R. Rice Simple Choral Gradual
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    After looking through some (but perhaps not all) previous relevant posts, I cannot find links to a preview of Richard Rice's Simple Choral Gradual. The .pdf on the Musica Sacra home page is a link to the purchase website. Is it no longer available for preview, if it ever was? I'm trying to ascertain the difficulty of the music for a choir that typically sings music in 1 or 2 parts. Excerpts would be a great help.

    Thanks in advance.

    Edit: I seem to remember reading that some or all of the settings are SATB?
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 946
    http://musicasacra.com/books/simplechoralgradual.pdf

    Yeah, it used to be available for free, but I think they started selling it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. If you download it, it's only $6!

    Everything I saw was SATB, but I haven't spent extensive time with it.
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Ah, yes, thanks for pointing that out! I overlooked the download price.
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    It no longer appears to be available on Lulu (linked from the musicasacra website), neither for download nor hardcopy?

    Also: I'm not quite sure I understand how the Offertories work. Within each one there seems to be one line that has several verses, then another musical line that only has one line of text and one repeat sign.
    so, after which of the verses are you supposed to sing the final line?
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 946
    Mara:

    All of them. A traditional way to sing the chanted Offertory from the Gradual is to sing through the whole thing, and if you added verses, to conclude each verse by singing the second half of the antiphon.

    Richard Rice has cleverly set his offertories so that the first "verse" is actually the first half of the antiphon. The final (usually metered) line is the second half of the antiphon. This way, you sing the text in the traditional way while keeping it musically simple.

    Maybe my question is for a different topic, or maybe it's even already been answered. Is Mr. Rice planning on re-setting the SCG under the new Missal translation? The offertories obviously don't need it, but it just occurred to me the other day that he was using the Missal texts for Communion, not from the Gradual.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Ok, I see now that Richard has actually taken this down even for purchase. I guess that means that I must even take down the PDF.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Note to all:
    If you see a resource you like, or think you might use sometime even in the distant future, download it immediately. You never know what's going to happen.
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