Cloud Hymnal
by Richard Gard, director of music at St Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel at Yale
Dear SCSM Colleagues,
After the revision of the English translation of the Mass in 2012, I searched for new music that worked with the revised translation.
With the change of the approved texts came the realization that printed hymnals made it difficult to update worship music. From my experience as a church musician and a teacher I knew there was a limitless supply of people composing good music. Unfortunately, the sacred music publishing industry is constrained by fiscal considerations, which limits the supply of content to a few commercially recognizable names. I struggled to replace my community’s favorite Mass settings and psalms.
This realization gave birth to a new idea. What if worship music could be published as easily as a blog post? What if new hymns were contributed as easily as YouTubes? What if a hymnal offered choices as numerous as Amazon, tools like Google, with accompaniments and teaching aids and the option to print-on-demand, or go green and read from a mobile device?
And what if it was free?
This was the impetus for creating www.cloudhymal.org — a free hymnal and liturgical music-planning site that offers over 40,000 selections, including Psalms, hymns and service music.
Cloud Hymnal is blessed with financial and organizational support from several Yale donors and organizations. Through their generosity, this user-friendly resource is used in over 20 countries by worship communities and music ministers to organize, plan, rehearse and enhance their music programs.
What is the purpose and goal of the Cloud Hymnal website?
The Cloud Hymnal mission is to promote active participation in worship experiences through its powerful and user-friendly tools that allow church communities to create and share liturgies, music and prayers. Cloud Hymnal is all about singing together in prayer.
An invitation to peruse www.CloudHymnal.org
Cloud Hymnal can search the Lectionary — start with the Scripture readings for a given day to find the key terms you wish to focus on. Then use the Easy Search to quickly find texts and music that informs and supports your community’s singing and worship; you can upload your own music or prayers too. All the elements can be organized into a worship aid, then shared via website, email, PDF, print, or projection.
Cloud Hymnal provides audio recordings of its libraries as well as the Practice Room, an interactive tool that listens to the singer through their computer and then offers guidance to learn the music. This feature is popular with choir directors who might be teaching volunteer singers SATB harmony.
Cloud Hymnal includes 8,000 items of Latin chant, a library of responsorial psalms, many complete Mass settings, and bilingual songs as well as songs in languages other than English. A talented team of composers contributes new music on a weekly basis. There’s a large library of songs, propers, psalms, and carols from the Australian master Colin Brumby, a complete cycle of responsorial psalms set by Rev Peter Sipple from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, a treasury of the greatest hits of hymns and motets from the previous 500 years, and links to our partner Choral Public Domain Library.
Worship leaders are invited to join Cloud Hymnal and create one or more Worship Communities. Parishioners are invited to join the community and use the online tools in Cloud Hymnal, or simply print worship aids on demand. Some communities (like my own) share their Sunday music programs with the congregation each week via both printed Mass cards and online.
How can I use the Cloud Hymnal website and its materials?
The Cloud Hymnal website can revolutionize how a church community prepares for worship. It can be used to curate and develop weekly service liturgies, rehearsals, Bible studies, or other occasions for your choir or church community. Cloud Hymnal can be added to the use of hymnals, or replace the traditional hymnbook by being projected at your place of worship or viewed on mobile devices. You may also print Cloud Hymnal content for use in your community’s worship.
My parish likes to sing the music in the GIA, OCP, WLP, etc. library. Can we access the same music in Cloud Hymnal?
The music found in printed hymnals or missals can also be accessed within Cloud Hymnal. The music libraries of more than 50 sacred music publishers are available in Cloud Hymnal by subscribing to OneLicense. OneLicense works much like Netflix or Spotify, one price covers unlimited usage. More details available at www.CloudHymnal.org
I am a composer/ hymnist/ songwriter of sacred music. Can my music be published on Cloud Hymnal?
Yes. Anyone may upload a PDF to share with worship communities for non-commercial purposes. Submitters must have the right to share the uploaded music — more details at www.CloudHymnal.org
How do I learn to use Cloud Hymnal?
When you create a free account on Cloud Hymnal you’ll be offered a Guided Tour, a five minute interactive guide to everything you need to know, allowing you to try each step after watching me do it. There is context-sensitive help on most pages, and you can always email me richard@cloudhymnal.org
If you can operate email or Facebook you can operate Cloud Hymnal.
Richard Gard is director of music at St Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel at Yale. He earned MM and DMA degrees in Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, then stayed on as Lecturer in Hearing, a course in musicianship, theory and analysis. Richard is a co-inventor of patented digital audio processes and music education applications.
