Graduale Simplex

Authority level: Authoritative doctrine
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideThe entry combines Catholic doctrine about worship with approved liturgical discipline and theological explanation; the labels do not make every ceremonial norm irreformable.
Contents

Graduale Simplex is the official Simple Gradual of the Roman Rite, arranging a more accessible Gregorian repertory of antiphons and psalms for use at Mass.

Graduale simplex ("Simple Gradual") is a gradual in Latin and in Gregorian chant, published by the Vatican in 1967 following the Second Vatican Council, so that the use of Gregorian chant can adapt to smaller parishes and churches or to those who lack experienced choirs.

Its full title is Graduale simplex in usum minorum ecclesiarum (simple gradual for the use of small churches).

A simpler Roman chant book

The Graduale Simplex was prepared for churches and communities unable to sing the more elaborate proper chants of the Graduale Romanum. Its simplicity concerns musical and repertorial demands, not the sacred character of the texts or the seriousness of the liturgy. It groups antiphons and psalms in reusable seasonal and categorical series so that a modest schola, cantor, and assembly can sing genuine Roman psalmody without needing a different complex proper for every date. The current typical book belongs among the officially recognized Gregorian chant books of the Roman Rite.

Simple does not mean abbreviated hymnal, children's substitute, or permission to reduce the Mass to whatever melody is easiest. The book remains ordered to the liturgical action: an entrance chant opens the celebration and accompanies the procession, the psalm responds to God's word, the Alleluia acclaims the approaching Gospel, the offertory accompanies preparation of the gifts, and the Communion chant expresses spiritual union among communicants. Its repertory should be selected according to season, celebration, and rubric rather than detached as generic background music.

Relationship to the Graduale Romanum

The Roman Gradual generally assigns a particular chant to a particular Mass and preserves a highly developed Gregorian repertory. The Simple Gradual uses a narrower repertory and permits seasonal repetition so that singing can be sustained with fewer musical resources. It is therefore a distinct liturgical book, not merely an elementary edition of every chant in the Roman Gradual. A community can lawfully draw from either book where the General Instruction permits, and the use of the simpler book is not an assertion that the Roman Gradual has become obsolete.

Antiphon and psalm

Its characteristic form joins an antiphon to selected psalm verses. The cantor or choir can intone the antiphon, the assembly can repeat it, and verses can be distributed according to musical and pastoral ability. This is liturgical psalmody rather than a metrical song loosely inspired by a psalm. The text, function, and placement must remain intact. The number of verses can be adapted to the length of the procession, but adaptation does not authorize rewriting the antiphon or transferring a chant to a function for which the book and Missal do not provide.

Use within the Mass

The General Instruction names the seasonal antiphon and psalm from the Simple Gradual as an option for the Entrance and permits its antiphon and psalm for Communion. It also recognizes its psalmody in connection with the responsorial psalm and Gospel acclamation under the applicable territorial norms. These permissions are precise alternatives within the Roman Rite; they are not a hierarchy in which every other approved sacred song is illicit. Gregorian chant holds pride of place, while other sacred music that corresponds to the liturgical action and lawful norms remains admitted.[1]

A pastor introducing the Graduale Simplex should distinguish the several ministries involved. The schola or cantor prepares the chant; the psalmist exercises the ministry appropriate to the responsorial psalm; the assembly participates through responses, antiphons, listening, posture, and the whole action. Participation is not measured only by constant simultaneous singing, yet a performance that systematically excludes the faithful from responses the book makes accessible would defeat much of its pastoral purpose. Repetition across a season can form memory and common prayer instead of signaling lack of preparation.

Edition, language, and pastoral judgment

The 1975 Graduale Simplex is identified by the United States bishops among the principal books of music for the Eucharist. As a Latin typical chant book, it preserves the union of authorized text and melody. Vernacular adaptations or newly composed settings require the approvals applicable to liturgical texts and music; translating an antiphon privately and fitting it to a chant does not itself create an approved vernacular Simple Gradual. Conversely, a lawful vernacular chant option should not be dismissed merely because it is not printed between the covers of the Latin book.[2][3]

Pastoral choice should be governed by the day, the assembly, the abilities of ministers, and the purpose of each chant. The Graduale Simplex is especially useful where a stable, scriptural, ecclesial repertory can be learned gradually, but it is not confined to small congregations and need not be sung in its entirety at every Mass. The Roman Missal, Roman Lectionary, liturgical calendar, and applicable music law still govern the celebration. Used according to those books, the Simple Gradual offers noble simplicity without confusing simplicity with informality or the Church's flexibility with private authorship.[4]

Constitution on liturgy

The publication of the first edition of the Graduale simplex was achieved in 1967, as a reworking of the Gregorian chant book in order to satisfy the Sacrosanctum Concilium Constitution of 4 December 1963, following the Second Vatican Council.

The typical edition of the books of Gregorian chant is to be completed; and a more critical edition is to be prepared of those books already published since the restoration by St. Pius X.

It is desirable also that an edition be prepared containing simpler melodies, for use in small churches.

— Constitution on the sacred liturgy, article 117 [5] (1963)

History

There have been two editions of the Graduale Simplex : the first was published by the Holy See in 1967. The second, revised and definitive edition, was published in 1975 and has been re-printed since then.

The Graduale simplex in its definitive edition includes the Kyriale simplex, as well as some famous hymns: Te Deum, Veni Creator, Te decet laus, etc.

Editions

  • Graduale simplex in usum minorum ecclesiarum, 1st edition, Vatican 1967.
  • Graduale simplex in usum minorum ecclesiarum, 2nd edition, Libreria editrice Vaticana, Vatican 1975, ISBN 978-88-209-1603-9 515 p.

References

  1. 1.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — The approved Roman norms for the books, ministers, processions, chants, ambo, altar, proclamation of the Gospel, selection of Mass texts, and relationship among the Missal, Lectionary, Graduals, and Evangeliary
  2. 2.USCCB, Liturgical Books Currently in Use — The bishops' conference inventory of Latin typical editions and approved United States editions in the Roman Missal, Roman Pontifical, Roman Ritual, chant-book, Office, Martyrology, and related families
  3. 3.Liturgiam authenticam — The Holy See's authoritative enumeration of Roman liturgical books and its norms for typical editions, approved vernacular translations, publication, biblical texts, and the integrity of the Church's liturgical language
  4. 4.Sacrosanctum Concilium — Vatican II's constitution on the authority, revision, pastoral purpose, scriptural abundance, sacred music, noble simplicity, and faithful celebration of the Church's liturgy
  5. 5."Sacrosanctum concilium".