Hello friends in music ministry, I’m Karl Rohde. I am a music director, pastoral musician, and Parish Services Associate at OCP. I have 10 years of experience serving Catholic churches for OCP and I serve as music director and organist at two local parishes: St. Joseph and Our Lady of Lourdes in Vancouver, Washington. With so many moving parts, and plenty of Masses throughout the week, my accompaniment books are used every day of the year – and it shows. I look forward to revised missal accompaniment books being released so I can finally have a fresh, clean set of music to pull from again. I know a lot of Catholic music directors and musicians feel the same way. Revised accompaniment books are only released every four years. Here are a few reasons I recommend getting the 2025 set as soon as possible.
Wear and tear
With so much use, accompaniment book pages inevitably get ragged and even torn. Start fresh with a new set when you can!
Alphabetical order of current songs
Unlike supplements, revised accompaniments also reset the alphabetical order of the songs to reflect those currently featured in your missal. Talk about making things simple for us!
Get a home copy
If you organize choirs or groups, having a second copy of accompaniment books at home is a must. This saves time and hassle since you can have all your music pulled and ready to go.
Refresh your master copy
I always keep copies of our accompaniment books at church to serve as “master copies.” These are accessible to anyone, including guest musicians that cover for me when I’m not there. After four years, some pages always seem to disappear from our “master copies.” Yet another reason it is essential to get those brand spankin’ new sets of accompaniments!
Don’t forget Solo Instrument accompaniments
OCP’s Solo Instrument book is a must-have for all music ministries – even if you belong to a parish that only has a trumpet on Easter morning. These arrangements make it easy for your ensemble players or guest musicians of any skill level. Our professional engraving and editorial teams have chosen the very best fonts to format scores that are pleasing to eye and easy to navigate.
This is OCP’s revision year for accompaniments to Breaking Bread, Today’s Missal and Today’s Missal Music Issue. If you haven’t already purchased the new accompaniments for the 2025 liturgical year, please call us at 1-800-LITURGY (548-8749) to speak to your parish services representative.