Simple Propers: Booklet for the “Glory Be”

Here is a booklet that contains the “Glory be to the Father…” doxology in all eight modes for use with the Introit and Communion chants of the Simple English Propers Project.

We have decided to eliminate the reprinting of the Glory be text at the end of each Introit and instead will simply place the words “Glory be to the Father…” and the singer will be referred to the Glory be tones which will be found in the back of the book. This will save space and might also help demonstrate how the tones are to be sung, being that they are presented in full notation, much like the Gloria Patri tones in the back of our Graduale Romanum.

Please keep this on hand if you will be singing the Simple Propers from now on. Of course most will end up singing these from memory, but the sheet is here for your reference.

Note: Look for Simple Propers for the Second Sunday of Advent today, the rest of the Advent Season by the end of the week, and most of the Christmas Season by the end of next week.

Simple Propers for the First Sunday of Advent

I would like to express a special word of gratitude to all of you who have supported the Simple English Propers Project at the Chant Café from the bottom of my heart. It is truly a miracle how this project has come together and I think that we have all seen the transformative power of Divine Charity when we choose to participate with it. The sacred music community was able to gather for the Simple Propers project $5000 in exactly two weeks which will enable the project to be properly done in a timely and productive fashion. I am personally grateful to each benefactor who has seen value in this project and who has communicated that value through a financial contribution. When the project is complete it will be shared with everyone forever. Your gift will “keep on giving”. Thank you for your generosity.

As a result of the completed patronage campaign, the Simple English Propers Project has been able to organize itself for the production of the competed book, and just in time–We’re now able to offer a set of propers for the beginning of the new Church Year, the First Sunday of Advent, in a polished design that will form the beginning of the completed collection.

Download Simple Propers for the First Sunday of Advent Here

Please keep in mind that the “beta” phase for this collection is not quite over yet. Time is still needed for the melodic formulas to stabilize, and for the Modified Douay Psalms to stabilize as well. I am working with a small team on these efforts and we are making great progress. I suspect in a month or so we will be well on our way toward finishing the entire book.

Note in this week’s offering that we have decided to part ways with the “Simple Setting”. I would like to hear in the comment box if this will be missed. The general consensus has said that it will not. If there are some among you who have relied upon having these simple settings I will do my best to get you the resources you need. The decision was made essentially because of the size of the book would be over 500 pages with two antiphons for each proper, and is under 300 with only one.

Please offer any feedback that you might have as we are rolling very quickly into locking in on production and completion of this collection.

UPDATE: Here are additional “Simple Setting” antiphons for those who need them

Simple English Propers Project Campaign Complete!

This evening the 64th benefactor for the Simple English Propers project tipped the campaign, this on the eve of the 14th day since it first began. It has only taken two weeks to reach the project goal!

This is astounding and inspiring in every way. I am just shocked by the response to this project, and how quickly people of faith emerged to embrace a platform of decentralized patronage to commission a creative work which will be given forever as a gift to the Church.

Many must be scratching their heads wondering how this possibly happened. Many certainly have their curiosities piqued. We at the Chant Café are overjoyed, and I as the editor of this creative work am deeply humbled and most profoundly grateful to all of you who saw value in this project and took a leap of faith in a new model of sacred music commissioning. From the bottom of my heart: thank you!

I can assure you that much more reflection will follow. For now we just rest in joy and gratefulness to the Lord for all of the gifts that he has given us, and in thanksgiving for the members of the Body of Christ who cooperated to allow a movement to emerge which will be greater than the sum of its parts. May the Lord who began this good work bring it to completion!

Deo Gratias!

Digital Media and the Internet as a “sacrament” of Divine Charity: The Loaves and the Fishes

In Jeffrey’s post from yesterday, A Culture of Giving and Sharing, he has exposed what is at the heart of the Simple English Propers project. If you haven’t already, please read this article first.

After reading through his beautifully eloquent and inspired post several times I realized that what Jeffrey describes here is the miracle of the loaves and the fishes.

Consider the story from the gospel: At the Lord’s request the twelve disciples gave up their lunch, five loaves and two fishes, because they saw that the five thousand who were gathered were hungry. They knew absolutely well that the five loaves of bread and two fishes would hardly even make a discernible dent in the problem of feeding the crowd. If they had used their faculties of reason alone they would have surely rebuked Jesus and kept their lunch for themselves (I’m sure they were hungry too!)–they would have hoarded their “property” that he had surely worked hard for.

