Roman Gradual

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Gradual of King John I Albert of Poland in the Sacristy of Wawel Cathedral. Gradual of King John Albert.jpg
Gradual of King John I Albert of Poland in the Sacristy of Wawel Cathedral.

The Roman Gradual (Latin: Graduale Romanum) is an official liturgical book of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church containing chants, including the proper and many more, for use in Mass.

Contents

The editio typica dates from 1908. [1] The latest edition of 1974 takes account of the 1970 revision of the Roman Missal .

In 1979, the Graduale Triplex: The Roman Gradual With the Addition of Neums from Ancient Manuscripts ( ISBN   978-2852740440 in English (1985), ISBN   978-2-85274-094-5 in Latin) was published. It added reproductions of the neumes from ancient manuscripts placed above and below the later notation.

Description

Sanctissimus namque Gregorius, from the 1908 edition of the Roman Gradual. Gregorian legend.png
Sanctissimus namque Gregorius, from the 1908 edition of the Roman Gradual.

The Roman Gradual includes the

It includes a selection of chants that are also published in a companion volume known as the Kyriale, a collection of chants for the Order of Mass: the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.

There have been and are other Graduals, apart from the Roman Gradual. For instance, the Dominican Order had its own rite of Mass and its own Gradual: "Graduale juxta ritum sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum" (Gradual according to the rite of the Sacred Order of Preachers). [2]

Structure of the 1974 edition

The 1974 Roman Gradual is arranged into 8 major sections:

  1. Praenotanda (Rubrics)
  2. Proprium de Tempore (Proper of Seasons)
  3. Communia (Commons)
  4. Proprium de Sanctis (Proper of Saints)
  5. Missae Rituales ad Diversa et Votivae (Ritual and Votive Masses)
  6. Cantus in Ordine Missae Occurrentes (Chants Occurring in Order of Mass, including the Kyriale).
  7. Appendix (Containing hymns and litanies)
  8. Missae Propriae Ordinis Sancti Benedicti (Mass Propers of the Order of Saint Benedict)

History

Originally the book was called an antiphonale missarum ("Antiphonal of the Mass"). Graduals, like the later Cantatory, may have originally included only the responsorial items, the Gradual, Alleluia, and Tract. [3]

In 1908 a revised edition of the Roman Gradual was published. In it Pope Pius X gave official approval to the work of the monastery of Solesmes, founded in the 1830s by Dom Guéranger, was done by Dom Pothier in restoring Gregorian chant to its purity by removing the alterations it had undergone in the centuries immediately preceding. The work had involved much research and study. [4]

That edition of the Roman Gradual was the basis also of a more general compilation of chants known as the Liber Usualis. This was not an official liturgical book, but it contained a large part of the chants of the Roman Gradual, as well as other chants and hymns and instructions on the proper way to sing them.

In 1974, after the Second Vatican Council an edition of the Roman Gradual based on that of 1908 was issued. While the melodies remained unchanged, there was a relocation of pieces to fit the revised Roman Missal and calendar. Some chants were replaced by ancient ones rediscovered after 1908. [5] A simpler gradual for small churches or inexperienced choirs was published in 1967 and 1975, as the Graduale Simplex.

In 2011 (Part 1 De dominicis et festis) and 2018 (Part 2 De feriis et sanctis) the Graduale novum was published by Christian Dostal, Johannes Berchmans Göschl, Cornelius Pouderoijen, Franz Karl Praßl, Heinrich Rumphorst, and Stephan Zippe, members of the melodic restitution group of AISCGre (International Society for the Study of Gregorian Chant). It claims to be “a more critical edition” according to SC 117, [6] but is not a critical edition. [7]

Despite an initial disappearance of the use of the Roman Gradual from many parishes following the Second Vatican Council, often done out of a misunderstanding that Gregorian Chant had been abrogated or otherwise discouraged, its use has become increasingly popular in recent years. Parishes which celebrate the Mass according to the 1970 Roman Missal, whether fully in Latin or a vernacular language, have begun to utilize the chants of the Gradual. This has been encouraged by the most recent Popes, including Pope Francis who has encouraged the presence of a Schola Cantorum in every parish so that at least one Mass might be celebrated with the Church's official music. [8]

Related Research Articles

Semiology is a branch of Gregorian Chant research. Semiology refers specifically to the study of the neumes as found in the earliest fully notated manuscripts of Gregorian Chant, the oldest of which have been dated to the 9th century. The first application of the term 'semiology' for the study of Latin chant was made by Dom Eugène Cardine (1905–1988), a monk of the Abbey of Solesmes. In this context, 'semiology' is understood as 'the study of musical signs'. Text and neumatic notation, together with significative letters adjoined to the neumes, presents an effective and integrated mnemonic for the rhythmical interpretation and the melody. While Gregorian palaeography offers a description of the various neumes and their rhythmical and melodic values, Gregorian semiology explains their meaning for practical interpretation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tridentine Mass</span> Form of liturgy in the Roman Rite

