The draft version of the new hymnal is complete (for now) and has been sent to the Inter-Eparchial Music Commission for their review and improvement.
Here is the version that was submitted: Hymnal – draft – 2019-11
Formatting will be cleaned up a bit more before publication. In the meantime, if you find any errors or infelicities, please let me know and I will make sure they are fixed in the final version.
Hello,
I am a cantor at St. Nicholas Church in Clinton Township, MI (formerly in Detroit). I have to apologize, I was not really aware of this project, nor of the timeline that you were marching towards. Is it too late to offer suggestions? If it’s not too late, who should I send them to? Do I have to go directly to the Inter-Eparchial Commission at this point?
Please advise. In a very quick glance, I did notice some things immediately that I would like to propose/suggest.
Please feel free to reply directly to my email address, if that’s easier.
Best Regards,
George Nagrant
Dear George,
It is certainly not too late; I will collect any further material I receive and pass it on to the Music Commission. (For simple errors, I will just go ahead and make the changes as well.)
You can see a fairly complete record of the work on the hymnal here:
https://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/blog/songs/Hymnal_project.html
Many of the hymns have discuss links you can follow to see what has been done on each hymn.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. This may take me a few days (at least) to review everything, but I will give it my best shot. One question– If I have feedback on multiple hymns, how would you suggest I provide that back to you? I’d rather not have to go into each individual link and itemize my responses, but if that’s how you want to keep things separated I can understand.
Best Regards,
George
Just send email to mci@archpitt.org. You can also mark up a PDF and email it.
Deacon Jeff
Hello Deacon Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. Given the other things taking up time during my days and evenings, it has taken me a little while to go through these. I have reviewed quite a bit, but only have had time so far to put my suggestions in writing for a few of them. I will continue to work on this, but for now, I will be sending you my feedback regarding just the “General Hymns” section. I have suggestions for the following hymns within this section:
Hosts of Angels on High
So Great is God
Accept Me Today
Come now to us, O Christ
Give me your Body, O Christ
I do believe
Heavenly King, Comforter
O Holy Spirit, Mighty Defender
The Holy Spirit shall come upon you
I have just sent all of these updates to the email address listed above. There were no separate blog links for these hymns, so I trust you will find a way to share these suggestions with the other cantors on this site and around the country.
Thanks,
George Nagrant
Cantor- St. Nicholas Church, Clinton Twp, MI
Choir member, ECF singing teacher
Lifelong Byzantine Catholic
Reply sent to you directly! I will definitely incorporate some of your suggestions, and present others to the Music Commission.