My choir liked singing the propers in SATB from Richard Rice's Simple Choral Gradual, but after a few of them, found them too, well, simple :) Ah, but therein lies nobility still! (Laughing with you.) Seriously, RR's contributions should be legend. Out here we generally program one SEP, one SCG and a polyphonic Proper, so simple is perfect in that economy. We don't have a pre-Mass rehearsal space, so we warm up on vowels, and just doing that quasi-Orthodox homophony as we sight read the SCG seems to almost be the perfect accompaniment to private prayer for PIPs. I do know that I've always longed for a few more accidentals and chromatic interest, and have relished every suspension RR placed in the SCG, especially when in the alto voice! But we have to remember, there are directors who would give their eye teeth to have just a quartet that could render the SCG Propers, and in that it will always be a choral building treasure. My order for the new volume goes out today, free shipping apparently!
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