The St. Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book

Front matter

Reading edition

[Transcriber's Notes]

I fondly remember singing from the St. Gregory hymnal in grade school. Looking down from the choir loft in the back of the church and standing five feet from the shouting organ pipes that stretched from floor to ceiling leaves a glorious impression on a ten year old!

My skill in Latin consists of two years in high school over fifty years ago. I remember most of the pronunciation, but the precise meanings and poetic meter is lost on me. I have carefully compared the printed text with the transcription, but poetic structure may be incorrect.

My primary goal is to provide a source for singers and musicians who love the old Latin hymns, as I do. I hope this will help spread the joy provided by these "Oldies, but goodies." All the text of the lyrics and other material have been transcribed to this document for research and indexing. If you can only remember a few words of a hymn, a simple search should find the full text.

Contrary to the usual Gutenberg guidelines, the page numbers are left to provide easy reference to the original pages.

The page images are stored as 1100 X 1600 GIF files to minimize file size and preserve fidelity. On my computer a single sheet page fills an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet by setting the print scaling factor to 75%. A scaling factor of 40% produces a page the size of the original book (4.3 X 6.0 inches). Some files are both facing pages because they are read and sung using both pages. These print in the original size at 40% scaling in either portrait or landscape format. "Your results may vary."

Where works span several pages, the text is rendered without interruption and all the included pages are listed at the end of the work.

The HTML index provides both the hymn or work number in the center column and the page numbers in the right hand column. Clicking on the hymn number take you to the text. Clicking on the page numbers displays the original page image.

The image files are named for easy access. N145_P226.gif is the first page (226) of hymn number 145. N145_P227.gif is the second page (227) of hymn number 145.

A description of the header of each item is shown in this example:

Hymn number: No. 1

Occasion or Theme: ADVENT

Title: Hark! A Mystic Voice is Sounding En clara vox

Composer, origin and other notes: Tr. Rev. E. Caswall Nicola A. Montani

[End Transcriber's notes]

The St. Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book

Compiled, Edited and Arranged

by Nicola A. Montani

A Complete Collection of approved English and Latin Hymns, Liturgical Motets and appropriate Devotional Music for the various seasons of the Liturgical Year. Particularly adapted to the requirements of Choir, Schools, Academies, Seminaries, Convents, Sodalities and Sunday Schools.

SINGERS' EDITION MELODY EDITION (One line music with complete text)

Publishers The St. Gregory Guild 1705 Rittenhouse St. PHILADELPHIA, PA.

British Copyright Secured

Printed in U.S.A.

NIHIL OBSTAT J. M. CORRIGAN Censor Librorum Philadelphia, July 7, 1920

Imprimatur + D. J. DOUGHERTY Archiepiscopus Philadelphiensis

APPROVED BY THE MUSIC COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. GREGORY OF AMERICA (The Society approved by the Holy See by Rescript No. 6914)

Very Rev. Leo P. Manzetti; Rev. John M. Petter, S. T. B.; Rev. Simon M. Yenn; Rev. Charles J. Marshall, C. S.C.