While public awareness for the Gregorian propers has been growing in recent years, the imposition of ashes chants for Ash Wednesday (Immutemur, Iuxta Vestibulum, and Emendemus in melius) are still relatively unknown. They are, nevertheless, particularly poignant to the beginning of the new Lenten season.

Boethius wrote, "For nothing is more proper to humanity than to be relaxed by sweet modes and to be made tense by the opposite." Many have had the experience of perfectly sight reading a chant, yet still arriving at the end and wondering whether they actually sang it correctly. It is because they have not yet developed a modal sense for the chant.

Today, Salve regina, Alma redemptoris mater, Ave regina caelorum, and Regina caeli appear in all sorts of liturgical and para-liturgical settings. Families teach them to their children for bedtime prayers, parishioners sing them after Vespers services before retiring home for the evening, and many music directors plan them every Sunday for a post-communion anthem or a recessional song.