Simple Propers: proposed in 1924
  • Ben_WhitworthBen_Whitworth
    Posts: 90
    I was intrigued to find an article in the archives of the Tablet from as early as 1924, advocating an edition of simplified Proper chants.

    In asking for Essays last May we said that Catholic musicians might well apply themselves to composing short, strong, simple, seemly settings (preferably modal) of the Proper texts, such as (a) could be quickly learnt and clearly sung by choirs with little leisure for rehearsals, and (b) would, at the same time, be inspiring to ordinary congregations. ...

    We do not say that there is need to re-set all those texts of the Proper (less than two hundred and fifty in all) which are required by an average voluntary choir every year. Many of the settings in the Gradual are simple enough already. Other texts could be decently intoned or chanted. But there is room for a hundred or so of unembroidered easy modal compositions, for singing in unison to an organ accompaniment. Such a collection ought not to be a oneman effort. Many of us ought to help; and the eventual book should be a survival of the fittest.


    Not much to ask, really; I wonder how far they got with it. Just from the references in the article to previous "essays", I suspect there is a lot more of a similar vein if anyone fancies writing a thesis on the musical aspirations of the English liturgical movement in the 1920s.

    From " ping-pong " as an all-round method we are averse.


    Here is the article.
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  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    And about 40 years later we got the Graduale Simplex and about 90 years later the Simple English Propers.

    I would like to see something like a Latin version of the SEP.
  • RobertRobert
    Posts: 343
    There's the Graduale Parvum, which is perhaps what the Simplex ought to have been.
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  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    I would like to see something like a Latin version of the SEP.

    Isn't that the what the Rossini Propers are?
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Isn't that the what the Rossini Propers are?


    NO! What Prof. Bartlett has done with the SEP is to construct formulaic melodies in each of the modes that could be adapted to other texts, this is similar to the many office antiphons (and Graduals, Alleluias, and Tracts) which are adaptations of melodic formulae for the various modes.

    The Rossini Propers set the propers texts to a simple psalmtone - imagine the entire Midnight Mass (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion) set to the psalmtone VIII G and you have the Rossini Propers, no where near the modal or melodic variety of the Graduale which Bartlett preserved in the SEP - and to a greater extent in the new Lumen Christi books - they are really only utilitarian settings, and not to my mind 'beautiful'.
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  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Ah, thanks.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Yes, the Rossini Propers are most analogous to the Anglican Use Graduale.
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  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    ...or the Lalemant Propers.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,185
    I would like to see something like a Latin version of the SEP.

    @hartleymartin: Something like this, perhaps?
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  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I like it. A lot.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Indeed, yes, something like that. This way, they may be used by either EF and OF parishes and can be used to substitute when the chants of the Graduale Romanum are too difficult for the ability of the particular choir. It's certainly better than just psalm-toning everything!
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    For the last EF mass where I had to co-ordinate music, I was fortunate that a few of the girls who attended were very good at sight-reading chant and were able to chant the offertory. We sang the Gradual to a Psalm Tone and used the Tone VIII melismatic Alleuia with the verse also to a psalm tone. Otherwise, we would never have been able to accomplish the music for that mass!
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    You might consider the Chants Abrégés. Much nicer than a psalm tone. I use it all the time with my schola.
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