Download Simple English Propers for the rest of the Christmas Season here:
As a side note, I think that the Introit for the Second Sunday after Christmas is one of my favorites in the entire Simple Propers collection. This text is just one of the most stunning and evocative texts in the the entire Proper of Mass in my opinion (Dum medium silentium). The imagery in this foretelling account of the incarnation is so compelling and vivid. It’s too bad that this liturgy is almost always superseded by the Epiphany!
Lastly, I would like to share a very encouraging testimony from “WJA” of the CMAA web forum on his use of the Simple Propers in the realities of parish life. If you are like me, these situations happen all too often. I am glad to know that the Simple Propers are helping us get through realities like this one:
So, it’s 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, Holy Family, and the cell phone rings. Father says the organist can’t make it to the 8:30 a.m. Mass and can I and any of my schola handle the music.
“But of course! Think nothing of it. See you in a bit, Father.”
Then I hasten to my computer, point my browser to chantcafe.com, scroll down to the post where Adam Bartlett has uploaded the simple English propers for Holy Family, download the pdf, and print three copies. Then it’s out the door at 8:10, in the church doors at 8:20 and up to the choir loft.
At 8:25 two schola members run up stairs; my wife snagged them in the narthex and told them to ascend to the choir loft, post haste.
We learn the introit at 8:27, the offertory at 8:29, and the communion — very quietly — during the homily. Ordinary is Missa jubilate Deo, which everyone knows, and we recycle Puer Natus in Bethlehem, which we’d sung on Christmas Eve, for an extra communion.
We sang them well, not as well as we could have had we had a full practice and some time to breathe, but well. It was as lovely and liturgical a Holy Family as one could have asked, all thanks to the Simple English Propers project.
These are so beautiful. I'm really at the point of feeling like this stands a real chance of becoming the core music of the ordinary form in the English speaking world. I just can't wait to hold the book (and thank you again to all those who gave money to make this happen.).
Just today I received contact from a big parish that wants to do an entire workshop just on the Simple Propers.
From one of the Schola members fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sing the Simple Propers each week – I agree, Jeffrey, that these simple propers so well executed in English by Adam Bartlett, could very well become the "standard" on most parishes on the US. With some practice and aural familiarity with the notation, the chants work their way into your ear and they begin to flow. Thank you, Adam, for your inspired work on this project.
I also can't wait to get a hold of this. I think that this will transform parishes everywhere