Source for neumes
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    This is a Buffalo update of sorts--I found a TLM nearby and am already canting. We use the Kyriale Low Key Accompaniment by Bragers. Now my wife is a former music history professor and is offended that I am not reading the neumes (well, not really offended; you know how pedantic academics can get), and I'll admit that I kinda like it too. What book would you recommend that is preferably inexpensive and uncumbersome that does this? Also, how about the same for the propers? Link 'em if you got 'em please. Thanks in advance.
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    I would recommend "The Parish Book of Chant" and "Simple English Propers" both are available and recommend by CMAA. You can search this forum for a lot of info and find many works here
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    Thanks! The PBC looks like the ticket. I see the Simple English Propers has the neumes, but doesn't have the Latin. Any suggestions?
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    On the page donr linked, you want the "Graduale Romanum, 1961" for Latin Propers.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Aha! You mean you do read neumes and you want them instead of round notes! Good idea, there is a difference as the neume groupings are easier to interpret than trying to guess what the modern notation is trying to indicate. Your wife is right!
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    We are using the Rossini Propers, which I will probably stick with for the time being since I can't seem to navigate the GR. The introit melody for this Sunday doesn't seem to be the same between the two, but that just might be my newbishness not reading it right.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    If you want to learn the propers I suggest you listen to the monks -

    http://www.renegoupil.org/ for the Extraordinary Form

    http://isaacjogues.org/chants/ for the Ordinary Form

    Both links are run by Corpus Christi and you can find the scores there for the vast majority of the Proper Chants.

    There are lots of free materials out there to help you learn chant but the best way I have found is to NOT get hung up on the names of the neumes just learn how they work. You can do that best by listening and looking at the chant as it is sung.

    On the musicasacra site you can find a nice little primer for chant written by a nun in the 1940s. I use it for the seminarians at Sacred Heart in Detroit even though it was written for children it can be used by adults.

    http://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/goodchild.pdf

    God bless and good luck
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    Thanks for all the suggestions. I should point out that I have a good amount of experience singing neumes, but in the past the director just gave me everything I needed. In this situation, I'm collecting the material myself and just need to know where to find it.
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