Cross,

I'm planning to use a vernacular translation of the tract, sung to psalm tones by the whole congregation.

That gives us a somewhat long tract on the First Sunday of Lent. By chance, I won't be playing at that Mass, so it won't be done. But I would do it anyway if I were to be the musician for that liturgy.

Here is a free download of Lenten Gospel Acclamations in the Eight Gregorian Modes composed by Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB.

Also, these Lenten booklets offer the Gospel Acclamations in the modes that correspond to the Tracts in the Graduale Romanum.

The Lenten Gospel acclamation, usually rendered in English as, "Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory," is lifted from the Office, where it replaces the Alleluia. Looking at the Liber Usualis one can verify this. Additionally, I just read this snippet from Pius Parsch's The Church's Year of Grace posted here.

Tracts, while not suppressed in the Ordinary form, apparently take second place to the Lectionary for the chant before the gospel -- even though in the latest GIRM they are given first place, albeit ambiguously.

At my first (and only) full-time church music job, I proposed that the tract be used (from the Graduale Simplex or BFW), but it was dismissed.

So in addition to ignorance on the part of the liturgical publishing powers-that-be, catering to those with the "Sunday obligation/we're here cause we have to be/'Lord, is it really good to be here?'" mentality seems to contribute in some small way to the Tract's practical suppression in the OF. Glancing at the Gregorian tract for the First Sunday in Lent, one can see why.

"I grew up with 'Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!'... Does anyone's parish do something different? Something... penitential?"

I sympathize with your impression that this doesn't seem particularly penitential. However, the text is very traditional, "Laus tibi, Domine, Rex aeternae gloriae" having for centuries replaced the Alleluia at the beginning of the Divine Office. (The bit about "Word from the heart of God", on the other hand, seems made up to me.) PBC has a setting of the Latin (using an adapted melody), for which the English equivalent appears here:

"Glory to you, O Word of God, Lord Jesus Christ" is very standard. But "Word from the heart of God"?

Oh, criminy. First of all, it's probably heresy of some kind. Second, it waters down the traditional Gospel phrase quite a bit. Usually, quoting directly from the Bible is seen as a feature, not a bug; but that doesn't apply to us! Oh, no, we're too good to be boring and sacred!

Sometimes I joke about God smiting us for this sort of thing. Sometimes I wonder why He hasn't done it yet.

The closest I could get, was "Glory to you, O Word of God, Lord Jesus Christ" from RitualSong by Richard Proulx.

AlVotta - "That gives us a somewhat long tract on the First Sunday of Lent."

WOW. I just listened to it and tried chanting along with it. I'm lucky I didn't pass out.

I should listen to the Offertory and Communion antiphons for the First Sunday of Lent... the same words, different melody and mode.

An 11-minute Tract sounds heavenly!

From my point of view, it strengthens the idea of the Tract (or Alleluia) as an "item" in itself, rather than a vignette that precedes the Gospel.

Here in Brazil there is a terrible habit, in some places, to sing Alleluia again after the Gospel, while the congregation applauds. One of these places is the old church of the National Sanctuary of Aparecida, at a daily mass fully and daily broadcast on TV.

My campaign: "the Alleluia is not a vignette", replaced in Lent with "the Tract is not a vignette".

And "Sing to the Lord" n. 163 is oblivious to the tract.

Valério, that's very interesting to learn about the placement of Alleluia in the Mozarabic Rite.

As to the Alleluia before and after, not only it doesn't make much sense - but also I am very annoyed by the fact that such an addition is freely made by people who are not entitled to do it. Different from doing something not-very-traditional, it's a rite that doesn't exist in the book.

I couldn't imagine it happened in some Papal Liturgies as you say. This is bad, though, of course, that are some other urgent problems to solve.

Gavin, I love the Hurd composition and we use it at Daily Mass. In fact, that is what I look forward to the most in Lent. In fact, I taught it to the folks at both my parish and the hospital chapel where my parochial vicar celebrates Mass. In fact, he has also done the Hurd version of the Kyrie. Do you know if GIA has a stand alone version that I can just buy, download and print, versicles included? I would very much like for my parish to use it. We are stuck with a way too happy "Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory" from OCP.

Incidentally, Felix, the Hurd version (not Bob Hurd, but the one that Gavin referenced) works really well in Spanish. In fact, my organist is able to work the versicle tune and make it fit in Spanish.

Jeff O - maybe in theory, but certainly not in practice. ;)

I noticed that at the Papal celebration of Ash Wednesday, the chant before the gospel was neither the tract from the Graduale Romanum, nor the responsorial psalm or the tract from the Graduale Simplex, nor the acclamation and verse from the Lectionary. The chant was Gregorian though, and seemed to be a responsorial psalm, with a response that sounded like "Christo gloria et imperium in saecula saeculorum" (cf. 1 Peter 4,11 or Revelation 1,6).

Does anyone know what was sung exactly?

Steven

Here they are again.