Revival of Hymns in English with True Theology
Publisher awaits assignment of new Bishop
ENGLEWOOD, TN (JANUARY 5, 2009) - Catholic hymns in the vernacular have been part of the church for centuries prior to the 1970's, and as such they were required to be presented for the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur. The new Eucharistic Hymnal has been submitted for the granting of an Imprimatur, but this is delayed as the Tennessee publisher awaits a new Bishop to be assigned to he local Diocese. "All these hymns but one were published with the Imprimatur in the past, so we do not anticipate a problem." says Noel Jones, Editor of this new hymnal, one of a series that is being prepared for publication.
"Vernacular songs have always been a part of the Catholic Faith, but the 1970's brought down the requirement of an Imprimatur, so too many of the current songs being sung in Catholic Churches just aren't Catholic." Jones goes on to say, who maintains the website for the hymnal at www.thecatholichymnal.com.
Upon assuming the position of Director of Music at Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Jones brandished a CD recorded by a Catholic church choir during his first rehearsal with his new choir. "I challenged them to listen to this CD and after hearing it, tell me what denomination of church it came from. Baptist, Pentecostal...who can tell? But the last things you would say is Catholic." He promised that as long as he was director of music at the church people would leave Mass knowing that they had attended a Catholic church by the music they heard during Mass.
This involved putting Gregorian Chant back in with the pride of place it deserves and as required by the Catholic Church. But singing in English has not been abandoned as Jones has researched and created a hymnal that is now available that features hymns written for the Eucharist, that have been commonly sung at Benediction and Forty Hours over the past 150 years. And there are more hymns coming as additional hymnals are in development. The next release will be Hymns to Mary.
There are rumors as to what is in the offing for this project in the future, but Jones is reticent to release details. "It's innovative and will bring churches the music they want." is all that he will say. A source reveals that Jones has been successfully publishing books and music using print and digital media for more than ten years, so based on that his project bears close attention. Jones has claimed the trademark of The Catholic Hymnal™ as the name of this project.
"People need to have a closeness to the faith, which is why the vernacular hymns have always been popular. But they have to teach from their words what we teach in CCD and from what is preached from the pulpit." Jones says, "Songs like "On Eagles Wings" are very touching and they make a lot of money for the publisher, but many like "Eagles" are theologically wrong and should be banned." Does Jones expect Pope Benedict to ban songs that do not portray the true theology of the church? "Well, the US Bishops have laid the groundwork for requiring each Diocese to approve song texts that are permitted to be sung and Benedict has already made clear his intent in returning to good music in the church. Banning poorly written texts would eliminate a lot of the poorly written music heard today and be a big step to make this all happen." Jones relates.
Noel Jones has been involved in Catholic church music programs in the United States, Germany and Italy, including the post of Organist for the English Masses at the DOM Cathedral in Frankfurt, Germany.
Eucharistic Hymns - The Catholic Hymnal is available online at Aquinas and More, Amazon.com and www.thecatholichymnal.com.
HYMNS TO MARY RELEASED - book & CD
As May approaches computer search engines are engaged in hunts for "Bring Flowers of The Fairest" as Catholics prepare for thierl May Crowning. And the search engines find the words and even MIDI files that play the hymn on tinkling pianos from your computer speakers. But not the music to play and sing from. At this point frustration sets in. Scrolling through pages and pages of links and still no music. This annual search and the frustration surrounding it spawned a new hymnal, Hymns To Mary. Digging through old hymnals, the search has resulted in more than 60 hymns to Mary, all published in one book.
According to editor Noel Jones, "What was surprising was the incredible beauty of the text of these hymns, beauty that challenged composers to paint the sense of the words in the music they write for these hymns." The hymns come from hymnals published as early as the 1850's.
Some of the 60 plus hymns to Mary in the book appear more than once as they were sung to different tunes in different areas. Jones says, "It had a lot to do with the order of nuns that taught in the school. They brought their own music with them and what the parish sang usually reflected what they sing at the motherhouse or in the schools they grew up in.