Simple English Propers seen in the wild
  • It just fit. So much better than hymn on hymn on hymn ...

    Hurrah, hurrah!
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    I don't think this worked... I'd love to see them in the wild if you can make it work!
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    I was expecting a video or an audio recording. Were you just trying to say that you used them recently?

    Either way: brick by brick!
  • Saw them in an unexpected place, away from my normal habitat. So ... awesome.
  • I regularly use the SEP Communion Chants in place of a Communion Hymn or as a prelude to the Communion Hymn. It gives the communicants a chance to meditate upon the mysteries of the sacrament that they have just recieved (I would hope)
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    That is awesome! How much was used? Were they performed well? How did the congregation receive them?
  • Introit, Offertory, Communion and something else. Alleluia, I think? They also used a different set of settings for the responsorial psalm, but it was still chanted. Folks weren't singing all that loudly. I think it was the first time the MD-equivalent had decided on propers instead of hymns.

    Funny to hear the typical "church soprano" sitting nearby take on chant.

    (Next target: Their "for what shall we pray" during the bidding prayers, and then the "Great Amen." Not to look down on their ordinary setting, which, while it is not even close to Missa Angelis, or Orbis Factor, is basically chant --- think psalmtone with fewer notes. Too bad, also, the Creed is only spoken rather than sung, even if both are options. Happily these are very little things compared to propers.)
  • My high school girls schola was chanting these once a month at a Monestary (in DC) last year - doing Introit, Offertory, Communion. They loved them and got very good at reading the neumes and chanting them sensitively with their clear, pure young voices.
    All was well until one of the priests complained that it was too beautiful and more like a concert (even though we were also doing good hymns and had everything available for the congregation). The other complaint we got from the priests were "Why are you doing two offertory hymns.?" Even when i explained that were chanting the propers as the Church has asked us to do -- all but one of the priests were confused (sigh) Still using them at my new church job. Love them! Esp. in the wild.
  • More like a concert? That, more than anything, is puzzling.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Whenever I get a "gig" either at weddings, or for an upcoming youth retreat this weekend, I always try to use SEP, usually in addition to hymns, but if I can "get away" with it, I'll just do them straight. I have received numerous complements about them, so they seem to be fairly well received in many cases. I love using them in the wild.
    Thanked by 1tomboysuze
  • @ E.A. Fulhorst - agreed. It made no sense to me, until I realized that he must have meant that doing the propers and the one motet we did for post communion was just too much singing without the congregation. Who knows? The friars had no clue about the propers and were used to editing the liturgy to their hearts content.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    All was well until one of the priests complained that it was too beautiful and more like a concert...

    Does he mean "like heaven?" Gosh, we shouldn't advocate and aspire to anything like that, huh? Good luck widdat, Padre.
    Thanked by 1Jenny
  • Too beautiful: too rehearsed, too sensitively and expressively sung. Too much like a concert. Haven't we all heard that kind of complaint? I've even heard it, quite forcefully, from the choir itself, when there are members who consider that the choir's role is to "lead the singing".
    Thanked by 1E_A_Fulhorst