View source for Gradual

{{Short description|Christian liturgical chant}}
{{For|the general concept|Gradualism}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}
[[File:Gradual of King John Albert.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Gradual of King [[John I Albert of Poland]] in the [[Wawel Cathedral]]'s [[Sacristy]]]]

The '''gradual''' ({{langx|la|graduale}} or {{lang|la|[[responsorium]] graduale}}) is a certain [[chant]] or [[hymn]] in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Catholic Mass]], [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] [[Divine Service (Lutheran)|Divine Service]], [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin {{lang|la|gradus}} (meaning "step") because it was once chanted on the step of the [[Ambon (liturgy)|ambo]] or [[altar]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://musingsoftodd.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/traditional-latin-mass-qa-gradual-alleluia-and-sequence/|title=Traditional Latin Mass Q&A – Gradual, Alleluia and Sequence|date=2013-09-17|work=Musings of Todd|access-date=2018-09-03|language=en-US}}</ref> It is customarily placed after a reading of scripture.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-11-14 |title=What is the Gradual? |url=https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/2019/11/14/what-it-the-gradual |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Gottesdienst |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the [[Tridentine Mass]], it is sung after the reading or chanting of the [[epistle]] and before the [[Hallelujah|Alleluia]], or, during penitential seasons, before the [[Tract (liturgy)|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{{citation needed|date=May 2018}} outside monasteries. The gradual is part of the [[Proper (liturgy)|proper]] of the Mass.

A gradual can also refer to a book collecting all the musical items of the Mass. The official such book for the [[Roman Rite]] is the [[Roman Gradual]] ({{lang|la|Graduale Romanum}}). Other such books include the Dominican Gradual.

==History==
[[File:Archive-ugent-be-15F17B58-1C27-11E5-AB8E-CF31D53445F2 DS-496 (cropped).jpg|thumb|352x352px|Excerpt from the manuscript of the gradual of the abbey of St.-Baafs in [[Ghent]]. Made in 1469.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Graduale van de St.-Baafsabdij te Gent[manuscript]|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:15F17B58-1C27-11E5-AB8E-CF31D53445F2#?c=&m=&s=&cv=5&xywh=-1062,0,9866,5508|access-date=2020-08-26|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]
The Gradual, like the Alleluia and Tract, is one of the [[responsorial]] chants of the Mass. Responsorial chants derive from early Christian traditions of singing choral refrains called ''responds'' between [[psalm]] verses. According to the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]], it (and the associated Alleluia or Tract) is the oldest of the chants of the [[Proper (liturgy)|Proper]] of the Mass, and, in contrast to the [[Introit]], [[Offertory]], and [[Communion (chant)|Communion]], 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 whole [[psalm]]. They were sung in the form of a ''psalmus responsorius'', i.e. the whole text was chanted by a reader appointed for this purpose. For some time before [[Pope Gregory I]], to sing these psalms was a privilege of [[deacon]]s at Rome, a privilege he suppressed in 595. The people answered each clause or verse with an acclamation. This apparently dates back to the [[synagogue]] 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 ([[Nevi'im|Prophets]], [[Epistle]], and [[Gospel]]). When the Old Testament reading was later dropped, the other two psalms became the Gradual and [[Hallelujah|Alleluia]], ordinarily sung one after another, until the 1970 [[Missal]] restored the three readings on Sundays and [[Solemnity|Solemnities]].

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 the [[Immaculate Conception]] is from the [[Book of Judith]]), or even non-scriptural verses (for example, the first verse in the [[Requiem Mass]]).

The Gradual is believed to have been so named because it was sung on the step ([[Latin (language)|Latin]]: ''gradus'') of the altar, or perhaps because the deacon was mounting the steps of the [[ambon (liturgy)|ambo]] for the reading or singing of the [[Gospel]].{{ref|ref01}} However, early sources use the form ''gradale'' ("graded" or "distinguished"), and the ''Alia Musica'' (c. 900) uses the term ''antiphona gradalis'' for the [[Introit]].{{ref|ref02}}

==Liturgical use==
The Gradual is to be sung after the reading of the [[Epistle]]. It is ordinarily followed by the [[Hallelujah|Alleluia]] or [[Tract (liturgy)|Tract]], but in Masses that have more readings than normal, such as during [[Lent]], 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. In [[Eastertide]], the Gradual is normally omitted, and a second Alleluia is sung in its place, except within the [[Octave (liturgical)|Octave]] of [[Easter]]. In what is now the [[Mass of Paul VI|ordinary form]] of the Roman Rite, the [[Responsorial Psalm]] normally takes the place of the Gradual, and is sung after the first reading, but it may be replaced by the Gradual.

In the [[Tridentine Mass]], the celebrant himself reads the Gradual with the Alleluia, Tract, or [[Sequence (poetry)|Sequence]] 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 to [[plainsong]].

