Liturgical Music Resources
Below you will find a collection of helpful links with resources, free scores, and other information pertaining to liturgical music.
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Serviam Scores Free Resources
You can click here to view a master list of all the resources which we currently offer free-of-charge on this website. This includes links to scores, blog posts, practice videos, and more. (NB: some of the free resources are offered as direct download links, while others are also duplicated in our storefront which can be added to your cart at no cost.)
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Church Music Association of America
Replete with numerous free scores, books, an active forum, dedicated resources page, (and much more!), the CMAA is a haven for church musicians everywhere who seek to elevate the Mass and promote traditional liturgy. They also arrange an annual Colloquium where musicians from around the country gather for a week each summer to learn chant and large choral works which are then sung at solemn missa cantatas (both forms).
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GregoBase
Looking for a particular chant? Need to make a worship aid and don’t want to use the low resolution scan that you found on yahoogle? Visit GregoBase and browse the thousands of scores that have been meticulously coded into a modern notation engine by countless volunteers. Just about every chant you can imagine is available here, and you can search by incipit or by category (Introitus, Communio, etc.)
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Cantus Database
For the really ardent chant lover, there is nothing more exciting than delving deep into medieval manuscripts. In those rare cases where GregoBase fails, Cantus comes to the rescue. This university-sponsored database contains rich data about thousands of medieval manuscripts and their contents. The cherry on top is that links are provided to view original manuscripts wherever the archive owners permit it. If you’ve ever wondered how James has found scans of old manuscripts to include in his compositions (example here), this is how.
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Spanish Propers Project
Well-known to souls who frequent CMAA events, the inimitable Janet Gorbitz has adapted Gregorian chant into Spanish for use in hispanic communities. This is a tremendous resource for any parish seeking to introduce the propers to Spanish-speaking communities.
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Zipoli Institute
Another site full of resources in Spanish, the Zipoli Institute, whose motto is “Sacred Music for the Missions” provides a wide swath of resources ranging from traditional hymnody to settings of the ordinary (“mass parts”) to chant, and even polyphony—all in Spanish. This site is well worth a “deep dive”.
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Hymnary.org
This fantastic resource collates thousands of scans of hymns from hundreds of different hymnals. Need to find a hymn in a different key? Want a different harmonization? Want to compare versions of the text? Need to research the poet? Need an XML file? Need to find a melody that’s 8.7.8.7?
Hymnary has you covered.
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Choral Public Domain Library
Otherwise known as “CPDL”, the Choral Public Domain Library is the choral equivalent of the well-known IMSLP. This database contains thousands of public-domain scores, all offered for free! Choral directors have never had such an easy time obtaining free scores of high-quality choral works.
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Corpus Christi Watershed
If you’ve never stumbled across the CCW website before, you are in for a treat! This organization is an absolute treasure trove of articles, free scores, practice videos, chant accompaniments, and more. The catalogue of frequent blog posts spans years and are very worth diving into. They provide free resources as well as insightful articles about the liturgy (pre & post-conciliar).
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Source & Summit
Source & Summit is seeking to change the game when it comes to preparing liturgical music. Brainchild of Adam Bartlett (of Simple English Propers fame) the new Source & Summit platform is built with music directors in mind and contains thousands of resources and an innovative platform for designing worship aids. If you are looking to transform your musical and liturgical culture at your parish, this should be your first stop!
Even if you are not a S&S subscriber, you can still leverage their excellent GABC code engine for free!
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Antiphon Renewal
Many catholics around the world are accustomed to singing hymns at Mass; what they don’t realize is that these hymns have replaced propers, which are technically prescribed by the Missal & Graduale Romanum.
To help remedy the situation and bridge the gap, Luke Massery & Greg Heislman have compiled a set of hymns for the entire liturgical year, that take the proper texts found in the Missal & G.R. and adapt them to common hymn tunes, allowing your congregation to sing the propers!
This is a great, low-friction way to get the texts of the propers into the pews without drastically altering liturgical praxis at your church.
Newly available are also a set of simplified latin propers, intended for scholæ that desire to sing authentic gregorian chant but who aren’t quite ready to sing from the G.R. or the Liber.
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CRCCM Repertoire Project
The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians has been developing its “Repertoire Project” which collates links and scores to music its members find particularly worthy of the Sacred Liturgy.
Searchable by Liturgical Day, this is a great place to turn for repertoire inspiration.
One notable addition to this project is the complete Lectionary Psalterin Spanish, by Marc Cerisier. Spanish Psalms (designed with organ accompaniment in mind) are rare as hen’s teeth, it seems, and his psalm settings fill a very real need. Best of all: they are free!