Today during Mass I was reminded of an idea I had several months ago: Mass music really needs to start using the propers again.
This idea does not necessarily mean going back to the music from the Graduale Romanum. I had suggested using the texts of the propers before on a forum somewhere several months ago when I first had this idea, and almost all the responses thought I was advocating a return to exclusive reliance on Gregorian chant. Admittedly, I am a big chant fan (and you would be too if you access to biannual concerts from an excellent chant choir for six years), but I realize that chant does not necessarily work for most churchgoers presently. Additionally, I'm not the biggest fan of jazzy Mass music. I do like music that inspires the sacred, though, and in my opinion there's plenty of room in the spectrum between Gregorian chant and organum on one side and jazz + rock 'n roll on the other that includes music that inspires the sacred.
Anyway, I digress. The varying musical tastes of modern churchgoers is exactly why I suggest using the texts of the propers with the composers figuring out the other details. This does not mean falling back to Latin text either. Propers are almost exclusively excerpts from scriptural texts, and there are vernacular translations of scripture approved for liturgical use. All that is needed are good composers who, instead of coming up with their own lyrics, would be willing to use words that had been in the liturgy for centuries and should be back again. These composers would be doing a great service to the liturgy by keeping the liturgy scripturally anchored.
