While Healey Willan was the quintessential 'Anglo-Catholic' (high-church Anglican) composer, this collection for the Lutheran liturgy was the fruit of his long-time affiliation with Concordia, the principal Lutheran publishing house, located in Saint Louis. The Lutheran liturgy, while obviously a major venue for vernacular hymnody, retained (at least formally) the introit and gradual propers. High-church Lutheran parishes sang them alongside their spectacular hymn repertory. Several complete settings of these propers, in a number of different, simple styles, were published throughout the second quarter of the twentieth century. This activity was very much a part of the Lutheran participation in the Liturgical Movement, which influenced much of mainstream Protestantism. (Others in this forum will know far more about this than I.)

On a related question, does anyone know where one might obtain a copy of Willan's (unpublished) editing of the Gregorian propers for the Ritual Choir (men; chant; vested in sanctuary) of his Anglican parish in Toronto? As Anglicans gather up the worthy elements of their patrimony for the journey across the Tiber, this sort of thing will sure be a worthy part of the luggage.

Don't forget the Willan Mass Propers found in the Hymnal 1940, which Episcopalians sang regularly until the new Hymnal was published.
Also, one of my favorite Epiphany anthems is Willan's 'The Three Kings' which I first sang in High School choir many years ago. I doubt if anything like that could be sung in a public school nowadays.
And his lovely setting of 'Rise up my fair one and come away' for Easter

Donna

Oops- didn't mean Propers. Sorry- was working on something else, and just wasn't thinking.
Donna

Frankly, Willan's works published with Concordia were written primarily to make a living, since his principal positions in Toronto were quite poorly paid.
With a few exceptions, these pieces are inoffensive and quite dull.
They work well with inexperienced choirs which need to stick to the musical basics.
He reserved all of his best works for Canadian and British publishers.

Yurodivi, I agree whole-heartedly. It seems to me that Willan's and Rice's approach is incredibly useful.

There is a danger in thinking that if something isn't Josquin, Palestrina, or Bach, then it's not worth doing. That's nonsense. There has to be a bridge, a graduated series, oriented in the right direction.

What we all want (I think) are holy and calendrically appropriate chant and polyphony, whatever our schola/choir level of proficiency and position in the Latin/vernacular universe.

We should emphatically not say, "it's Palestrina or nothing."

Even in the EF, if you take that line, you will either have a) nothing at all, for a host of reasons, or b) choirs attempting things beyond their competence, which is painful and arguably counterproductive, since it enables Modernist naysayers to pooh pooh the attempt and suggest pop/folk as the preferable alternative.

Singing these Willan propers perfectly and beautifully will be GREATLY preferable to most of the trite nonsense I hear in many parishes.

.02

Wow: lots of paper-thin skin in here.

it's a hot medium. If we were in a cocktail lounge, we would all speak in ways that are normal and friendly. something about this venue tempts everyone to speak with sharp words. It's good to remember that. Differences of opinion are good. They lead to improvement in our own views. They help us all think about the big picture. But seeing through the bombast can sometimes be difficult. Let's all strive to be peacemakers please.