The inimitable Jeffrey Tucker has news of ICEL’s willingness to release texts of the Roman Missal for download without payment of royalties. There will be a delay until all music publishers have the go-ahead from Rome to make it all available–another two years, most likely.
This is good news. Check this page for standard ICEL copyright policy.
The comment boxes reveal some strains of the angry trads, but one commenter noted, “We should be grateful to ICEL and the bishops for doing the right thing. I take back the intemperate things I said before.”
Lots of us church musicians indulge the shoot-first, praise-later policy. But it’s good when we can break off from that and recognize a good gesture when we see it.