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 the [[Byzantine Rite]] the reader of the epistle first chants "the Psalm of David" and then the "[[Prokeimenon]] of the Apostle", both short fragments of psalms. The [[Armenian Rite]], which has kept the older arrangement of three lessons, includes between each a fragment called the ''Saghmos Jashu'' (Psalm of dinnertime) and the ''Mesedi'' ([[mesodion]]), again a verse or two from a psalm. The [[East Syrian Rite|Nestorians]] use three verses of psalms each followed by three Alleluias (this group is called ''Zumara'') after the Epistle. The present [[Ambrosian Rite]] sometimes has a Prophecy before the Epistle, in which case there follows the ''Psalmellus'', two or three verses from a psalm, which corresponds to the Gradual. The [[Mozarabic Rite]] has three lessons, with a psalm (''Psallendo'') sung between the first two. Among Protestant churches, [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]]s sing a Gradual either between the Old Testament and the Epistle or the Epistle and the Gospel readings during the [[Divine Service (Lutheran)|Divine Service]].

==Musical form and style==
[[Image:Gregorian legend.png|thumb|''Sanctissimus namque Gregorius'', from the Vatican edition of the ''Graduale Romanum''.]]

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 the ''[[Liber usualis]]''.

Graduals are among the most florid and [[melisma]]tic of all Gregorian chants; ''Clamaverunt iusti'', for example, has melismas with up to 66 notes.{{ref|ref03}}  Graduals as a group are also notable for melismas that stress one or two pitches, both through repeated notes and repercussive [[neume]]s. Both the verse and the respond tend to be similar in style, excepting a tendency for the verse to have a higher [[tessitura]].{{ref|ref04}}

Like Tracts, most Graduals show clear signs of [[centonization]], a process of composition in which an extended vocabulary of stock musical phrases are woven together. Some phrases are only used for [[incipit]]s, some only for [[cadence (gait)|cadence]]s, 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 fifth [[Church mode|mode]], the most famous family of Graduals are those of the second mode, commonly called the ''[[Iustus ut palma]]'' group after one representative chant.{{ref|ref05}}  The Graduals of the [[Old Roman chant]] fall similarly into centonization families, including a family corresponding to the ''Iustus ut palma'' group.

==Polyphonic settings==
Graduals were among the parts of the Mass most frequently composed as [[organum|organa]], including both the [[St. Martial School]] and the [[Notre 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]], authorized [[polyphony|polyphonic]] performances of Graduals, including [[Pérotin]]'s famous four-part [[organum|organa]], ''[[Sederunt principes]]'' for [[St. Stephen]]'s Day and ''[[Viderunt omnes]]'' for [[Christmas]].{{ref|ref06}}

==Book==
{{Main|Roman Gradual}}
The term "Gradual" (or ''Graduale'') also refers to certain books compiling the musical items of the Mass. A Gradual is generally distinguished from the [[Missal]] by omitting the spoken items, and including the music for the sung parts. It includes both the [[Ordinary of the Mass|Ordinary]] and [[Proper (liturgy)|Proper]], as opposed to the [[Kyriale|Kyrial]], which includes only the Ordinary, and the [[Cantatory]], which includes only the [[responsorial]] chants.

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, [[Hallelujah|Alleluia]] and [[Tract (liturgy)|Tract]].{{ref|ref07}}

==Footnotes==
# {{note|ref01}} {{1911|wstitle=Gradual|volume=12|page=311|inline=1}}
# {{note|ref02}} Apel, Willi, ed (1972). ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Page 350.
# {{note|ref03}} {{cite book
 | last = Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes
 | year = 1979
 | title = Graduale Triplex
 | publisher = Desclée & Socii
 | location = Tournai, Belgium
 | isbn = 2-85274-094-X
}}
# {{note|ref04}} {{cite book
 | last = Apel
 | first = Willi
 | year = 1990
 | title = Gregorian Chant
 | publisher = Indiana University Press
 | location = Bloomington, IN
 | isbn = 0-253-20601-4
}}
# {{note|ref05}} {{cite book
 | last = Hoppin
 | first = Richard
 | year = 1978
 | title = Medieval Music
 | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
 | location = New York
 | isbn = 0-393-09090-6
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/medievalmusic00hopp
 }}
# {{note|ref06}} {{cite book
 | last = Hiley
 | first = David
 | year = 1995
 | title = Western Plainchant: A Handbook
 | publisher = Oxford University Press Inc.
 | location = New York
 | isbn = 0-19-816572-2
}}
# {{note|ref07}} Apel, Willi, ed (1972). ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Page 350.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/propers1974.pdf Summary] of the 1974 edition of the ''Graduale Romanum'' in tabular form.
*[http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/graduale1961.pdf Full Text of the entire Graduale 1961]
*{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06715a.htm|title=Gradual|work=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]|access-date=2007-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205092514/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06715a.htm|archive-date=February 5, 2007|url-status=dead}}
*[https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/gradual/ Digitized circa 15th Century Gradual at University of the Pacific.]

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