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Views from the Choir Loft

“Proper Of The Mass” (Ignatius Press) • Part 5 of 7

Andrew Leung · April 21, 2015

CTL Sameul Weber HIS PAST SUNDAY, my schola chanted the Introit from The Proper of the Mass for Sundays and Solemnities and it was absolutely beautiful. This collection of antiphons makes the sung Propers available to people with different levels of musical abilities. What a great contribution Fr. Samuel Weber has made to modern Church Music!

As artists, we have special appreciation for the beauty: beautiful music, works of art, architecture and of course, liturgical books. This is a hard-covered book with a simple, but nice, design on the cover. The book has about one thousand pages including a guide on reading chant notation. All the antiphons are printed very clearly and the prints are slightly bigger than the ones in the Graduale Romanum. Musicians are naturally attracted to beautiful things; and a beautiful chant book encourages singers to make use of the book.

It is very important to have beautiful liturgical books. The beauty of the books will draw people into the content of the book. It is more likely that people get interested in a nice book than missalettes with cheap paper and poor artwork. It is also more likely that singers would want to read from a chant book with clear printing than from a binder with hand-written scores.

That brings up another question: Is it better to have a hard copy of the book than a soft copy? I would say YES! It is true that technology allows us to bring many books with us on a phone, iPad, etc. However, there are also a lot of other data, games or messages on these electronic devices and they can distract us and take away the sacredness of the music. Reading from a hard copy of the book also avoid problems like “low battery”, “frozen screen”, and other technological errors.

This article is part of a series on Fr. Weber’s Book of Propers:

Part 1 • Andrew Motyka

Part 2 • Richard Clark

Part 3 • Veronica Brandt

Part 4 • Fr. David Friel

Part 5 • Andrew Leung

Part 6 • Dr. Lucas Tappan

Part 7 • Jeff Ostrowski

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Propers Ignatius Press by Fr Samuel Weber Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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“Always remember: God opposes the proud.” (leaning into the microphone) “…even when they’re right!”

— ‘Scott Hahn, speaking in Plano, TX’

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