The ''Roman Gradual'' (Latin: ''Graduale Romanum'') is an official liturgical book of the

Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

containing

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of no ...

s, including the proper and many more, for use in

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. The '' editio typica'' dates from 1908. The latest edition of 1974 takes account of the 1970 revision of the ''

Roman Missal The Roman Missal () is the book which contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Roman Rite, the most common liturgy and Mass of the Catholic Church. There have been several editions. History Before the Council of Trent (1570) ...

''. In 1979, the ''Graduale Triplex: The Roman Gradual With the Addition of Neums from Ancient Manuscripts'' ( in English (1985), in Latin) was published. It added reproductions of the

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...

s from ancient manuscripts placed above and below the later notation.

Description

The Roman Gradual includes the *

Introit The Introit () is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and '' Gloria Patri'', which are spoken or sung at the ...

(entrance chant: antiphon with verses), * the

Gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...

psalm (a meditative psalm chant, according to the 1970 rite this may be replaced with a simpler responsorial psalm except when the Mass is celebrated "in Cantu" according to the rubrics of the accompanying document ''Ordo Cantus Missae''), or an additional

Alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...

verse during Eastertide, * the Sequence Hymn (obligatory on

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

and

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...

, optional on Corpus Christi and

Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows (), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are Titles of Mary, names by which Mary, mother of Jesus, is referr ...

), * the

chant, or the tract during Lent (before 1970 also during the

Septuagesima Septuagesima () is the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Ash Wednesday. The term is sometimes applied to the seventy days starting on Septuagesima Sunday and ending on the Saturday after Easter. Alternatively, the term is sometimes ap ...

), * the offertory chant, * and the Communion antiphon. 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 Order of Mass is an outline of a Mass celebration, describing how and in what order liturgical texts and rituals are employed to constitute a Mass. The expression Order of Mass is particularly tied to the Roman Rite where the sections under that ...

: 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 The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

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).

Structure of the 1974 edition

The 1974 Roman Gradual is arranged into 8 major sections: # Praenotanda (Rubrics) # Proprium de Tempore (Proper of Seasons) # Communia (Commons) # Proprium de Sanctis (Proper of Saints) # Missae Rituales ad Diversa et Votivae (Ritual and Votive Masses) # Cantus in Ordine Missae Occurrentes (Chants Occurring in Order of Mass, including the Kyriale). # Appendix (Containing hymns and litanies) # 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,

, and Tract. In 1908 a revised edition of the Roman Gradual was published. In it

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...

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. 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 The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

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

and calendar. Some chants were replaced by ancient ones rediscovered after 1908. 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, but is not a

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...

. Despite an initial disappearance of the use of the Roman Gradual from many parishes following the

, 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

, 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 The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

, including

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

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.

Bibliography and external links

* Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes. Graduale Romanum. Desclée & Co., Tournai, Belgium 1974.
Jeffrey Tucker: The Real Catholic Songbook
* Bergeron, Katherine. Decadent enchantments: the revival of Gregorian chant at Solesmes. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1998. . * Gregorian Chant Propers (ccwatershed.org).

References

{{Authority control Roman Rite liturgical books Catholic liturgical music Mass in the Catholic Church