Simple English propers in Modern Notation?
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    Has anyone had occasion to transcribe Adam Bartlett's Simple English Propers into modern notation? I can read the four line staff, slowly, thanks to Frogman Jones' book, but some of my Schola are still struggling to read modern notation and I can't throw this at them, too. Before transcribing myself, I wondered if anyone had needed to do this before? I'm looking to begin using the Introits in Advent.
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    The only advice that I can give you is to listen to the tutorials on YouTube. These have been a help to me. I only wish that they could have a CD set of tutorials. What I do is follow along with my book and then memorize them. When I chant them, I look at the notes. This is actually helping me to slowly learn how to read music.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Dear Linda, "throwing" the four lines/square notes at my choristers was precisely my strategy, and it's worked big time.
    After my first colloquium I bought and brought 25 PBC's back to CA and tried the systematic introduction. The choir didn't take but a few minutes to make their displeasure known.
    So, we continued to alternate between Bruce Ford and Richard's SCG for the Introit/Communio. I did purchase hard copies of SEP, and one Sunday I'd not duplicated enough of the day's SCG, so I broke out the SEP's that were stored at church, and we were off!
    This wasn't all that long ago. Adam's brilliance and economy has made access to the modes and notation so accessible that we just quietly go over them about fifteen minutes before Mass. And the years we've had chanting Bruce's propers, Richard's "faux fauxbourdon" psalm verses and his Communio propers set them up to easily navigate not only the notation, but the phrasing and rhythmic interpretation. (Kind of the JMO method of "just sing it together, like I WANT!)
    It's been amazing. We even use it at the Ensemble Mass, they're starting to show an interest.
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