The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1570 and published thereafter with amendments up to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregorian chant</span> Form of song

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of the Old Roman chant and Gallican chant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gradual</span> Catholic liturgical chant

The gradual is a chant or hymn in the Mass, the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, and among some other Christians. It gets its name from the Latin gradus because it was once chanted on the step of the ambo or altar. In the Tridentine Mass, it is sung after the reading or chanting of the epistle and before the Alleluia, or, during penitential seasons, before the tract. In the Mass of Paul VI, the gradual is usually replaced with the responsorial psalm. Although the Gradual remains an option in the Mass of Paul VI, its use is extremely rare outside monasteries. The gradual is part of the proper of the Mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Introit</span> Part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antiphonary</span> Catholic liturgical book

An antiphonary or antiphonal is one of the liturgical books intended for use in choro, and originally characterized, as its name implies, by the assignment to it principally of the antiphons used in various parts of the Latin liturgical rites.

The text and rubrics of the Roman Canon have undergone revisions over the centuries, while the canon itself has retained its essential form as arranged no later than the 7th century. The rubrics, as is customary in similar liturgical books, indicate the manner in which to carry out the celebration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Rite</span> Liturgical rite used by Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church

The Dominican Rite is the unique liturgical rite of the Dominican Order in the Catholic Church. It has been classified differently by different sources – some consider it a usage of the Roman Rite, others a variant of the Gallican Rite, and still others a form of the Roman Rite into which Gallican elements were inserted.

Ambrosian chant is the liturgical plainchant repertory of the Ambrosian rite of the Roman Catholic Church, related to but distinct from Gregorian chant. It is primarily associated with the Archdiocese of Milan, and named after St. Ambrose much as Gregorian chant is named after Gregory the Great. It is the only surviving plainchant tradition besides the Gregorian to maintain the official sanction of the Roman Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beneventan chant</span>

Beneventan chant is a liturgical plainchant repertory of the Roman Catholic Church, used primarily in the orbit of the southern Italian ecclesiastical centers of Benevento and Monte Cassino distinct from Gregorian chant and related to Ambrosian chant. It was officially supplanted by the Gregorian chant of the Roman rite in the 11th century, although a few Beneventan chants of local interest remained in use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyriale</span>

The Kyriale is a collection of Gregorian chant settings for the Ordinary of the Mass. It contains eighteen Masses, six Credos, and several ad libitum chants. This collection is included in liturgical books such as the Graduale Romanum and Liber Usualis, and it is also published as a separate book by the monks of Solesmes Abbey.

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The Church of the Ascension is an Anglo-Catholic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. Founded in 1857 as a mission of St. James Church, it is now located on North La Salle Drive on Chicago's Near North Side. The church became a part of the Anglo-Catholic movement in 1869. The principal service on Sunday is the Solemn High Mass celebrated at 11 a.m., according to Rite II in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer (1979). This Mass is celebrated at the High Altar, and includes three sacred ministers, many acolytes, incense, and music provided by a professional choir. The mass includes processions and other devotions on certain feasts and holy days.

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The Liber Brevior is a book of commonly used Gregorian chants in the Catholic tradition. It is an abbreviation of the Liber Usualis and differs from that compendium of chant music in that it contains only the chants required for use at sung Mass, omitting the chants used in the chanting of the Divine Office. It could be said that the Liber Brevior is “the layman’s Liber,” designed and intended to be used in parish settings by small Catholic choirs, rather than for use by clergy and religious bound to chant the Office in choir or in common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregorio (software)</span> Open source scorewriter for Gregorian chant

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References

  1. ↑ Graduale sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae de Tempore et de Sanctis SS. D. N. Pii X. Pontificis Maximi jussu restitutum et editum (PDF). Romae: Typis Vaticanis. 1908.
  2. ↑ Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum (1928). "Graduale juxta ritum Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum". Fundacja Dominikański Ośrodek Liturgiczny - Sylwia Fołta. Romae.
  3. ↑ Apel, Willi, ed (1972). Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Page 350
  4. ↑ Jeffrey Tucker, The Real Catholic Songbook
  5. ↑ Gregorian Chant for the Choir
  6. ↑ GRADUALE NOVUM DE DOMINICIS ET FESTIS (in German), retrieved 2021-04-06
  7. ↑ Es handelt sich hier weder um eine Editio authentica noch um eine Editio critica, sondern lediglich um begründete Vorschläge. (…) Es geht auch im keinem Weise um eine Herabwürdigung der Editio Vaticana. [This is not an authentic edition or a critical edition, but only well-founded suggestions (...) In no way is this meant to be a denigration of the Editio Vaticana.] Luigi Agustoni, Rupert Fischer, Johannes Berchmans Göschl, Godehard Joppich, Liobgid Koch & Heinrich Rumphorst: Vorschläge zur Restitution von Melodien des Graduale Romanum. Teil 1. Beiträge für Gregorianik, 21: 7–41 (1996)
  8. ↑ "Pope Francis: "Promote the Presence of the Schola Cantorum in Every Parish Community!"". 3 October 2019.
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