HIS COLLECTION of communion propers for the Easter Season is an update which now includes settings for all three liturgical years (A, B, C).
To sing these texts is to journey from Christ’s Resurrection to the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is quite an emotional experience when one realizes just HOW MANY ALLELUIAS are in all of the Easter propers! After abstaining from “Alleluias” throughout Lent, it is a blessed relief to sing “Alleluia” over and over again within these beautiful texts from scripture.
Free Download:
PDF • “Easter Season Communion Propers | Years ABC” (for Schola, Organ, SATB)
• Includes seventeen settings from the Easter Vigil though Pentecost Sunday.
• All are chant based in style.
• Includes a setting for the Seventh Sunday of Easter in those dioceses in which The Ascension of Our Lord is not transferred to Sunday.
• Can be sung with cantor or schola with organ. There is enormous opportunity for optional SATB singing, designed to offer contrast with unison singing.
• Optional congregation inserts for worship aids found after page 37
• Antiphon texts are English translations of those found in the Graduale Romanum. (You will find variation with the Communion propers found in the Roman Missal, especially during the Easter Season. A MUST READ article regarding Antiphons in the Roman Missal vs. the Roman Gradual is written by Jeff Ostrowski.)
HESE ANTIPHONS SHOULD ALWAYS BE SUNG with forward, yet unhurried movement, and often with an air of lightness—not always in color but in spirit and energy. Even the intensity of the Pentecost antiphon should be sung with light forward motion, yet still unhurried (despite the “rush of a mighty wind”!). Do not be afraid of engaging in mystery and energy in chant!
Each antiphon colors the text simply and occasionally with symbolic gesture. For example, the Easter Vigil / Easter Sunday antiphon ends a half step below the tonic — unresolved and evoking the mystery of the empty tomb. The Pentecost antiphon uses a similar device, bookending this collection. Another example is found in the Sixth Sunday of Easter, which utilizes an augmented fifth chord—three equal intervals representing the Trinity — the augmented fifth, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, on Ascension Thursday, the final chords in both the antiphon and verses are unsupported by the root, but instead by the third providing a sense of elevated motion.
For future reference, here are Communion propers for Lent and Advent:
Free Download:
PDF • “Twelve Communion Propers for Lent”
(for Schola, Organ, SATB)
Free Download:
PDF • “Advent Communion Propers”
(for Schola, Organ, SATB)
Have a blessed Lent and Holy Week!