Optional Lenten Gospel Acclamation chants
  • I am aware that there are a few older discussions on the topic of the optional Lenten Gospel Acclamations. The earliest seems to be from 2010 and the latest from 2017. None of them provide a clear answer to the following question. Where are the official Latin chant settings of the optional Lenten Gospel Acclamations? Someone said there are no official chant settings of the optional Lenten Gospel Acclamations. Is this true?
    The words are in the Ordo Lectionem Missae. I got that. There are six chant settings by Fr. Weber and four from Singing the Mass and Psallite Domino. I got those as well, but they do not seem to originate from official books like the Graduale Romanum. If they are there, would someone tell me the page number? Some have said the acclamations may be found in the Graduale Simplex. I read the online GS pdf from cover to cover twice and didn't see them.
    I just need number 1, Gloria et laus tibi, Christe, in its original, official chant setting and to whom is it attributed, if applicable. Thanks.
  • graduale
    Posts: 30
    Unfortunately, as far as I know, there are no chant settings of the (eight?) different Lenten Gospel Acclamation antiphons. I’ve looked all over the place for exactly what you’ve described.

    If I remember correctly, there may be a setting of a different text set as a Lenten Gospel Acc in Liber Cantualis, and maybe yet another in the Parish Book of Chant. But I don’t think there’s an official version of “Laus tibi” or the others published anywhere by Solesmes. I think I also looked up at one point each of the gospel acclamation texts in the Hesbert Corpus Antiphonali Officium if there were any matches but had no luck.

    For parish use, I’d recommend pointing it to a psalm tone, or using/adapting one of the simple tracts in the Graduale Simplex (under any Lenten Mass chant called “psalmus responsorius ii” or the “tractus”, such as pages 84-85). There may be another option in the “Jubilate Deo” Editio Vaticana booklet, too!
    Thanked by 1Gustavo Zayas
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    Where are the official Latin chant settings of the optional Lenten Gospel Acclamations?


    Are there any official versions beyond the texts themselves? These would have been promulgated with the NOM, so I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't official [musical] versions. I also wouldn't be surprised if these acclamations were set at the bishop-conference / territorial level. I could be wrong about that, but I seem to remember reading "approved for use within the United States" on one of the documents I once read pertaining to these.
    Thanked by 1Gustavo Zayas
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 966
    In "Singing the Mass" (available from Solesmes’ online bookshop) there are three settings of two Lenten acclamations: Laus tibi, Christe, Rex aeternae gloriae (modes IId and VIIIg) and Gloria et laus tibi, Christe (mode IVe). See p. 41. But I wouldn't call these ‘official’ settings.

    The reason that there are no ‘official’ settings of the Latin texts is, I assume, the same as the reason that there are no ‘official’ settings of the Latin responsorial psalms: the gregorian repertoire has other pieces in that place, the tracts. Just like the gradual is sung when using gregorian chant and not the psalm from the lectionary.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,370
    The 8 US lenten acclamations are translations (since revised) of the 8 official Latin texts see here .
    There are Lenten Gospel Acclamations in the Graduale Simplex, and used in the same way, but they are quite different (and much longer) : (mode, incipit, page)
    ANTIPHONAE ACCLAMATIONIS
    1 Amen, amen dico vobis .. 111
    5 Non in solo pane .. 99
    1 Qui verbum Dei .. 105
    6 Vobis datum est .. 93
    Those are authentic antiphons from the 'treasury' found on Antiphonale Synopticum :
    2152 Amen amen dico vobis si quis
    2593 Non in solo pane
    0688 Qui verbum dei retinent
    0687 Vobis datum est

  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,370
    It is interesting to note that GS was prepared for the 1962 Missal, in accordance with the mandate in SC §117 promulgated in Dec 1963, and it was ready by April 1965. Dom Cardine seems to have been one who did not let the grass grow under his feet.
    The structure of the chants beteen the readings (and there were still only two readings) is different from GR, in that the Gradual antiphon with verse, is replaced with a psalmus responsorius verse, response, verse, response,↻...; or similarly a psalmus alleluiaticus in which the response is Alleluia, ... The Alleluia is replaced, not dropped, in the Lenten season with these new Lenten Acclamations, and there are still tracts. So the instructions in that first edition say :
    16 b. During seasons when the Alleluia is not used,
    a psalm with a psalm verse as response, and, optionally, an antiphon as the gospel acclamation with at least one verse, are sung;
    or else, a psalm without a response, that is, a tract, and, optionally, the gospel acclamation as just described.

    I see already a clear shift of emphasis from Antiphons with added psalm verse(s), to psalm with psalm verse refrain(response).
    Thanked by 1Paul F. Ford
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,021
    We have been using the Tracts from The Saint Peter Gradual at our OF Masses this Lent, as well as the TSPG Gradual, but with "Attende Domine" refrain for the congregational antiphon.

    We included in the worship aid "Please, remain seated for the chanting of the Tract." and "Please, stand for the proclamation of the Gospel."
    Thanked by 1Gustavo Zayas