But the twelve stepped out in faith and trusted in the Lord and gave their measly lunch away instead, freely as a gift, and it was through Christ who mediated with a miracle, that the five thousand were fed, and there was more left over at the end than they had in the first place. The leftovers alone filled twelve wicker baskets and would have been enough food for the disciples to take home and feed on for weeks.

The miracle of the loaves and the fishes is the phenomenon that we are dealing with in digital media that is shared on the internet. In fact, digital media shared online, perhaps, could be seen as a sacrament (small “s”) of Divine Charity, according to the classic definition of a sacrament: “a visible sign of an invisible reality”.

In the story of the loaves and the fishes a small gift was given freely, and Divine Charity–Christ himself, who is Love–infinitely multiplied the good. Think about what the internet does with digital media: When one digital copy of a work is posted online it becomes, de facto, infinitely multiplied. This is its nature. It cannot be contained (as we are seeing now in the commercial markets). It cannot be quantified. It cannot be limited in its reach. It cannot be stopped from spreading. It cannot be effectively bought or sold, (or at least without artificial mechanisms in place that try to accomplish this).

Now think about the nature of Love: It cannot be contained. It cannot be quantified. It cannot be limited. It is infinitely reproducible. It cannot be stopped from spreading. It cannot be effectively bought or sold.

But of course digital media and the internet are not God. They are not Divine Charity. They merely possess characteristics that signify charity and love, but they do not intrinsically contain them. What digital media and the internet do, I would like to propose, is greater enable us to participate (in a specific way) in the free exchange of love that is to be found first in the inner life of the Trinity.

Let us consider for a moment the inner life of the Trinity.

As we know and believe as Catholics, the Trinity is God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We understand that the action of the Trinity, of God, is an exchange of love. This love is freely given by the Father to the Son, and in return from the Son to the Father. This sharing of love between the Father and the Son we call the Holy Spirit. The inner life of the Trinity is a free and mutual exchange of love.

Now let us think about how we participate in this exchange of Divine Love. Indeed, it is the goal of our existence–to participate in the love of God for eternity. But how do we participate in this exchange of love while we are here on earth, in the historical period of “Image” as we await its fulfillment in the coming age of “Reality”? It is the liturgy.

It is in the liturgy where we participate, par excellance, in the Divine exchange of Love between the Father and the Son; where we are swept up into the inner life of the Trinity in the Holy Spirit. The entire action of the liturgy, which is the action of Christ, is modeled on this exchange of love. The entire liturgy is structured in an antiphonal manner. The music of the liturgy itself is based upon this antiphonality.

In the action of the liturgy Christ calls us to repentance and we respond by publicly confessing our sins, to which Christ responds by offering us forgiveness, to which we respond with a hymn of praise. Then we hear the Word of God speaking to us, to which we respond with the Responsorial Psalm, and then the Christ speaks to us in the Gospel and in the homily of the priest in persona Christi, to which we respond with our prayers and with an offering of ourselves, of our money, of our very being which we place before the altar. And then, in the most excellent way, Christ accepts the gifts that we brought forth–our very lives, and the gifts of bread and wine–and offers his very own body and blood as a gift to the Father, in order to give God perfect praise and in which we are swept up, in which we actively participate in the reality of heaven. And after God is given perfect praise in the sacrifice of the altar, God gives back yet again and we receive his body and blood in the Eucharist which strengthens us to do our work on earth.

It is in the Mass where we fully participate in the inner life of the Trinity! And after worshiping and loving God, and after receiving his love, and giving it back again, and receiving it again, all that we are able to do as we are sent forth in peace is to share what we have received, the very love of God, freely with the world.

As Catholics we know that everything that we have is not really ours; all that we have possession of is a gift from God. Our talents, our time, our money, our intellect, our capacity to create, our participation in the creative process, the creative works that we conceive and produce, everything that we are and have, indeed our very lives–none of this is our “property”; it is all a gift from God.

What makes us human is our ability to give of the gifts that we’ve been given. What gives our lives ultimate fulfillment is to share in the Love of God eternally.

