Can the People Sing the Propers?

Over at Corpus Christi Watershed, Richard Clark shares a reflection on a few recent Archdiocesan liturgies in Boston, one of which included singing the Propers of the Mass.

He wrote:

We sang the Introit, Offertory and Communion propers including settings by Adam Bartlett from the Lumen Christi Missal. These were included in the worship aids, so after a verse or two, the congregation began to sing, with more and more voices being added as the verses progressed. This was more than encouraging! In fact it was quite joyful to hear the scriptures being sung in this context.

(Emphasis as found in the original article)

I’m thrilled when I hear reports like this. Many have said that the Proper of the Mass cannot be sung by the people in the pews, or even perhaps that it shouldn’t be. My personal belief is that this is not an either/or, but a both/and situation. The schola or choir can fully exercise its role while still giving the liturgical assembly a vocal role in the singing of the proper with the right resources and the right approach to the problem.

The Lumen Christi Missal – the first installment of the Lumen Christi Series – was a solution to this problem in the case above, and many people in parishes across the nation are discovering this solution day by day.

The “Simple Gradual” of the Lumen Christi Missal can be sung by parish congregations. The settings are not merely psalm tone based. They are not “just add water”, instant gratification chants, but have enough substance to endure over time. A cantor needs to model then well, and there needs to be enough repetition for the people to learn them properly, but in a short amount of time they can be sung by everyone, young and old. Even on first hearing the people will begin to respond. Such was the case in Boston. This has been my experience, and the experience of so many others on the ground week after week.

The Lumen Christi Missal can be ordered here.

Download proper chant settings from the Lumen Christi Series for the Assumption and for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time here.

More details will come soon on the forthcoming publications within the Lumen Christi Series. Sign up for the Illuminare Publications email list to receive updates on these new and exciting resources.

11 Replies to “Can the People Sing the Propers?”

  1. Any chance we could get recordings of these up? I am not good at sightsinging and don't have a keyboard available, so it usually helps when recordings are up. Even just a midi file.

    Thanks.

  2. One of my favorite parts of the Lumen Christi Missal is the setting of Taste and see the goodness of the Lord to all eight modes! Its thrilling to have the schola sing the proper Communio with the congregation then joining in on a wonderful refrain to the same mode that can be learned easily and immediately! A wonderful resource.

  3. In my experience so far, what makes an antiphon congregation friendly or not is its length, not just its mere melodic simplicity. There are some in SEP that I have heard people in the pews sing quite nicely, and these are the shorter texts – 2, 3, 4 lines at most. It's these 5, 6, 7 line texts that become problematic. I don't think that they will be sung by people in the pews even if they are recto tono (no offense Matthew Meloche!).

    For example:

    "The sparrow even finds a home, and the turtle dove a nest in which to place her young. Near your altars, O Lord God of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they who dwell in your house, forever singing your praise."

    This antiphon goes on forever. It's a mouthful. Beautiful and wonderful antiphon text, but it is not going to be sung by people in the pews unless you sing it every week for a year, I would suspect.

    In this case, the Lumen Christi Missal "Simple Gradual" offers a simple, syllabic setting of the last verset:

    "Blessed are they who dwell in your house, forever singing your praise."

    The intention is not that the full proper should not be sung. The intention is that the schola or cantor sing the full antiphon first, if possible, with the shorter, excerpted antiphon to follow which can then be taken up by all with verses from the Psalm sung in between repetitions. It works beautifully. The full antiphon text is found in the main body of the LCM in Latin and English both so the schola is able to sing the fully Gregorian antiphon, or something like SEP, or the full antiphon that will be found in the forthcoming Lumen Christi Gradual. Some of these full settings are now beginning to be posted at illuminarepublications.com.

  4. With due respect, and not to beat a dead horse: As much as I applaud the singing of new chant-like settings of the Proper texts from the new English Missal, etc., I do wish we could find some more precise terminology to describe what is actually being sung… which, in my humble opinion, unless they bear a striking resemblance to the chants of the Graduale Romanum, both in language and melody, are not the "Propers" per se. Such a feat of congregational singing would be worth celebrating, indeed. I say this, having made my own English settings, none of which could ever be confused with, equated with, or deemed acceptable final replacements for the Propers of the Roman Rite. Our modern settings attempt, ultimately, to bridge the great liturgical divide, do they not? But to me, it seems, they become an end in themselves when they are called "the Proper of the Mass".
    –R.Rice, Curmudgeon

  5. I can certainly agree with this distinction to a certain extent, Richard, and I'm grateful for your thoughts. I personally don't mind the imprecision of terminology here since singing the antiphon texts of the Mass in any form is light years away from the common practice in the majority of parishes across the country.

  6. Richard, I'm thinking about this a bit more, and I think that to limit "the Proper of the Mass" to simply the Gregorian proper seems to be incompatible with Catholic tradition.

    For example, would you say that when singing the Palestrina Offertoria or Byrd Gradualia that you are not singing the Proper of the Mass? Or any of the other host of compositions which set the text of the proper?

    The Mass Proper, I believe, is not necessarily and absolutely wedded to the Gregorian compositions, but is reflected first and foremost as a textual tradition which in the Church has been sung in a number of ways. The pre-eminence of the Gregorian tradition cannot be overstated, but I really don't think that we can limit the Proper of the Mass to the Gregorian tradition alone.

  7. One should probably distinguish between Propers in their liturgical/textual sense, and Propers as a distinct musical genre. In the case of polyphonic Gradualia, I would refer to them as settings of the Propers by the individual composers. Clearly, there have been many and varied such settings of these liturgical texts throughout the centuries, which have stood in good stead in the place of the chants of the Graduale. But, unless I'm seriously mistaken, these have always been considered auxiliary amplifications of the official chants of the Church. It is their official-ness that wins these chants the distinction of being called the Propers (as opposed to, say, something like "the more proper Propers").

  8. (cont.) I don't want to take away anything from anybody's efforts toward providing other settings of the Proper texts, whether Byrd's or yours or mine, for that matter. But in the context of this site and others that make something of the singing of the official chants of the Church, I would wish to see Propers, as a musical genre, reserved for the chants of the Graduale Romanum. Else, when we come to that blessed day of perhaps reintroducing these official chants to modern worship, we aren't met by incredulous stares, and the claim, "But we ARE singing the Propers."

  9. I certainly see your point, Richard, and it is well taken. The value of the Gregorian Propers can never understated, and we need to keep them in their proper place as the ultimate goal and archetype, if you will, of the Mass Proper. At the same time, I don't think that we have to be afraid of using the term "Proper" as a text genre within the liturgy, as we do with Ordinary, Ordo, etc. Imprecise terminology, I know, but such seems often to be the case with the liturgy.

  10. Richard: At St. John's in Bloomington, IN we've used your settings of the Introit in the St. Michael hymnal for two years now. The congregation loves them (and they will even sing the verses, if I substitute a St. Meinrad Psalm tone). –Charles

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