IVING UP A BAD HABIT FOR LENT? Or taking up a good habit? How about learning some more of the Propers? Lots of cool saints in heaven know these tunes, so dive in to the treasury of the Church’s Sacred Music today!
My choir is still aiming at a monthly Sung Mass. The next one happens to be the First Sunday of Lent, a good time for putting in a little more effort. This Sunday in the Extraordinary Form happens to have the longest Tract in the book. I am assured that once you get into it, the Tract is not so hard, and can be a good spot for ten minutes meditation for the congregation. I think we will go with the psalm toned version though. Here is the Gradual and Tract in a psalm tone on one page.
Corpus Christi Watershed is a great resource for singing the propers. See that link up there “Liturgical Music”? Go there for scores to print and recordings to hear and videos to watch.
Some singers have asked me to make recordings as a sort of half-way house between absolute ignorance and monastic mellifluence. Something that may seem a little more attainable. The idea of making a video was largely for the sake of learning about making videos, but in the process I found being able to watch the hand movements really added to the recording.
And if you are trying to improve your chant, recording and editing a video is a great way to drum those tunes into your head! And link it here so I can listen too.
