X hymnal resulted from the Catholic breakaway church. Has all the traditional Latin and Caholic old hymns, I use it at the Veterans Health Care Center for the Catholic Mass. Those Senior Veterans really know their Latin.