Simple English Propers are Finally Released!

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TheMc

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And the day many of you have been waiting for…

The Simple English Propers are officially released!!

This is an amazing gift to the church, and an awesome resource to all those who wish to bring their music programs back around to what the church wants.

I just received my copy, and it is very nice, and in the beginning of the book, it gives a simple guide to reading and singing chant!!

Soooo… all you cantors, choir directors, and everyone in between, let’s empty their inventory, and start singing the music of the church, singing the Mass.

One of the coolest things about this is that the melodies are in the same mode (kind of like a key) as the original proper, thereby preserving the same “sound” and “feel” as the original. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Gradual: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)
SEP: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)

Hear that? You can just feel that they are one in the same.

Let’s not sing at Mass, let’s sing the Mass!!!

Buy the Book on Amazon (at no profit, you are only paying for binding and printing, that is, $17.50)

Or download the whole book as a PDF, or an individual PDF for each Feast or Sunday.

Ps: You might be able to tell that I’m excited about this.
 
TheMc said:
And the day many of you have been waiting for…

The Simple English Propers are officially released!!

This is an amazing gift to the church, and an awesome resource to all those who wish to bring their music programs back around to what the church wants.

I just received my copy, and it is very nice, and in the beginning of the book, it gives a simple guide to reading and singing chant!!

Soooo… all you cantors, choir directors, and everyone in between, let’s empty their inventory, and start singing the music of the church, singing the Mass.

One of the coolest things about this is that the melodies are in the same mode (kind of like a key) as the original proper, thereby preserving the same “sound” and “feel” as the original. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Gradual: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)
SEP: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)

Hear that? You can just feel that they are one in the same.

Let’s not sing at Mass, let’s sing the Mass!!!

Buy the Book on Amazon (at no profit, you are only paying for binding and printing, that is, $17.50)

Or download the whole book as a PDF, or an individual PDF for each Feast or Sunday.

Ps: You might be able to tell that I’m excited about this.
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I like the SEP Introit. Not bad at all. Although I can barely understand a word.

Edited: I took a look at the musicasacra website. This truly looks like an awesome project. I hope musical directors take advantage of it.
 
TrueLight said:
I like the SEP Introit. Not bad at all. Although I can barely understand a word.
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It’s tough to follow. Sounds very Anglican. Sort of defeats the purpose of having the chant in vernacular.
 
TrueLight said:
But if it can get more people chanting, that’s a plus.
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Simple chants maybe. But those expanded ones (lots of notes per syllable) would be a struggle for most. Needs a lot of practice together.
 
Thanks,

I particularly hope people will use it for the Psalms.
 
:extrahappy::extrahappy::extrahappy: YES!!! :extrahappy::extrahappy::extrahappy:

I’m very excited about this!

I’m organizing a choir to start singing at Mass this Advent, and I’m hoping to gradually expose the parishioners to chant; they’re used to the four–hymn sandwich. We’ll hopefully start with the propers and ordinary in English, then move to Latin. My pastor is adamantly against both Latin and chant for some reason, so I’m going to have to try to convince him to at least let us try them out.
TheMc said:
Let’s not sing at Mass, let’s sing the Mass!!!
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Amen!
 
ProVobis said:
It’s tough to follow. Sounds very Anglican. Sort of defeats the purpose of having the chant in vernacular.
Click to expand...
I’ve never understood when people say this. I think it sounds nice, and is an excellent counterpart to the latin propers.
 
My dad’s pastor just had surgery and asked if I could help with the music. He wanted me to select something that was short enough to cover his entrance from the sacristy to the sanctuary. Last night, I downloaded the SEP for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (thanks to theMC’s link, posted in another thread). As I do not know how to read music (and had been chastized by the keyboardist in my parish), I was a little leery until I practiced it with the online tutorial (having recorded myself on my blackberry).

The SEP was well-received. My father’s pastor was happy and I now have some liberty to use it, which I will do for next weekend.
 
TheMc said:
I’ve never understood when people say this. I think it sounds nice, and is an excellent counterpart to the latin propers.
Click to expand...
I didn’t say it didn’t sound nice. I think Anglican weddings are beautiful but let’s not make it an Anglican vs Latin thing. Vatican II did say that Latin is to be preserved in the liturgy and the Popes have been pushing Gregorian chant as much as possible. Jubilate Deo was supposed to be a minimum of Latin chants every parish should have. (And I suppose every Catholic should learn.) And they gave it to us for free.
 
TrueLight said:
Thanks for resurecting this thread. I just realized something.

About 3 weeks ago, I attended Vespers with the Dominican Friars at St Vincent of Ferrer. It was quite nice and I just realized we chanted this particular chant.
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The gradual chant, or the SEP chant?
 
Another great post recently at The Chant Café with comparasions between the GR (Graduale Romanum) and SEP propers.

chantcafe.com/2011/07/modal-connedtion-gregorian-and-sep.html

I’m sure you’ve heard me say this, but I simply can not get over how amazing this is, especially the amazing similarity between the GR (quite complicated) and SEP (very simple). Mr. Bartlet did an amazing job.

This one (below) is the best example I’ve found yet of this concept, but I’m sure the others are also very good (I haven’t been able to listen to many, because I have slow internet).
Gradual: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)
SEP: Introit for All Saints (Sheet Music)
Click to expand...
 
benedictgal said:
My dad’s pastor just had surgery and asked if I could help with the music. He wanted me to select something that was short enough to cover his entrance from the sacristy to the sanctuary. Last night, I downloaded the SEP for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (thanks to theMC’s link, posted in another thread). As I do not know how to read music (and had been chastized by the keyboardist in my parish), I was a little leery until I practiced it with the online tutorial (having recorded myself on my blackberry).

The SEP was well-received. My father’s pastor was happy and I now have some liberty to use it, which I will do for next weekend.
Click to expand...
Awesome!!! Keep it up!
 
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