Hymnals

Hymnals are the best way of providing convenient easy-to-use worship aids for congregations. With a ONE LICENSE Annual Reprint License, there is now an easy and cost-effective way of providing bespoke songbooks and hymnal supplements in your parish or school. The following is based on ONE LICENSE's Blog on Guidelines for developing your own hymnal.

Since no publication contains every last bit of music your congregation could possibly want to use, supplemental hymnals (also known as reusable song books) can be a great option. With a ONE LICENSE Annual Reprint License or a School Reprint License, you have permission to create this worship resource for your congregation.

Announcing Liturgical Song's Graphics Typesetting Consultancy Services

Liturgical Song's Consultancy Services can guide your parish through the "One License" Parish Hymnal Resource Process

1. Decide among your worship, finance, and sustainability committees that investing in a supplemental hymnal resource is a wise decision.
   
   
2. Compile the list of titles you would like to include using the ONE LICENSE List feature. Use Liturgical Song's Typeset Hymnal List Suggestions and the One License Top 500 Australian Hymns as a starting point.
   
3. Be sure to invite feedback from a variety of sources: Your Pastors, your Pastoral Council, your Sunday Mass Music Coordinators, your youth group and children's liturgycoordinators. Are there enough options for the seasons for year-round use? Are there favorite service music parts or songs that resonate with your community? Consider holding a poll on your organization website and invite feedback.
   
   
4. Once the final list is decided, finalise your list under the “Manage Lists” tab and title your list after the name of the resource. Liturgical Song suggests including the One License SKU in the copyright acknowledgement for each song in your parish hymnal. This will make reporting those titles (as you use them each week) easier (see item 11, below).
   
   
5. Either you may choose to put together a publication yourself by retrieving any available music downloads, clicking the One License “Download All” button. Clicking this button will place all available downloads in a single folder on your computer. Alternatively, to narrow down the downloads you receive in the zip file, please download the individual files from the title/search page. If the Member Publisher has not provided a download, scan and insert the approved congregational reprint box/version from an octavo or hymnal you already own, type out the lyrics.
   
   
6. Or you may choose to simplify and shorten this process by enlisting Liturgical Song's Graphics and Typesetting Consultancy Services to engrave your hymn book using the Dorico music notation software program. This will provide a consistent graphical format and will give the most professional results for lyrics and melody.
   
   
7. Make sure to include all relevant copyright information for each selection on each page, including title, composer and author names, publisher/copyright holder name, and copyright year.
   
   
8. Include the required licensing information once in the resource—likely the title page or back cover—that states: Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-000000. All rights reserved. Replace the zeros with your own license number. If you are a school, your license number should begin with an L. Keep in mind that should you allow your ONE LICENSE license to expire, you must discard the copies you made of this supplement.
   
   
9. Decide the format of the binding and cover. Consider investing in stitch binding and a card stock or laminated option for the cover. Spiral binding, staples, a pocket folder with brads, or a traditional glue/padding press are all great options for in-house production. For the cover, consider including the congregation name, logo, or even hold an art contest. A solid color makes for easy reference with the announcements, inviting everyone to take out their “red folder/blue spiral/green supplement.”
   
   
10. Proofread your final product and begin the printing process. When it is time to place them in the worship space, invite the committee and those who participated to help! This will encourage community and reverence over the completion of the project.
    
    
11. IMPORTANT—Use the convenient ONE LICENSE tools to report the music you used from this supplement each week, noting the frequency you used each song. Only report the specific songs you use in a given week, not the entire list. For planning purposes, you are able to report twelve weeks in the past and six weeks into the future. Again, keep in mind that extended-use booklets/hymnal supplements are valid only so long as your license is in force.

Enjoy your brand new supplement!

"Our Parish Hymnal" - Liturgical Song's Consultancy and Typesetting Services

Liturgical Song has considerable Dorico music notation software expertise and more than twenty years experience in typesetting music books, PowerPoint projection slides and hymnals. Liturgical Song has recently undertaken a significant bespoke hymnal supplement project for Lumen Christi Catholic Parish, Catholic diocese of Wollongong, using the approach outlined by ONE LICENSE. We found it to be a great way to achieve beautiful, cost-effective, lightweight, long-lasting and easy-to-use parish worship aids (see photo above). Here is a PDF of the hymnal contents. 

Contact Paul Mason on paul.mason@liturgicalsong.com or by phone 0414-436-017.

The Role of Hymnals in Repertoire Strategy over the Years

Hymnals over the years have provided the foundation for the development of our national repertoire. Australian hymnals have been published regularly from the 1950s to the 1990s. The 1990s saw the release of four significant general hymnal publications - As One Voice, Gather Australia, As One Voice 2, and Together In Song. While there have been specialist collections published since then (As One Voice for Kids, As One Voice Next Generation), Catholic Worship Book II is the first general hymnal publication in more than seventeen years. With around 1,000 items covering contemporary and traditional ritual songs, it provides a comprehensive resource for worshipping communities.

As collections of ritual music and liturgical song, hymnals have historically helped shape the scope and extent of songs used in liturgy. Other resources are seen as supplementary to the major hymnals of the time. The major sources for music suggestions generally refer to hymnal publications as their primary source, supplemented by specialist resources for responsorial psalms. Determining which hymnals your musicians use in your worshipping community is a strategically important decision in shaping your repertoire.

Liturgical Song is proud to have twenty-two of its song catalogue items included in the Australian Bishops' hymnal "Catholic Worship Book II," published in 2016. There are more than 1,000 hymns and ritual songs covering every kind of liturgical celebration. There are songs covering celebrations of all the sacraments, seasons and feasts, and memorials of the major saints. 

Unfortunately Catholic Worship Book II is now out of print and unavailable.