Since the Missale Romanum 2002 has a new formulary for the Vigil of the Epiphany I am curious what the corresponding chant propers are. The propers in the missal do not correspond to any chants I have in my Gradual so what is one supposed to sing? Propers of the Epiphany? Propers of the 2nd Sunday after the Nativity as in the pre-Pius XII EF Epiphany vigil? Something else?
Patrick Regan, in his book Advent to Pentecost: Comparing the Seasons in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite (p. 67), indeed mentions that the Introit and Communion are "taken from the Mass for the Vigil of Epiphany in the Paris Missal of 1738 (MP323 and 333)".
Can you post scans from the neo-gallican gradual? The link you provided doesn't give access to the book (at least not in the Netherlands...)
See pp. 103-105 of this scan of Graduel a l'Usage de Tous les Diocèse qui suivent le Rit Parisien, Partie D'Hiver, (1826) at google books. https://books.google.com/books?id=W7Rl3KTIqfcC
Sorry, but I can't discover the chants of the Vigil Mass of Epiphany on the referred pages of the Graduel a l'Usage. Instead, pp. 103-105 have the chants of the First Sunday after Pentecost. Browsing through the document, I can't even find the Vigil Mass of Epiphany altogether.
Also, this early nineteenth century book does of course not provide the chants as we could sing them today. I'm therefore still looking forward to see the chants from the 1925 Messes propres du diocèse de Paris, which may be a more critical and less corrupt rendering.
EDIT: I couldn't find the chants, because the link referred to the Graduel of Summer Time (Partie d'Été), whereas it should be the volume of Winter Time (Partie d'Hiver). This is a 1738 edition. There's also another 1826 scan of the winter volume.
But the answer to the original question is surely: there are no chant "propers", because the Vigil of the Epiphany doesn't appear in the Gradual. And since so-called "vigil masses" in the ordinary form belong to the feast -- not to the "vigil" understood in the old way as the preceding liturgical day -- then the chant propers are presumably those of the feast.
The RM says This Mass is used on the evening of the day before ... . And then gives the texts the OP is seeking, I think that makes them "proper". (Same wording at Christmas, etc.) The rubrics for Easter spell out the logic.
Sorry - link is now fixed in my earlier post to point to the Summer version. The 1926 supplement to the Paroissien Romain No. 800 (Liber Usualis), Offices Propres du Diocèse de Paris (166 pp.), does not include a proper vigil of Epiphany, so they would have used the vigil from the Missale Romanum at that time.
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.