Can we say metered, rather than metrical?

I think they are a great idea. As Jackson notes, English tradition hymnals like The English Hymnal offered both plainsong and metered tunes for office hymns, many of the tunes taken from French sources!

I like to use metrical tunes for English LOTH vespers because Gregorian tunes would be so foreign to congregations I have worked with. I’d love to get to the point of doing some of both, but I am afraid to take too big of a step at first.

Yes, sorry, I meant "metered" rather than "metrical".

Metered and metrical are the same thing, referring to metered verse, which is by definition metrical, measured. The scholarship is still out on whether the Gregorian melodies were performed measured according to the metrical longs and shorts of their texts - a la the well known Willcocks arrangement of 'Of the Father's Heart Begotten'. The weight of current opinion seems to favour the idea that they were..

I agree with you about French tunes, Jehan, though I am partial to Sarum versions. It occurs to me that a good doctoral thesis would be a comparison of Sarum and French melodies of the Gregorian repertory and their provenances. I have a book, The French Diocesan Hymns and Their Melodies, by Cyril E Pocknee, which might interest you greatly. If you could find a copy I'm sure it would be a treasured addition to your library. (Try Amazon or Abe Books - or there is Blackwell's, a venerable bookseller in Oxford who specialises in used and rare scholarly books.)

I have a book, The French Diocesan Hymns and Their Melodies, by Cyril E Pocknee, which might interest you greatly. If you could find a copy I'm sure it would be a treasured addition to your library.

Many thanks for your suggestion, I will look for this book.
On the whole, I would be inclined to think there are similarities between Sarum and French Gregorian melodies, since Sarum is an "Anglicized" version of the Liturgy of Rouen. Most features of the Sarum Rite are also found in the local French Uses of the Roman rite (with the exception of Lyons, which really is it's own thing, a survivance of the old Roman rite of Saint Gregory the Great).

Still, it is recommended to get over the notion that Gregorian melodies are not rhythmic.

Yes, sorry. Gregorian chant is definitely rhythmic, at least when it comes to the hymns. I have a version of the "Vexilla Regis" sung by the Chantres du Thoronet which is exactly as you described.

Could you elaborate on the connection with the rite of Gregory the Great which you mention?

With pleasure.
When Charlemagne imposed the Roman Liturgy upon his dominion, Lyons was one of the main cities of the Gauls. Charlemagne appointed as archbishop of Lyons a man he knew and trusted, called Leidrade, who introduced the Roman rite in Lyons. Back then, the Roman rite was essentially that of Saint Gregory, whose description can be found in the "Ordo Romanus Primus" (for Holy Mass).
The Canons of Lyons kept this rite with great care, always making sure it would go unchanged (for which Saint Bernard of Clervaux praised Lyons). And unchanged it was, until the 18th Century.

Meanwhile, the Roman Liturgy 'suffered' two changes of some importance during the Middle Ages. One was the importation of early Gallican elements into the rite (which also krept into the Lyonese rite to a smaller degree), and the other was the exile at Avignon, where the much smaller churches called for a much reduced ceremonial. Hence, the Roman Curia adopted the Missal and Breviary of the Franciscan Friars, which was considerably reduced when compared to the rite of the Roman Basilicas (but which was still undoubtedly Roman in character). These books are the direct ancestors of the "Tridentine rite", which differs only in small details from them.
Because of this, the rite of Lyons is very interesting to look at. Of course, one should not see it as identical in every single detail to the rite codified by Saint Gregory (for instance, the rite of Lyons has many medieval sequences, which are of course absent from the "Gregorian rite"); nevertheless, it is a rite of considerable antiquity. Among the early Roman elements kept at Lyons were the following:

- Pontifical High Mass requires the presence of seven acolytes (in alb, amice and cinture), seven subdeacons, seven deacons and six concelebrating priests.
- The Gospel book is kissed by all attending clergy.
- The Offertory verses are printed in full into the Missal.
- The "Libera nos" is sung, and not said silently.
- Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year all have proper Epistles and Gospels.
- No Office hymns, except the "Te lucis" at Compline.
- No Trisagion on Good Friday.
- At Easter, Vespers follow the ancient stational rite which Amalarius called "Gloriosum Officium", with a procession to the fonts and to the cross.
Among other things.

I don't know about this. But it is very likely for many late melodies.

Could the "slightly awkward" sound be due to accented and non-accented syllables of the texts not matching up with the strong and weak beats of the melodies?

Wasn't it Widor who wrote all sorts of letters complaining about the suppression of Gallican chant once Solesmes started publishing? I can't remember now, but I think it was either him or Dupré.

Anyway, to get back to the subject, I'd would be very interested to see some examples of some metered hymns, unless Jehan might be referring to compositions directly based on certain melodies from which they were composed. One example that sticks out to me is Jesu Redemptor Omnium for 3 voices by Oreste Ravanello. CC Watershed has a good example of this alternating with the plainsong.
https://archive.ccwatershed.org/pdfs/5546-jesu-redemptor-omnium-oreste-ravanello/

I'm really not sure what is meant by metrical hymns, and also whether Latin is being discussed, or English translations.

Kathy -
Nearly all hymns are verse, poetry, and as such are metrical - they have metre. This applies to hymns of the Gregorian repertory and equally to other more modern hymnody. They are all poetry and therefore they are all metrical, measured.

All these hymns can be sung to Gregorian melodies or modern tonal melodies which have the corresponding metre.

The confusion over Gregorian vs tonal melodies lies in the precarious assumption that all chant is sung to equalist principles, an assumption that grows less tenable by the day. The more or less rhythmic complexity of the tonal repertory is not, actually, utterly foreign to a correct understanding of rhythm applied to Gregorian melodies. In fact, it is quite likely that the former evolved from the latter.

So, all hymns are poetry and therefore metrical.
All melodies, whether Gregorian or not, are also metrical, the difference lying only in their relative metrical complexity and their modal vs tonal foundations.

The distinction that we should make is modal chant vs modern tonal melodies, but their texts (and it is the text which is the hymn) are all equally metrical and can be sung equally to modal chant and tonal melodies.

Nearly all hymns are verse, poetry, and as such are metrical - they have metre.

Another distinction between true hymnody and modern "worship songs"?