HE ENTIRE TIME we lived in Los Angeles—all ten years—our water was limited because they said California was experiencing a drought. From 2022-2023, California received massive, inordinate, record-setting amounts of rain. I asked our water company why they still considered this a drought. The representative said to me: “It’s because certain areas of California—such as the Mojave desert—don’t receive very much rain. That means we’re in a drought.” In other words (according to this person) a “drought” is when the Mojave desert (!) doesn’t receive much rain.
Sung Vs. Spoken Propers • She clearly doesn’t understand the definition of “drought.” It’s possible she’ll never understand. I mention this because I’ve come to believe some will never understand the difference between the SUNG PROPERS (extremely ancient, from the Graduale Romanum) and the SPOKEN PROPERS (created recently, included in the SACRAMENTARY for occasions when priests offer Mass privately or without music).
Early English Propers • The Sisters of the Most Precious Blood (O’Fallon, Missouri) seem to have been the first Catholics to produce vernacular propers. Needless to say, the sisters set the ancient “sung” propers because the “spoken” propers hadn’t been invented in 1964.1 Today, for the first time in history, we release this rare 1964 collection:
* PDF Download • “Plainsong Propers” (1964)— 39 Pages
—English Gregorian Chant by the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood (O’Fallon, Missouri).
—With assistance from Dom Ermin Vitry, OSB (Editor of THE CAECILIA MAGAZINE).
From Humble Beginnings • In a recent article, I spoke of the concept of “AFAS”—and I won’t be repeating all that. Suffice it to say that the alleged “freedom” of the 1970s quickly led to a type of slavery. Composers then starting to discover the assigned chants (viz. the SUNG PROPERS) and have been creating vernacular settings for them. I appreciate what was created by the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in 1964—but since then, settings of the PROPRIUM MISSAE have attained a much higher degree of sophistication. Consider this setting of the ENTRANCE CHANT (Ecce Deus Ádjuvat Me) which I’ve chosen for this coming Sunday, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
(Score in English) • (Organ Accompaniment)
Here’s the direct URL link.
A Few Years Later • The 1964 publication (by the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood) seems to have made an impression on Father Columba Kelly (a monk at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana) who released a similar collection a few years later. Click here if you want to see how Father Columba’s 1966 collection looked.
1 My colleagues here at Corpus Christi Watershed have done a great service to the Catholic world by locating and then meticulously translating into English the original document from 1970 explaining why the “spoken” propers were invented.
