frog music press

Round holes, square notes — 

You know how some men are really into golf? That’s how Noel Jones, an associate of the American Guild of Organists, is into Gregorian Chant! One of his books is titled: “If You Can Sing ‘Joy to the World’ You Can Learn To Read And Sing Gregorian Chant.” Just hum the carol’s first line. It is actually the scale, top to bottom: “Do, Ti, La, So, — Fa, Mi, Re, Do.”

Catholic New World
Newspaper for the Archdiocese of Chicago, Dolores Madlener

If you can sing Joy to the World you can learn to read and sing Gregorian Chant is a nifty little book for learning to sing from Gregorian notation (neumes, the 'squares and squiggles').

http://www.christeluxmundi.org

This has lots of great big diagrams to explain different features of chant notation with color coding to make it really easy.

Veronica Brandt

The Catholic Choirbook Anthology I

This is a thoughtfully edited compilation of some of the best Catholic music, all appropriate in both text and style. From Fogliano and Byrd to Stainer and Elgar this is not simply a collection for medieval music aficionados but of the most beautiful and appropriate music for the Catholic Mass. Included are famous settings by Byrd, Palestrina, and Mozart but also wondrous pieces by lesser-known composers like Remondi and Lotti. The volume contains indices by composer, piece, and part (SATB, SSA, et cetera.) English translations of all texts precede the piece. The spine and layout allow for the easy making of copies, which is handy because copying and sharing of the music is permitted under Creative Commons license 3.0.

Apologia Pro Literati Vita

This Choir book is an incredible resource and a great deal. As a busy choir director, who must manage a music program along with planning liturgies, buying music, maintaining a choral library, answering endless emails and doing everything by oneself (including, at times, cleaning the choir loft!) I have found this book to be the answer to many prayers as it solves many problems related to running a parish choir.

First - it contains almost everything a choir director, doing high quality sacred music, could want. Instead of copying scores ad nauseum or spending a lot of time ordering scores, you have everything you need right at hand. If all choir members have a book, voila! the music that is needed is at hand.

Second - It's beautiful typeset with lovely graphics. So, it's pleasant and friendly to look at - which is important.

Third - It's SO EASY TO USE.... and there are tons of online resources that you can access as well.

This choir book is also a wonderful tool for creating a repertoire - of which, each choir member can be proud.

I can't say enough good things about The Catholic Choirbook Anthology. Check it out - you'll want to own one.

Susan Carroll
Choir Director
Christ the King Parish

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