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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

OFFERTORY: Chant Propers in Three Parts for Sundays & Feasts

Fr. David Friel · June 14, 2015

629 Naples MONG THE MOST neglected of the propers is the offertorium. The Gregorian propers assigned to this moment of the liturgy are exceedingly rarely heard, yet so many of them are exquisitely beautiful.

There are numerous reasons why they are so often ignored, including their relative complexity. Many choirs & scholae do not have the time to practice these chants week to week, or they simply choose to focus their efforts elsewhere. The offertory chants have also been somewhat overlooked in the revolution of new vernacular resources we have seen in the world of sacred music over the last decade.

The need for more quality resources for the offertory has now been supplied.

Today, I would like to introduce to our readership a unique resource: Offertory, a new publication by Dr. Jon Naples. Offertory is a volume of choral chant propers in three parts for Sundays and feasts (complete). The project utilizes the Revised Grail Psalm texts for the verses and takes the antiphon texts from the Graduale.

Here are two audio samples (sung by Matthew Curtis) to give you a sense of the compositional style:

    * *  Audio Sample • EASTER SUNDAY OFFERTORY

    * *  Audio Sample • PALM SUNDAY OFFERTORY

There are several strengths worth highlighting about this collection. First, it is well organized and cleanly engraved, making it very user-friendly. Additionally, the composition is limited to only three voices, making each antiphon & verse accessible to a wide range of choirs. These voices are easily invertible, such that the various parts may be sung variously by men or women.

Moreover, this volume shows great respect for the unmetricality of English vocabulary and syntax. The employment of Psalm tones by Fr. Samuel Weber & Adam Bartlett make this a useful book for easily singing propers in English. For most Sundays and feasts, the composer has provided two disparate settings of the antiphon. In both, the melody remains the same, but the harmonization has been changed, lending greater musical interest when these options are used in alternatim.

Finally, these settings were developed by a parish musician in the context of his own parish choir, so they are practical in addition to being beautiful. I would recommend this work for parish & seminary use. It draws its inspiration from the chant tradition, and it offers beautiful settings of proper English texts.

Offertory was released earlier this year and is now available for purchase HERE. A few sample pages are available HERE.

R. JON NAPLES holds his D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Southern California (1995), where he studied under Morten Lauridsen. He has a background in several instruments and voice. His compositions have placed in major competitions, and he has work published through CanticaNOVA Publications. He is now in his 11th year as Director of Sacred Music at St. Margaret Parish in Oceanside, CA. Dr. Naples was also involved in the Adventus Dona conference that I covered HERE back in November.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Polyphony For Three Voices, Proper of the Mass in English, Simple English Mass Propers, Simple Steps To Improve Parish Music, Singing the Mass Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 17th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (27 July 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion • “Ask & You Shall Receive”
    All of the chants for 27 July 2025 have been added to the feasts website, as usual under a convenient “drop down” menu. The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (both text and melody) are exceedingly beautiful and ancient.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Jeff’s Mother Joins Our Fundraiser
    To assist our fundraiser, Mrs. Kathleen Ostrowski has drawn several beautiful sketches which she offers to all our readers free of charge. If you have a moment, I invite you download them at this link.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Like all other liturgical functions, like offices and ranks in the Church, indeed like everything else in the world, the religious service that we call the Mass existed long before it had a special technical name.

— Rev. Adrian Fortescue (1912)

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