"Simple English Propers" for the Commons (ie BVM, Apostles, Martyrs, Pastors etc...)
  • SpeakNSpirit
    Posts: 45
    Are there and "Simple English Proper" like antiphons for the Common of Martyrs/Pastors/the Blessed Virgin Mary?

    These would seem to be very helpful especially since they would be used regularly.

    Also, what about suggestions for English Hymns of these Commons for use in the Divine Office?
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    I brought this up some time ago. I believe Adam Bartlett inferred that this was a project that might be in the works sometime in the future. Adam...perhaps you could correct me if I'm wrong?

    In the mean time, I've generally mixed and matched. For example, the propers for Mary, Mother of God are generally the same as the common of the BVM. For other texts, you may have to draw from other sources.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Fr. Samuel Weber has some. CMAA has a link to it.
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 242
    Yes, this is a HUGE lacuna in the current effort to revive chant. It's true that Sundays and Holy Days are the obvious place to begin; but often enough, it can happen that opportunities for reintroducing chant begin with more modest liturgies, on weekdays, for example, as a way of getting the pes into the door, as it were. Also, in those rare situations where a pastor and schola are willing to sing propers at daily Mass, it will be crucial to have propers that are truly proper to the various Commons and feastdays.

    Fr. Weber is a good resource to begin with, but the coverage of the sanctoral is highly miscellaneous and of different styles. (This is not a criticism; there's only so much that one person can do!)
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    Also, what about suggestions for English Hymns of these Commons for use in the Divine Office?


    The Mundelein Psalter includes English translations of the (mostly) traditional hymns included the Latin Liturgia Horarum (for Lauds & Vespers). Many (but not all) of these translations are from a private collection done in the 1970s by the Benedictine nuns of St. Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight. (They still pray the Office in Latin and do not use the translations themselves, but rather translated them for a convent in India with which they were associated.)

    While some may find the English style in them to be rather plain (in a bad way), I look at them as being simple and unstilted... noble simplicity if you will... and that's generally how I prefer my hymn translations (especially for proper texts only read/sung once a year - when they don't really have as much time to "sink in").

    I have been known to hold a Liber Hymnarius in one hand and those English translations in the other and sing them to the Gregorian melodies.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I believe that a number of chants found in the SEP are also in the Commons.

    Can someone here point me in the direction of an index of chants for the commons? I know about the index from 1974 which lists all the sundays and major feasts of the year, but I would like to know what are the chants for the various commons. I believe that most of them are already contained within the SEP.
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