Hymns of the Breviary and Missal

MusicaSacra again comes through, with a link to a PDF of "Britt’s Hymns of the Breviary and Missal." (That second link is the PDF file itself, which is 26M in size. You can right-click and save to your desktop, but it will take awhile.)

This wonderful 1922 book, edited by Fr. Matthew Britt, assembles a vast number of hymns from Christian history, in Latin with English translations, including notes on composer and authors as well as liturgical use. It is an essential book for all Catholic musicians. It is newly available in print and also online.

It lists all the hymns as they are sung:

• "The Hymns of the Psalter," a section that lists the hymns sung at each Office.


• "The Proper of Seasons," that lists the hymns for various Holy Days and Seasons.


• "The Proper of Saints" lists all the hymns for various major Saints' days.


• "The Common of Saints" lists hymns to be used for others celebrated in song.


• There is also information following each hymn as to its origin, as well as some explication of meaning and/or theology.


• There are also entire sections dedicated to Hymn Authors and Translators.


• There's quite a bit of good stuff in the Intro, too, about meter and etc.

This is a wonderful find! It's a very complete resource - except that there's no music, unfortunately.

Well, that's what Seeqpod and I are for, I reckon....