For over 10 years, Magnificat Music was delighted to be the exclusive British Isles distributor of Psallite, a refreshing new music project that can revitalize liturgical music in parishes large and small. This series is now available from Norwich Books and Music.

Psallite provides three items for every Sunday and major feastday of the entire three-year Lectionary cycle, and is available now.

The music of Psallite is essentially vocal - it works unaccompanied. All you need is a cantor and an assembly, so it's ideal for parishes with limited means. But for those with further resources, Psallite comes with keyboard accompaniments, guitar chords, and plenty of descants for groups and choirs. A cantor-choir edition is nearing completion.

The style of the music is eclectic, from plainchant to Afro-Caribbean to folksong and many others besides, and has its roots in modality. An important feature is that it is catchy, eminently singable, and memorable.

The music of Psallite is based on the age-old Church tradition of antiphon + psalm. A cantor sings the Antiphon, the assembly repeats it, the cantor sings a psalm verse, the assembly repeats the Antiphon, and so on - just like the Responsorial Psalm form; but Psallite also makes use of many user-friendly variants to the basic form so that it never becomes boring! Some of the pieces are longer than the usual kind of Responsorial Psalm, since they are designed to accompany the Entrance procession and the Communion procession as well as reflect on the 1st Reading in the Liturgy of the Word.

The Song for the Week may be your theme tune for the entire week - you might even find yourself humming it as you do the dishes! The Song for the Word may echo in your mind and keep the Word alive in your heart all day. The Song for the Table may be the one that you sing around your own dining table. This is why it's so vital that the music is as memorable as it is - it will get under your skin!

The music of Psallite has been written by the Collegeville Composers Group, five composers working collaboratively: two British and three American, three men and two women. From the UK, Paul Inwood and Catherine Christmas; from the USA, Fr Cyprian Consiglio OSBCam, Dr Paul Ford and Carol Browning. With very few exceptions, all the music has been written by all the composers working together.

(For its latest bilingual collection of music for weddings and funerals, Celebrate, Remember / Celebrar, Recordar, the Group was joined by Anna Betancourt, a US liturgical musician.)

The texts of the antiphons are biblically based. Psalm verses use the 1993 Grail Psalter (though any psalter can be used with these tones), while canticle verses from other biblical books mostly make use of the NRSV translation of scripture. The pointing uses the simplest possible system to make life easy for cantors.

For more details on the music and the composers, see the Liturgical Press website.

In the UK, Psallite is available via Norwich Books and Music. Psallite is also covered by the OneLicense licensing scheme.

The Accompaniment Books for Years A, B and C are all available from Norwich Books and Music. These contain complete keyboard accompaniments, guitar chords and vocal/choral descants, together with all the psalm and canticle texts, for 250 items in each volume. The Year A Accompaniment Book additionally contains comprehensive indexes covering all three years of the cycle.

Reprintable congregational editions are available on a separate graphics CD-ROM. This music is included in the OneLicense copyright licence.

A Psallite Triptych is a combo-pack of all three sampler CDs, one for each year, A, B and C. Available from Norwich Books and Music.

Congregational antiphons CD-ROM

Contains reproducible graphics for all the congregational antiphons in the entire 3-year Lectionary cycle. These can be used at no further cost by subscribers to the Onelicense copyright licence.

The CANTOR/CHOIR EDITION is extremely useful for those who don't want to purchase the complete accompaniments for their singers. This covers all three years of the Lectionary cycle between two covers, and contains all the vocal parts and psalm tones, all of them interlined to assist those who find pointing difficult to manage. Additionally, many antiphons and psalm tones have been provided with SATB harmonies for those who wish to use them. This edition also contains all the comprehensive indexes contained in the Year A accompaniment book, and an additional index of Liturgical Use.

Available from Norwich Books and Music.

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You will be my witnesses —

Music for Christian Initiation

An essential resource of new music for the rites of initiation, in the same Psallite style as the previous books. For a PDF of the table of contents, click here.

Accompaniment, Cantor/choir book and CD recording are all available from Norwich Books and Music.

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STILL AVAILABLE from Magnificat Music

The Psallite Mass ("At the Table of the Lord")

A complete resource collection of new music for the new translation of the Order of Mass, in a similar chant-based style to the other Psallite resources.

Contents:

Penitential Act: choice of three settings
Song during the Sprinkling of Water
Gloria
Gospel Acclamations for Advent, Lent, Eastertide and Ordinary Time
Easter and Pentecost Sequences
Nicene Creed
Apostles' Creed
Berakah Prayers: choice of three settings
Sanctus
All three memorial acclamations
Great Amen
Lord's Prayer with Embolism and "For the kingdom" Acclamation
Agnus Dei: choice of two settings, one of them twinned with one of the Penitential Act settings

Accompaniment: Ref no PsM, £9.95
CD recording: Ref no PsMC, £14.95

NB: All prices quoted are for European purchasers only, and do not include postage. Purchasers from outside Europe should order direct from Liturgical Press.

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Bilingual collection of music for Weddings and Funerals

Celebrate, Remember / Celebrar, Recordar

A rich resource of music using English and Spanish texts. An excellent CD recording is also available.

Order from Norwich Books and Music.