But to the topic at hand:
I have to say, I do in fact think implementation of this book in most parishes is an attainable goal, and I do think people can learn chant notation. I have personally witnessed high schoolers (with no prior notion of chant at all) taught to sing simple chants competently from the neumes in the span of an hour. No lie. I’m sure implementation of this book will take time, of course, but I picture something like this:
Stage 1: Musical director acquires a copy of SEP, speaks to the priest about beginning to save up money to buy copies for the whole congregation. Musical director’s best cantors learn the basics of the notations and begin singing just the Communion chant at their Masses. The congregation begins to get used to the sound of chant and the idea of a different but predetermined proper at every Mass (put a brief note in the bulletin about it).
Stage 2 (a few months later): Parish buys a few more copies. Musical director introduces the book to the rest of the cantors and the volunteer choir, who are familiar with the sound by now. The choir sings one of the chants for each of its Masses. Any cantors who can now handle it begin singing a proper per Mass. Ramp up number of chants learned as the choir becomes more familiar with the music and as time commitment permits.
Stage 3 (a year later): Choir Masses regularly have 2 of the proper chants now; the congregation is very used to the sound. Parish buys enough copies of the book to seed it with the congregation (doesn’t have to be enough for everyone to have one; that could take years). Put a very succinct note in the bulletin about how to read the notation (works a lot like regular notation, neumes are notes, when there are two squares right on top of one another sing the bottom one first. Boom, done.).
Stage 4 (another year later): The choir can now handle singing all the propers sometimes. There are more copies of SEP in the pews. A year of hearing the propers while matching them to the notation (and perhaps a few more short, simple, succinct notes in the bulletin about various aspects of the notation) have allowed many members of the congregation to follow along competently and sing.
Etc. etc.
Slow, but great.
