Thegradual (Latin:graduale orresponsorium graduale) is a certainchant orhymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in theCatholic Mass,LutheranDivine Service,Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latingradus (meaning "step") because it was once chanted on the step of theambo oraltar.^[1] It is customarily placed after a reading of scripture.^[2]

In theTridentine Mass, it is sung after the reading or chanting of theepistle and before theAlleluia, or, during penitential seasons, before thetract. In theMass of Paul VI, the gradual is usually replaced with theresponsorial psalm. Although the Gradual remains an option in the Mass of Paul VI, its use is extremely rare^{[citation needed]} outside monasteries. The gradual is part of theproper of the Mass.

A gradual can also refer to a book collecting all the musical items of the Mass. The official such book for theRoman Rite is theRoman Gradual (Graduale Romanum). Other such books include the Dominican Gradual.

The Gradual, like the Alleluia and Tract, is one of theresponsorial chants of the Mass. Responsorial chants derive from early Christian traditions of singing choral refrains calledresponds betweenpsalm verses. According to theCatholic Encyclopedia, it (and the associated Alleluia or Tract) is the oldest of the chants of theProper of the Mass, and, in contrast to theIntroit,Offertory, andCommunion, the only one that was not sung to accompany some other liturgical action, historically a procession. Until about the fifth century, it included singing a wholepsalm. They were sung in the form of apsalmus responsorius, i.e. the whole text was chanted by a reader appointed for this purpose. For some time beforePope Gregory I, to sing these psalms was a privilege ofdeacons at Rome, a privilege he suppressed in 595. The people answered each clause or verse with an acclamation. This apparently dates back to thesynagogue tradition, and can even be seen in the structure of some Psalms (such as 136|135). Originally, there was a psalm sung between each reading, of which in the fifth century there were three (Prophets,Epistle, andGospel). When the Old Testament reading was later dropped, the other two psalms became the Gradual andAlleluia, ordinarily sung one after another, until the 1970Missal restored the three readings on Sundays andSolemnities.

The modern Gradual always consists of two psalm verses, generally (but not always) taken from the same psalm. There are a few Graduals that use a book of scripture other than the Psalms (for example, the verse for the Feast of theImmaculate Conception is from theBook of Judith), or even non-scriptural verses (for example, the first verse in theRequiem Mass).

The Gradual is believed to have been so named because it was sung on the step (Latin:gradus) of the altar, or perhaps because the deacon was mounting the steps of theambo for the reading or singing of theGospel.^[1] However, early sources use the formgradale ("graded" or "distinguished"), and theAlia Musica (c. 900) uses the termantiphona gradalis for theIntroit.^[2]

The Gradual is to be sung after the reading of theEpistle. It is ordinarily followed by theAlleluia orTract, but in Masses that have more readings than normal, such as duringLent, these may be separated by another reading, or, if there are more than three readings, there is more than one Gradual, and finally the Tract, to separate each reading. InEastertide, the Gradual is normally omitted, and a second Alleluia is sung in its place, except within theOctave ofEaster. In what is now theordinary form of the Roman Rite, theResponsorial Psalm normally takes the place of the Gradual, and is sung after the first reading, but it may be replaced by the Gradual.

In theTridentine Mass, the celebrant himself reads the Gradual with the Alleluia, Tract, orSequence immediately after he has read the Epistle, and at the same place, even if the choir sings it too. There is no rule for the distribution of its parts within the choir. All may be sung straight through by the whole choir, but it is more common to divide the texts so that some parts are sung by one or two cantors. A common arrangement is that the cantors sing the first words of the Gradual (to the asterisk in the choir-books), the choir continues, and the cantors sing the verse. Normally it is all sung toplainsong.

In other churches and rites, there are fragments of the psalms once sung between the lessons that correspond to the Roman Gradual. Their placement and structure depend strongly on how many readings there are. In theByzantine Rite the reader of the epistle first chants "the Psalm of David" and then the "Prokeimenon of the Apostle", both short fragments of psalms. TheArmenian Rite, which has kept the older arrangement of three lessons, includes between each a fragment called theSaghmos Jashu (Psalm of dinnertime) and theMesedi (mesodion), again a verse or two from a psalm. TheNestorians use three verses of psalms each followed by three Alleluias (this group is calledZumara) after the Epistle. The presentAmbrosian Rite sometimes has a Prophecy before the Epistle, in which case there follows thePsalmellus, two or three verses from a psalm, which corresponds to the Gradual. TheMozarabic Rite has three lessons, with a psalm (Psallendo) sung between the first two. Among Protestant churches,Lutherans sing a Gradual either between the Old Testament and the Epistle or the Epistle and the Gospel readings during theDivine Service.

The usual form of the Gradual is a single respond with a solo verse, although a final repetition of the respond was found up to the Renaissance and is still permitted by theLiber usualis.

Graduals are among the most florid andmelismatic of all Gregorian chants;Clamaverunt iusti, for example, has melismas with up to 66 notes.^[3] Graduals as a group are also notable for melismas that stress one or two pitches, both through repeated notes and repercussiveneumes. Both the verse and the respond tend to be similar in style, excepting a tendency for the verse to have a highertessitura.^[4]

Like Tracts, most Graduals show clear signs ofcentonization, a process of composition in which an extended vocabulary of stock musical phrases are woven together. Some phrases are only used forincipits, some only forcadences, and some only in the middle of a musical line. The Gregorian Graduals can be organized into musical families that share common musical phrases. Although nearly half of the Gregorian Graduals belong to a family of related chants in the fifthmode, the most famous family of Graduals are those of the second mode, commonly called theIustus ut palma group after one representative chant.^[5] The Graduals of theOld Roman chant fall similarly into centonization families, including a family corresponding to theIustus ut palma group.

Graduals were among the parts of the Mass most frequently composed asorgana, including both theSt. Martial School and theNotre Dame School. Ordinarily the parts that were sung by the soloist (the beginning of the respond and the verse) are the only parts so set, while the choral parts continued to be performed in plainsong. In 1198,Odo de Sully,Bishop of Paris, authorizedpolyphonic performances of Graduals, includingPérotin's famous four-partorgana,Sederunt principes forSt. Stephen's Day andViderunt omnes forChristmas.^[6]

The term "Gradual" (orGraduale) also refers to certain books compiling the musical items of the Mass. A Gradual is generally distinguished from theMissal by omitting the spoken items, and including the music for the sung parts. It includes both theOrdinary andProper, as opposed to theKyrial, which includes only the Ordinary, and theCantatory, which includes only theresponsorial chants.

Originally the book was called anantiphonale missarum ("Antiphonal of the Mass"). Graduals, like the later Cantatory, may have originally included only the responsorial items, the Gradual,Alleluia andTract.^[7]

1. ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gradual".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 311.
2. ^ Apel, Willi, ed (1972).Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Page 350.
3. ^Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes (1979).Graduale Triplex. Tournai, Belgium: Desclée & Socii.ISBN 2-85274-094-X.
4. ^Apel, Willi (1990).Gregorian Chant. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.ISBN 0-253-20601-4.
5. ^Hoppin, Richard (1978).Medieval Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 0-393-09090-6.
6. ^Hiley, David (1995).Western Plainchant: A Handbook. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.ISBN 0-19-816572-2.
7. ^ Apel, Willi, ed (1972).Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Page 350.

• Summary of the 1974 edition of theGraduale Romanum in tabular form.
• Full Text of the entire Graduale 1961
• "Gradual".Catholic Encyclopedia. Archived fromthe original on February 5, 2007. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2007.
• Digitized circa 15th Century Gradual at University of the Pacific.

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