Category: Adam Bartlett

Posted on by Adam Bartlett

Simple Propers for the Rest of the Christmas Season

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 It’s too bad that this liturgy is almost always superseded by the Epiphany!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.

Posted on by Adam Bartlett

150 Indispensable Catholic Hymns?

A Chant Café poll:

Imagine that you are in a parish that is slowly and gradually transitioning from “4-hymn sandwich” liturgy to singing the proper antiphons of the Mass. You are doing catechesis on the nature of the proper antiphons as being integral to the liturgy, and are helping your parishioners understand that singing hymns in place of these proper texts is ultimately a substitution for something that is a substantial part of the liturgy. You realize that hymns will not likely disappear from your parish’s liturgical celebrations any time soon and you need a small collection of congregational hymns that can serve you through this process of transition, and can serve as supplemental congregational material for liturgical and devotional use even after the propers have been restored to their rightful place.

Which 150 hymns do you want to have in the pews of your parish? Based upon consistency with Catholic doctrine and Church teaching, sound tradition, beauty, dignity, effectiveness, and so on and so forth, which hymns should every Catholic be familiar with and be comfortable singing?

Here is my current working list at my parish. What is missing? What should be removed? Why? Please share your thoughts in the comment box!

(all chant hymns listed by their Latin title presume a singing translation in English in addition to the Latin text)

  • A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing
  • Adoro Te Devote
  • All Creatures of Our God and King
  • All Glory, Laud and Honor
  • All People Who on Earth Do Dwell
  • All Praise to Thee, My God This Night
  • Alleluia, Alleluia
  • Alleluia, Sing to Jesus
  • Alma Redemptoris Mater
  • Angels From the Realms of Glory
  • Angels We Have Heard on High
  • As With Gladness Men of Old
  • At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing
  • Attende Domine
  • Ave Maris Stella
  • Ave Regina Caelorum
  • Ave Verum Corpus
  • Away in a Manger
  • Beautiful Savior
  • Christ the Lord is Risen Today
  • Come, Holy Ghost
  • Come, Thou Almighty King
  • Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
  • Creator of the Stars of Night
  • Crown Him With Many Crowns
  • Crux Fidelis
  • Faith of Our Fathers
  • For All the Saints
  • For the Beauty of the Earth
  • Forty Days and Forty Nights
  • Go Make of All Disciples
  • God, We Praise You
  • Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise
  • Hail to the Lord’s Annointed
  • Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
  • Holy, Holy, Holy
  • I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
  • I Know That My Redeemer Lives
  • I Sing the Mighty Power of God
  • Immaculate Mary
  • Jesu Dulcis Memoria
  • Jesus Christ is Risen Today
  • Joy to the World
  • Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
  • Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
  • Lift High the Cross
  • Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
  • Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
  • Lord of All Hopefulness
  • Lord, Who at Thy First Eucharist
  • Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days
  • Lord, You Give the Great Commission
  • Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
  • Merciful Savior
  • Now Thank We All Our God
  • O Breathe on Me, O Breath of God
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful/Adeste Fideles
  • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
  • O God, Beyond All Praising
  • O Holy Spirit, by Whose Breath
  • O Sacred Head, Surrounded
  • O Salutaris Hostia (chant)
  • O Salutaris Hostia (Werner)
  • O Sanctissima
  • Of the Father’s Love Begotten
  • On Jordan’s Bank
  • Once in Royal David’s City
  • Pange Lingua
  • Panis Angelicus (chant)
  • Panis Angelicus (Lambilotte)
  • Parce Domine
  • Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
  • Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
  • Regina Caeli
  • Salve Regina
  • Silent Night
  • Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly
  • Sing With All the Saints in Glory
  • Songs of Thankfulness and Praise
  • Soul of My Savior
  • Stabat Mater
  • Tantum Ergo (chant)
  • Tantum Ergo (St. Thomas)
  • The Church’s One Foundation
  • The First Nowell
  • The Glory of these Forty Days (Old Hundreth)
  • The King of Love My Shepherd Is
  • The Strife is O’er
  • There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
  • To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King
  • Ubi Caritas (chant)
  • Veni Creator Spiritus
  • We Three Kings of Orent Are
  • What Child is This
Posted on by Adam Bartlett

Simple Propers for Christmas

Here are Simple English Propers for the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord:

Thank you to everyone who has waited so patiently for these scores. I can assure you that we are working as hard as we can on these. Over the Christmas holiday we hope to pull ahead substantially so that we can end the weekly fire drills that we have been inflicting on anyone who has hoped to be able to prepare these proper settings with their choirs in advance. Thank you all for your kindness and patience.

Blessings to you all as we eagerly await the coming of our newborn King!

View the Simple Propers Master Index

Posted on by Adam Bartlett

Digitally Engraved Gregorian Chant Editions: Propers for the Third Sunday of Advent

Some of you may already be familiar with Gregorio, a newly developed platform for the typesetting of Gregorian chant. Gregorio is a free and open source software that was created with the hope that everyone everywhere would have access to free and beautiful editions of Gregorian chant for use in the liturgy. Many projects have taken up Gregorio as the means of engraving Gregorian chant scores. Our own Simple English Propers project uses it, as does Steven van Roode, as do many others around the world in their work of chant engraving.

Although Gregorio is an open and free software, you can still make donations to the project here.

Andrew Hinkley is something of an anomaly in the world of chant engraving. Andrew has a particular passion for making chant editions readily available, scalable, and easily adaptable, and so far has typeset the majority of the Graduale Romanum chants in the Gregorio platform which he has been sharing with the world, in a beta phase, at the Caecilia Project.

Here is a rendering of Andrew’s work with the Graduale Romanum propers for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.

Keep in mind that this is simply one rendering of the Gregorio code (GABC) which can be used to create Gregorian chant scores. This code, which Andrew intends also to share freely with all, can be encoded in a variety of ways, easily changing fonts, page size, staff size, margins, colors, spacing, and on and on. That Andrew is producing this raw data is an immeasurable gift to us and to the world of sacred music. He is to be highly commended for his most generous gift to the Church.

What is truly wonderful about Andrew’s project is that it is truly “open source”, meaning that Gregorian chants have truly been boiled down into source code that can be used in unimaginable ways.

Thank you Andrew for your tireless work for the good of the liturgy.

Posted on by Adam Bartlett

Simple Propers for the Advent Season

The Simple English Propers for the Advent Season are now complete:

As a reminder, the complete Simple English Propers project is now being indexed on the Church Music Association of America website. Bookmark this page and refer to it often as updates are made.

I have printed off copies of the Advent Season materials for my choirs in a simple 8.5 x 11 booklet, folded and stapled, with a few simple clicks using our parishes standard office grade printer/copier. I didn’t fit to page or anything. The book size will be 6 x 9, but the contents still fit quite nicely on the 5.5 x 8.5 page which is the result when a booklet is made out of 8.5 x 11 size paper, though the bottom margin is a bit tight.

Here is a shot of the inside contents:


I don’t know if this capability is extraordinary to you, but I find it to be quite remarkable. That we can print this sort of resource on demand on standard office copiers and give it to our choirs to use in liturgy immediately is rather astounding, I think. What a world we live in today. How different is it from the days when we had to rely on commercial publishers to sell us paper?

Of course when this book is completed it will be released into the commons and the digital PDF files will be shared with the world for free forever on the internet. You will be able to make custom resources such as these ad infinitum for your music program. Thanks be to God for all that we can do with modern technology!

Can I tell you what I’m really excited about though…