Announcing! The Lutheran Propers
The Lutheran Propers is the product of several years of editing materials from seasonal booklets which had been at use at St. Paul’s in Kewanee since 1998. Anyone who has attended Oktoberfest has seen those booklets.
In this book, it all comes together under one handsome cover, or two, if you choose the option of purchasing in parts.
But that's not all. In addition, the musical settings for the propers for every Sunday and feast day of the year, taken from The Concordia Liturgical series for Church Choirs, ed., Walter E. Buszin (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942, 1944) are included. These settings are currently out of print, but the St. Paul's choir has been using them for years. A major intention of this book is to make these beautiful musical settings more easily available for choral or congregational use.
In addition, the appointed one-year series readings are listed, and a second series of one-year readings, courtesy of The Lutheran Hymnal, is provided as well, for congregations that regularly have midweek services.
Suggested hymns are also provided, in two columns. The first column contains suggested hymns for congregations that use Lutheran Service Book and the second is for those who still use The Lutheran Hymnal.
And even that's not all. An appendix of about forty hymns is included. Most of these are in public domain, hymns that might be in one of the hymnals but not the other (and where copyright issues are a factor, the music or settings have not been provided, but the hymn will generally be a familiar one anyhow), and some of the hymns are new, published or soon to be published in Gottesdienst.
There are two options for purchasing, both by going directly to www.lulu.com. One is to purchase the complete edition, pictured nearby. The discounted cost (direct from www.lulu.com) is around $22.00. This edition is 368 pages, however, which makes it a little bulky for use by choirs or in the pews. So another option has been made available, which is to purchase this in two parts: Advent through Lent (available here), and Easter through the end of the church year (available here). Each part can be purchased for about $13.00. So while the total in that case would come to a bit more per set, it's recommended for congregational use.
Here's a preview.