Category: Simple Propers

Download Simple Propers for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

It has been my goal to be far ahead of the week-to-week by this point in the Simple Propers Project. There have been a few complications in the collaborative effort that is taking place which continues to hold back the progress, and for this I apologize. Over the next two weeks though you can expect to have the next stretch of Ordinary Time completed and posted, and we will begin working into Lent and Easter.

Bear in mind, though, that these still are considered rough drafts. I have made the decision now to proceed firmly producing these drafts which will be thoroughly reviewed after the entire year is complete. So you may sing a somewhat different version next year, when you will undoubtedly have the finished book in your hands. But in the mean time you can be assured that you can adequately prepare with the resources you need in the real-time situation that we’re battling against.

Please keep the project in your prayers. It really is a massive undertaking and all who are involved are learning a great deal in the process.

Download Simple English Propers for the rest of the Christmas Season here:

• Mary, Mother of God
• Second Sunday After Christmas
• Epiphany
• Baptism of the Lord

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 It’s too bad that this liturgy is almost always superseded by the Epiphany!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

Download Simple Propers for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph and Mary

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

• Chrismas – Vigil Mass
• Christmas – Midnight Mass
• Christmas – Mass at Dawn
• Christmas – Mass of the Day

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

Download them here

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

• Simple Propers for the 3rd Sunday of Advent
• Simple Propers for the 4rd Sunday of Advent
• Complete Simple Propers for the Advent Season

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…

Download them here

I am very grateful for the patience of those who have been waiting for Simple Propers for the Advent Season. I feel very badly about cutting it so close with this week’s offering. My apologies. Our goal (and I am working with two other contributors on the final product) is to have the rest of the Advent Season done and available by the end of this week, and to have much of the Christmas Season done by the end of next week. I realize that this is still not ideal, but I am very appreciative to all who have taken the leap to begin using these settings in liturgy. Your feedback has been invaluable, and the “beta” phase of this project has truly helped form and polish this collection so that it will best meet the needs of musicians out in the real world of parish liturgy.

A few notes this week:

-The full “Glory Be” has been removed from the end of the Introit. Now we only have the first words “Glory be to the Father…”. While this doxology is known pretty well by most Catholics it still may not be easily sung from memory by all. We will have the full “Glory Be” notated in square notes in every psalm tone in the back of the book for people to reference when they need to, much like our current Graduale. You can find the “Glory Be” sheet here for your future use.

-The “Glory Be” has also been suggested for use at the end of the Communion chant, according to the rubrics of the Ordo Cantus Missae, 1988.

-We are now indexing the Simple Propers as they are being produced for the final edition on the CMAA website, musicasacra.com. You can always go to this page for the newest updates and for the most recent versions of Simple Propers editions. I hope that we will see this page begin to rapidly fill up in the coming weeks and months!

Many blessings to you all in this Advent Season!

UPDATE: Here are the Simple Meinrad Tone Antiphon Settings