In the Sacred Music forums I frequent, it seems people are always asking about Fr. Weber's Proper of the Mass. Mostly, they can't find the links they need. The intention of this blog is to compile them all for ease of sharing. But first, a little background:
Fr. Samuel Weber's magnum opus, "The Proper of the Mass," is a complete set of English chants for each Mass in the Roman Missal. It is a resource that every Catholic musician must have and study. There are 4 volumes. The distinctive feature of Volume 1 (Sundays and Solemnities) is the inclusion of 4 chants for each antiphon, with different degrees of difficulty. The first setting is a close melodic match to the original chant from the Roman Gradual, where applicable. The 2nd setting is a simpler adaptation. The 3rd and 4th are psalm tones. When I sing them alone, I use the first setting. When singing with my choir, I use the second. I appreciate having these options. The texts for entrance and communion are from the Roman Missal, so they will always match the texts in printed missals. The usefulness and beauty of these chants are self-evident, I hope. One feature that distinguishes the Weber propers from other settings is the use of Gregorian psalm tones for the verses. Another feature on which I depend is the settings for weekdays and saints. Random weekday Mass in Advent? Check volume II. Optional memorial of a saint on Friday at a school Mass? Check volume III. The completeness of this resource is its greatest strength. There are unofficial recordings out there by various musicians as well. The organ parts are also helpful, but I tend not to use them, opting for a capella, for the following reasons: they are handwritten (thus harder on the eyes), and one page per verse - so you could have 5 pages if you want to sing an antiphon with all 3 verses and a glory be. The problem is all the links for each volume, organ parts, recordings, etc, are spread all over the internet and difficult to locate. Therefore, the purpose of this blog is to compile every link you need to use the Fr. Weber propers at your liturgies.
Organ Parts
The complete organ parts are linked below. They can also be found at Fr. Weber's website which has new scores added often, but can be a bit tricky to navigate.
Volume 1, Sundays and Solemnities
Obviously this is the most essential volume. It is, however, not free to download the cantor version. You could freely use the organ parts linked above, if you cannot buy the volume. However, this chant version is well worth the money. If you can afford to spend thousands on OCPs Breaking Bread, which is 90% non-liturgical songs, then you can afford a few volumes of this 100% liturgical, sublime, authentic Catholic chant.
A portion of the Volume 1 cantor version is shared freely here, for Lent and Easter
Edit: Someone pointed out that much of the contents of Volume 1 are offered for free here, under "New Gradual," if you're willing to dig a little bit.
For the Graduale Romanum purists: If you are familiar with the differences between the Roman Gradual and Roman Missal, you will know that most of the introits are the same in both. However, for several Solemnities, the Roman Missal antiphon differs from the ancient source. Fr. Weber sets the Missal antiphons only. Therefore, if you prefer to use the Gradual texts, you will be missing some. To fill in this gap in Volume 1 introits, Dr. Alvez Barkoskie has written chants for these Graduale introits in the style of Fr. Weber here
Volumes 2 and 3
Volume II (weekdays of Advent, Lent, Easter) and Volume III (Proper and Common of Saints) are free to download here:
If you want a hard copy of volumes 2 and 3, they can be found here. Be forwarned that the editions are large and heavy, and the cover is not engraved nicely as Volume one. These are available from Lulu press:
Volume 4
This volume is for Ritual, Votive, and Various Needs Masses, including confirmation, ordinations, funerals, etc. It is free here, and does not have a corresponding hard-cover edition available. The organ parts are free too.
Recordings
Dr Alvez Barkoskie has catalogued many of the recordings here
On Youtube, ServiamScores has recorded many of them here
Searchable Database
Some kind and dedicated person has catalogued Volume 1 of the Weber propers, to allow you to search by incipit, scripture, etc. (Thanks to Andrew Earnest for this) Entrance Antiphons Database Offertory Antiphons Databse Communion Antiphons Database
Happy chanting, and God Bless you, Fr. Weber.