I would like to propose, however, that when we hoard the gifts that God has given us, when we restrict them, when we claim “ownership” of them, when we claim “rights” to something that is not truly ours, but is God’s, we restrict the work of the Holy Spirit–we clog the exchange of love that God desires to have with humanity. We cease to participate in an activity that makes us more fully human, and more fully alive.

Copyright law may have been necessary to a degree in an information economy that relied on printed paper, and on the exchange of scarce goods, but this artificial restriction required that individuals sacrifice a part of their freedom as humans–their freedom to freely share and to freely receive the gifts from each other that they have received from God.

But this medium of the old information economy has been supplanted by a new information economy that, perhaps miraculously, reflects sacramentally the free exchange of love that is found in the inner life of the Trinity: digital media and the internet.

We have an opportunity now, at this point in history, to remove the restrictions that have been artificially placed upon the creative works of society in varying degrees only since the advent of the printing press. We have the opportunity now to utilize the tools of digital media and the internet to advance and promote a culture of giving and sharing that finds its origin in the gift of God to humanity and that is animated by the exchange of love that is found in the inner life of the Trinity. We have now the opportunity to allow for our creative works to be shared as they were intended to be shared: out of love, out of gratitude, for the good of humanity.

But guess what? (And here’s the real catch) When these gifts are given freely to humanity, should we expect those who are the receiving end to hoard these gifts for their personal gain? Perhaps we could, since this is a consequence of our fallenness, and is much the way that the world is used to operating. But, perhaps we could expect something different if the recipients understand the nature of gift. If they understand that everything they have is a gift, and the goal of their life is to participate in the free exchange of love between the Father and the Son, then their only response is to give back in gratitude for the gifts that they have been given.

What does this all mean? And why is this written on a blog that is about sacred music?

Well, the Chant Café and the Church Music Association of America are responding to this opportunity that has been presented to the world. We have undertaken the Simple English Propers project as a test case to show that creative work can be freely shared with the world, as it was intended to be, and that the creator(s) of the work will receive from those on the receiving end a reciprocal generosity, that finds its origin and model in the Trinity and in the Eucharistic liturgy.

So the Simple Propers Project has been conceived as a free gift to the Church and to the world. It is conceived as a project of high craftsmanship and artistry that addresses a very real and urgent need in the Church.

We have estimated a monetary value for the creation and production of the work that is on par with, if not even surpassing, the amount of money that a composer and editor of liturgical music might hope to receive as the result of a similar work that is published in the conventional way.

We have asked those who see value in this work to make a financial contribution to the composer/editor of the work, not as a form of compensation, or of paying a due, but as a gift that reciprocates the gift that they have received, and that communicates their gratitude for and the value of the work that was produced.

This is the model that we have chosen, and I am the composer/editor of the project. At the time of this writing the Simple English Propers campaign is 65% complete after 11 days. This is breathtakingly remarkable and I have the deepest gratitude to the 52 benefactors who have made a contribution, whether larger or small, to this effort. It seems that we will reach the goal in a matter of days, and I will feel deeply satisfied that the enormous amounts of time and effort that I am putting into the creation of this work are being appreciated and valued through the gifts given in response to it by the community.

I need to say that as the recipient of the funds that are being raised for this project, I have the intention of reciprocating further a portion of the funds to the many other contributors to the project, and to those to who have brought invaluable contributions to it in one way or another. This most certainly will include the CMAA, St. Meinrad Archabbey, the St. Louis Institute of Sacred Music, the Gregorio developers, and, in some way, the many colleagues who have contributed in some specific way to this project. I will also set aside a portion of the funds in order to pay forward toward the next creative venture that will utilize this model.

All in all, the Simple Propers Project would not be possible with two paradigm shifting modern realities: Digital media and the internet. Like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes they allow for a greater participation in the exchange of Divine Love which finds its origin in the inner life of the Trinity. May we all actively participate in this exchange of love, first, in the liturgy, where we participate in it in the most excellent way possible on this earth. And may we all continue to reciprocate that gift of love which we first receive in Christ by giving glory to God with our lives and by sharing and spreading it to all the ends of the earth.

A Culture of Giving and Sharing

Badges

I see that Adam has posted two more sets of Simple Propers and hundreds of people who currently benefit from these postings are right now breathing a sigh of relief. I also note that he did not post the badge like you see to the right here, and that’s fine. He is on the giving side of this great endeavor and feels shy (most likely) about making a direct appeal for financial support.

