Where to find English propers in Gregorian chant?
  • theCebuano_Child03
    Posts: 17
    I'm hoping to introduce Gregorian chant in my university campus ministry and I'll be using English for starters. The ministers aren't so keen on using Latin so English is my only option for the moment. Is there some sort of a Chant Tools-type of website that has all the propers in English, adjustable to the tri-cycle of the Novus Ordo?
  • davido
    Posts: 1,069
    No, there is not such a site.

    The closest thing would be ‘Source and Summit.’ It is a subscription service that has a digital platform. Depending on what subscription you buy, you can download authentic Latin chants, or simple English chants. For any and every part of the mass.

    “The Proper of the Mass” sold by Ignatius press is the gold standard for English Entrance, Offertory, and Communion chants. It is a hardbound volume in square notes with multiple melodies of increasing difficulty for each chant.

    Otherwise, you can reference the English language chant resources on MusicaSacra.com and compile your own booklet week by week from the various publications available for free on the site. (Things like the American Gradual, Psalm 151, Simple English Propers, Parish Book of Psalms, Chabanel Psalms)
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 240
    This might be something for you to consider. The American Gradual, Bruce Ford.
    https://americangradual.org/
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen IanW M. Jackson Osborn
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,036
    Fr. Weber (Ignatius link above) has a total of 4 volumes, but volume 1 is indispensable and the backbone of our chanting here.

    There is also the Simple English Propers (free on the CMAA resource page).

    If you want to go full-hog, you can also download the Palmer Burgess plainchant gradual which is excellent if you’re and advanced chanter. It’s the old rite calendar, so you have to go hunting sometimes, but it’s essentially the real gradual in high English.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn theCebuano_Child03
  • davido
    Posts: 1,069
    I have great respect for his chants. His adaptions of long chants can be heavily edited adaptions, but I think he usually retains the flavor of the Gregorian.
    In this respect I think he is ahead of Bartlett. However there is a genius in Bartlett’s chants which is that they usually outline basic melodic patterns and so are quite intuitive for congregations. Less of the interesting quirks and text/music interplay of the Gregorian melodies, but much more intuitive.
  • GerardH
    Posts: 550
    Given the OP is providing music for a campus ministry, I'd expect they're mostly looking at weekday Masses, in which case Weber's propers are the only set (as far as I know) which contains all the weekdays of Lent and Easter as well as the Proper and Commons of Saints.
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 129
    By Flowing Waters - Paul F. Ford
    Thanked by 1Paul F. Ford
  • Heath
    Posts: 978
    For the OP: Richard Rice's Hostia Laudis is excellent.

    https://www.lulu.com/shop/richard-rice/chant-for-the-modern-roman-missal-cantor-feb-2023/ebook/product-gw6d5d.html?page=1&pageSize=4

  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,015
    Welcome, @theCebuano_Child03 !

    As others have suggested, I'd recommend CMAA's book "Simple English Propers", which you can download at
    https://churchmusicassociation.org/sep/

    It presents entrance, offertory, and communion chants for each Sunday, set to melodic formulas that are easier than the fuller and more ornate Gregorian melodies of the Graduale Romanum.

    One way to start would be to begin with just the communion chant alternating with the psalm verses given. That may be enough, but if communion takes several minutes, you have the option to sing the chant for a while, and then switch to organ improvisation or to some other communion hymn.

  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,015
    [A side discussion developed, which I have moved out into its own thread. --admin]
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
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