Gradual for Feast of the Assumption
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    I did a search but could not find the question I am about to ask. Here it is: The Gradual for Assumption in the Extraordinary Form is similar but not the same as in the Ordinary Form. The chant music is the same but some of the words in the OF are different than in the EF. Also, there is a repetition in the OF which does not happen in the EF. All the Graduals I know of are sung straight through with no repeats. Does anyone out there know why the change of words from the 1961 Missal and why the repeat?

    Thanks
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Can you clarify? I performed these chants in concert last August, so I'm pretty familiar with them. As I recall the gradual in the OF is Audi Filia, and there is no repeated text in that chant. The text is the same as in the St. Gall manuscript, with as far as I can tell only one ornamental pes (first syllable of "speciem")that did not make it into the Vatican edition. What two editions are you comparing? Are you perhaps looking at a different version of Audi Filia (e.g., for another date)?
  • WJA
    Posts: 237
    Also, there is a repetition in the OF which does not happen in the EF. All the Graduals I know of are sung straight through with no repeats. Does anyone out there know why the change of words from the 1961 Missal and why the repeat?


    I assume by "repetition" you mean that the 1974 Graduale indicates that the antiphon of the gradual may be repeated after the verse.

    My understanding (from reading this thread on this forum) is that, in the EF, the general practice for some time has been not to repeat the antiphon after the verse (instead, the choir moves straight to the alleluia), but that it is certainly permitted to repeat the antiphon.

    In the OF, it seems to me that it makes sense to repeat the antiphon of the gradual, at least at a Sunday Mass, because -- unlike in the EF -- the gradual is followed by another reading before the alleluia and Gospel are sung. Thus, the gradual is not "concluded" by the alleluia and instead needs a conclusion of its own, the repetition of its antiphon. Also, the repetition of the gradual antiphon in the OF parallels the repetition of the antiphon in the responsorial psalm, which creates a sort of backwards continuity which seems pleasing somehow. Anyway, if the 1974 Graduale indicates that the gradual antiphon should be repeated, that may be why.

    No doubt more learned members of this forum will correct me.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    Hi Incantu,

    Nope same date for the chants and they are both Audi filia I down loaded the chant score from the Isaac Jogues site and it is also here that they repeat antiphon, as WJA explains. The text from the EF is from Ps 44 just as is the text from the OF. I pulled out my Missal and it indicates vs. 11, 12, and 14 In the OF the psalm verses are 11, 12 and 5

    This is how the EF reads:

    Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam:
    et concupiscet rex pulchritudinem tuam.
    Tota decora ingreditur filia regis,
    texturae aureae sunt amictus ejus.

    The OF:

    Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam:
    quia concupivit rex speciem tuam.
    Specie tua, et pulchritudine tua intende,
    prospere procede, et regna.


    It's not a big deal as the chant is basically the same I'm just curious as to why the difference. Generally there is no difference other than at times the chants are changed up a bit chronologically in the OF from what they were in the 62 Missal probably to fit the different cycles of readings. But, I have not heard or seen so far a change in the text used, I was just intrigued.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,177
    Is the OF text taken from the Nova Vulgata?
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    I don't know Chonak but I know one of the verses is different, at least according to the score from the Isaac Jogue web page and the 62 missal and I am curious why they would change the verse. There must be some reason. I have read that some of the texts used in some of the propers is from the Vetus Latina. What is the Nova Vulgata, a different translation from Jerome's Vulgate?
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    The 1961 Gradual has two different versions of Audi filia:
    - Audi filia... et concupiscet: this is used for the Assumption;
    - Audi filia... quia concupivit: this is used for St. Cecilia's feast.

    The former is, as far as I know, an adaptation fabricated when the Assumption got a new Mass in the early 1950's. The latter is the original mediaeval piece.

    The Ordo Cantus Missae, as usual, tries to avoid neo-gregorian pieces. So the original Audi filia... quia concupivit is used in the Ordinary Form for the Assumption.

    The Nova Vulgata is a new (1979, rev. 1986) translation of the scriptures, based upon the Vulgate. It is used thorughout the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but no chant has been altered to conform with the Nova Vulgata: on the contrary, ancient readings (often predating the Vulgate) have been restored in recent critical editions.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    Concerning the repetition of the respond after the verse, this is allowed, but not mandatory, in the Extraordinary Form. It appears, though, to be seldom done. See De ritibus servandis, § IV in the 1961 Gradual, or Psallite Sapienter by B. Andrew Mills, § 50; this book, recommended by the Ecclesia Dei commission in their correspondence, says: «This is the ancient form of the chant, and is to be preferred whenever possible.»

    In the Ordinary Form, the repetition is also allowed, but again not mandatory. See the Introduction of Ordo Cantus Missae, § II 5.

    The sole differences in performance between the Extraordinary and Ordinary Form are:
    - in the EF, the respond must be intoned up to the asterisk by the cantor(s) when sung for the first time;
    - in the OF, this may be done, but the choir may sing the respond right from the beginning (easier to do when the organ is played);
    - in the EF, the beginning of the verse is sung by the cantor(s) up to the asterisk; then, if the respond is not repeated after the verse, the final part of the verse after the asterisk must be sung by the choir; only if the respond is repeated do(es) the cantor(s) sing the whole verse all alone;
    - in the OF, the whole verse is sung by the cantor(s) all alone whether the respond be repeated or not.

    PS - I call respond to the part of the Gradual before the verse, following Willi Appel's book Gregorian Chant.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    Thanks a bunch to all of you!
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    Valerio is right, the gradual is a responsorial not an antiphonal chant, and the first part is the respond, not the antiphon. The same is true for the offertory. Responsorial chants have melismatic verses, antiphonal chants have psalm-tone verses.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    Yes I am glad Valerio posted this information. At present we do not repeat the respond so the tutti schola comes in at the asterisk.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    dvalerio - yes I found an interesting article in the Gregorian Review archives Vol. 1 No 4 by Dom Gajard which discusses at length what happened in 1950. Very interesting
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Not to flagellate an ex-equine, but does this mean that if the Respond is repeated that the cantor must sing the verse alone? Or only that it is permissible? If I had known that it was permitted, i would have done things differently at the chant wedding we did last month.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    Thus saith the 1961 Roman Gradual, De ritibus servandis, § 4: «Two [cantors] say the verse of the Gradual, which is concluded from the asterisk down to the end by the whole choir; or, after the responsorial manner, when this is seen to be more fitting, after the verse sung wholly by the cantor or the cantors, all repeat the first part of the respond, down to the verse.» (My translation, as usual I apologise for eventual mistakes.) The choir began to finish the verse because it would no longer sing the respond again, so that the chant might still be finished by all voices together; hence it does not make much sense to have the choir finish the verse if the respond follows, but, frankly, it's not such a ghastly mistake...
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