The Near Disappearance of Catholic Music

Keep in mind that the Oregon Catholic Press, which has recently started offering some Latin chant selections, claims to be the music publisher of choice for two-thirds of American parishes. That makes it the industry leader, so to speak.

A technical marvel of OCP's website is that is driven by a database that auto-links all song names to publications in which they are mentioned, recorded, or appear in music. What this allows us to see is precisely how many of OCP's uncountable numbers of publications, hymnals, recordings, and choral numbers include the selections of the actual Catholic music we find in its new chant supplement Laus Tibi Christe.

You can click on each link to discover that most of the selections appear only in this one book--only this one, published this month, out of the hundreds of possible collections published by OCP that are scattered throughout the American Catholic world. This strikes me as a pretty good empirical demonstration of the near-disappearance of Catholic music and Latin in the mainstream of American Catholicism.

Try this yourself. First click on, say Eagles Wings. A massive list appears. Now examine the following: Ave Maris Stella, Conditor alme siderum, Ave Regina Caelorum, Jesu Dulcis Memoria, Lux Aetena, Magnificat, Victimae Paschali Laudes, Nunc Dimittis, Audi Benigne Conditor, Credo I, Credo III, Penitential Rite, Ite, missa est.

And yet the appearance of Laus itself strikes a very hopeful note.