Hello Everyone!

First post here, so I thought I would introduce myself.

I'm currently a pastoral associate working for four rural clustered parishes in the Dubuque area in Iowa. It's been a long love affair with sacred music, mostly as a listener and in a few modest musical groups in high school and college. My academic background includes a BA from Thomas Aquinas College (class of '06) and obtaining a MA in philosophy with the Western Providence Dominicans in Berkeley. I sang in a schola at TAC for three years. My wife is from the Dubuque area and I'm originally from MN. We returned to IA from CA six months ago to see more family and a more rural life.

My work as a pastoral associate has been excellent in the last six months and I am working with a very good priest in re-introducing orthodoxy and orthopraxis to the small but busy parishes. It is a NO parish and very typical but with a strong core of faithful members who seem to be involved with everything (in a good way). I have serious hopes for the reform of the reform here.

On the music front, I'm presently leading a liturgical theology class with a small group of musicians who are interested in getting away from the typical blah OCP hymn sandwiches which was the carte blanche upon my arrival. I'm also slowing working to convince enough musicians in the four parishes to consent to making a switch to the Adoremus or VII hymnal hopefully in a year or two. In the meantime, I've managed to get them to learn the ICEL chants, and am working with those interested on more Gregorian chant and eventually polyphony.

Which brings me to my question: I have some musicians who would like to sing some chant and polyphony this upcoming Easter. They are competent musicians (can read music, play piano, vocalize, etc.) but have no experience singing polyphony and are unfamiliar with Latin. As far as Easter chant goes, I hope to work on the SEP's as well as some Latin pieces. So what are the easiest quality polyphonic pieces out there to introduce to a small group?

I don't imagine they could learn much Palestrina or Lassus at this point. Should I maybe try to introduce an English piece from Tallis (such as If Ye Love Me)? Or perhaps one of Keven Allen's three part motets? Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus? Also, are there any accessible ordinaries out there for three or four voices? I've sung polyphony before but never taught it. Where is a good place to start for beginners with a goal of learning some polyphony for Easter this year?

Looking forward to participating in the forum more and thanks in advance for your advice.

Godspeed,
Andrew