All Souls', Requiem Mass, and the 1974 Graduale Romanum
  • WJA
    Posts: 237
    Our schola is preparing to sing most of the Requiem Mass for All Souls' Day. I recently compared the text of Agnus Dei for the Requiem Mass from the 1962 Graduale Romanum with that in the 1974 GR and noticed that in the 1962 version, the words are "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem" "with sempi aeternum" in the last repetition, but in the 1974 GR, the words are the usual "miserere nobis."

    Is is OK to sing the 1962 version, or are we bound to sing the 1974 version?

    Also, I noticed that Lux Aeternum in the 1974 GR doesn't have any verses, but just refers you to various psalms (without providing the setting), whereas the 1962 version gives you the verse "Requiem aeterna . . . " with a setting, which I presume is a psalm tone.

    Seems to me we can just sing the "Requiem aeterna" verse as in the 1962 GR.

    Thanks for any guidance you may have to offer.

    Justin
  • Lawrence
    Posts: 123
    I just had to face this issue last evening in planning an All Souls Mass myself. At this point in time, I am more accustomed to the Traditional Rite, and so I was taken aback when we opened the 1974 GR and found all manner of mindless absurdities.

    As regards your specific questions: I am quite sure that it is okay to sing the verse of the Lux aeterna from the 1962 Graduale Romanum. There should be no problem with this. As long as the anthrax in the envelope known as alius cantus aptus exists, we may as well use it to the benefit of tradition where possible.

    Regarding the Agnus Dei, present legislation from on high has it that using the older form would not be permissible. However, I have seen it done at Novus Ordo Masses on the basis of an appeal to Tradition. I will not occupy myself with adjudicating this matter here, but leave that to you to judge given your own local circumstances. I myself would refuse to call such a "departure" from the rubrics a liturgical abuse. Such is nothing more than parricidal positivism.

    There are other imbecilities in the 1974 Requiem Mass, but for now I shall behave myself and not mention them.

    (Gets off soapbox.)
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 311
    I may be wrong, but in the period between 1971 and 1974, wasn't the 1962 Grad. Rom. still to be used even in the Novus Ordo? Seems to me that if it was used in the Novus Ordo once, it can be used again.
  • a1437053a1437053
    Posts: 198
    Is this not one small example of differences that abound throughout?

    Will someone, one day, mend all of these differences. Will we have ONE version of everything?
  • Lawrence
    Posts: 123
    Ioannes Andreades makes an interesting point, though I'm sure that there are at least some out there who would say that since there is now a Graduale Romanum specifically for the Novus Ordo, that it must be used. I wouldn't be one of those people. I'm sure you'll all be stunned by that.

    We can quite easily have _one_ of everything. We need only to restore the Gradual as it existed before 1974. Some tweaking might be necessary for new saints, but many of these would already be covered by the various commons. The biggest obstacle to a sensible Graduale in the new rite is the three year lectionary cycle, along with the mindset that the chants must be related to the "themes" of the readings, etc., but there is no basis for this in tradition. I speak in the main of Green Sundays. Then there is the problem of "options," such as in the Requiem Mass, which destroys the idea of a Proper altogether.

    As Albert Jay Nock said, in agreeing with one of his forebears, "When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change." One can make the argument that mid-20th century liturgical changes were necessary. But it would seem difficult to justify the Glorified Table of Contents known as the 1974 Graduale Romanum.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Many congregations using both forms just use the old form of these songs for OF. I don't see that there could possibly any problem with that. It is done all over the country, for practical reasons if nothing else.

    The change in 1974 is so unwarranted that it causes one to suspect that it was not well thought out at any level.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    As far as I know, the rationale behind the change in the Agnus Dei invocations in the pro defunctis masses of the current Missale Romanum is that the different endings for Requiem Masses were a relatively recent innovation. Someone with the scholarly knowledge I lack may confirm if this is indeed true. This said, I guess I would find a polyphonic Agnus Dei with the old (EF) endings perfectly proper in a OF pro defunctis Mass. The use of the special pro defunctis Agnus Dei from the 1961 Graduale in the OF seems to me more questionable, as it is an obvious variation of the (supposedly older and conform to current rubrics) Agnus Dei XVIII---but I bow, of course, before more learned opinions. (By the way, there is no mention of «other suitable song» in any rubric concerning the Agnus Dei, that cannot be replaced; never, at any time, for any reason whatsoever.)

    The 1961 Graduale did give that one verse «Requiem aeternam» after the communion antiphon; the 1962 «Versus psalmorum et canticorum» gives you two full psalms to be sung before that verse, that should then replace the costumary Gloria Patri at the end. Indeed, the current Graduale only points the psalms; they are expected to be sung with Gloria Patri tones, but in this case it is fitting to use the old tone of the «Requiem aeternam». Check http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/luxaeterna.pdf in this very website, where one of the several possible psalms is set to that tone, with the old verse at the end. (The other possible psalms would just follow the same tone.) Curiously enough, the (usually very scholarly) German site Gregor und Taube does it the other way round at http://www.gregor-und-taube.de/I.1._Messe_fur_Verstorbene.pdf by putting the «Requiem aeternam» verse before the psalm.
  • Praying The Mass
    Posts: 70
    Assuming the Requiem Masses in the EF and OF are related/identical to the Masses for the Dead which are offered on the Feast of All Souls, it would come as little surprise to me that the Agnus Dei was changed in the OF. The prayers of the Ordinary Form All Souls Masses do not much resemble those of the Extraordinary Form Masses (as detailed here). Things are very vaguely hinted at (dancing dangerously close to flat-out omitting them).
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Is there really an official version of the Graduale Romanum? Reminder: the Solesmes books are still PRIVATE editions.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Regarding the Agnus Dei, present legislation from on high has it that using the older form would not be permissible.

    Can you point me to legislation on this, please?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,220
    Norm #16 in Ordo Cantus Missae, on the Agnus Dei, seems to exclude the older form: "The last time, the invocation is concluded with the words dona nobis pacem."

    These norms are reprinted in the 1974 Graduale, p. 11.
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