I am kind of ignorant when it comes to the new music of the Mass. Could someone explain to me the Simple English Propers to me? Will it be what we use this coming Sunday? Sorry to be so vague but I’m just not sure what it is??
It is an option that your pastor and music director could pick.
As you may or may not know, every Mass has a set of texts assigned for that day called the “propers,” which are usually just a verse or two from somewhere in Scripture. The first proper is called the Introit, and it is usually replaced by an opening hymn. Another is called the Gradual, but it is preferably replaced by a responsorial psalm that everyone can participate in. Likewise there are propers assigned for use during the Offertory and Communion.
It is not necessary to use these texts, and they can either be sung, or spoken by the priest. By far the most common thing is simply to replace them with hymns (such as an entrance hymn, offertory hymn, and Communion hymn), which is a permissible option. Some people, however, are strongly pushing to have the propers themselves used more commonly. This would tend to displace hymns from the Mass, and would mean that the texts you would hear are those chosen by the Church and assigned to the Mass, rather than hymns chosen by your local music director based on whatever he or she feels like.
But it is difficult to reintroduce the propers, because many people want to sing hymns and most of the musical settings of the propers are Latin and require a choir with specialized Gregorian chant training to sing them. (I should know; the choir I’m in sings the Introit and Communion propers in Latin every week.) Thus, one solution is the Simple English Propers project, which was done by a composer, Adam Bartlett, to create a more singable option in English for those parishes that would prefer to use the propers instead of average hymns. You can read more about it (and download them all)
here.
In any event, the introduction of the new translation does not carry with it any obligation to use the propers at all, whether in Latin or in English, whether in Adam Bartlett’s or anybody else’s musical setting. It definitely seems like a great option for parishes to have, but unless you have heard something specific about it at your own parish there is no reason at all to think that that’s what your pastor or music director have chosen. What you sing is up to them.