I have no such hesitancy, and I especially want to thank everyone who has donated. Some of these people certainly cannot afford to do so on the level that they did, and such efforts are genuinely moving and inspiring. What would also be great would be to see more $10, $5, and $1 donations – because they help (they do!) and also because they express solidarity and good will support, which Adam and the project very much need.

But actually there is much more at issue here even beyond the Simple Propers Project itself. It concerns the culture of music and its distribution in the Catholic world. When we think back to the early Church, we note that scripture reports that the first action of the early Christians was to share what they owned privately with others, to put their possessions and their money in a common pool. No, they were not communists and this was not an early experiment in liberation theology. But it does establish an ethos of giving and sharing toward the common good that defined Christianity from the earliest times to the present.

It is particularly true with regard to the texts and music of the faith. Unlike food and housing, the sharing of texts and music does not depreciate the existing stock of the good. One person can write a song and the entire world can sing it. One person can know a verse and give it to the entire world with no loss of the original copy. There is something of a miracle associated with this reality, and this is precisely what gave rise to the evangelical spirit in Christian culture. We can give and give, share and share, without limit. This impulse became the foundation of an ethos in the Catholic world. We do not hesitate to offer help to others and we do not feel guilt when we draw from the help others give us.

Sharing leads to an ever greater flowering of all things shared, as we learn from each other and improve the results in an ever more progressive way. This is how the music of the Church was built and grew from the earliest days, until the entire Church year was filled with chants suitable to every conceivable reading and liturgical action. The culture of giving and sharing made this happen. It made possible the development of organum and polyphony and the whole of the Western musical tradition.

An ethos of grasping and privatizing of art were unknown during this time. The goal of the composer was to release the music as far and as widely as possible. The composer hoped to have the music performed, hoped to have it imitated and elaborated upon, hoped to see others influenced and inspired by it. All music was a gift to the world and to the faith. This was the very essence of what it meant to be a Christian artist. You put your “possessions” at the feet of the Apostles and ask that they be used for the good of all.

But how can these people live if they are forever giving away? This is the question that is always asked about the institution of Christian charity. There is always and everywhere a material case to make against charity. Why rescue abandoned children when there are other things calling on our time? Why help the guy who is beaten and bleeding on the side of the road when there are places that we need to be? There is a sense in which charity itself seems irrational, and that is why it didn’t exist in any institutionalized form in the ancient world apart from particular tribes and groups. The idea of universal love and universal charity is a Christian contribution. We have the faith to believe that when we give, we end up gaining more than we ever had in the first place.

The 20th century invention of what is called “copyright” took direct aim at this institution in a form that turned the Christian ethos on its head (I’m bypassing the Elizabethan history here because it was a very different institution). The newly internationalized law said: the state will guarantee that your art remains your art only and is accessed by others only on terms that financially benefit you personally. To be sure, this goes against the very nature of music and text, which are necessarily universal upon their public appearance. To make copyright stick required the state and its laws, which meant that Christian artists were encouraged to draw closer to the civic culture and its ruling magistrates.

Whatever else this has done, it dramatically upended 19 centuries of artistic practice in the Christian world. It has fostered, on one side, a culture of grasping, hoarding, and myopia among artists, and, on the other side, led those who benefit from the work of artists to not understand their obligations to give more than they get in return from the work of the artists themselves. The attitude of artists becomes “give me what I am due” and the attitude among would-be benefactors becomes “I gave at the office.” And now that digital downloads make it possible to download thousands upon thousands of pages of music for free (and this is all to the good!), that mutual element of gratitude and its expression must also be cultivated among those who benefit.

So we can see here that the Simple Propers Project is about more than just providing quality chant settings for the ordinary form. It is an experiment in bringing the Christian ethos of giving and sharing back to Christian art itself. Adam is putting all of his music into the commons, just as the early Christian put their possessions at the feet of the Apostles. And as members of the community that benefits, what can we do? We can follow the example of giving, knowing with faith that we will gain more in the long run than we ever had or ever gave.

It is up to all of us to contribute and show how this seemingly irrational system of giving and sharing works to the benefit of all.