Question for Ordinariate musicians, Re: Propers
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    So, as someone who follows things related to liturgical music fairly closely, I am curious about the music for the Propers in the Ordinariate, specifically, the various editions, and how they differ:

    I have:

    * Palmer & Burgess Plainchant Gradual, Vols. 1 & 2, and Vols. 3 & 4 (CMAA reprint), which is the full Gregorian settings in English, with optional psalm-tone verses for the Graduals, Alleluias, & Tracts:

    * C. David Burt's The Anglican Use Gradual, Partridge Hill Press, original 2006 version; which is based based on Burgess's psalm-tone version of the Propers, and intended for the prior Anglican Use Missal (also contains some of the full chants from Geoffrey Palmer, as in the Plainchant Gradual

    * The Saint Peter Gradual, which is a revised edition of the Burgess psalm-tone Propers arranged according to the Ordinariate Calendar & Divine Worship the Missal: these are in modern notation, as opposed to the A.U.G., above, which is in neums.

    Burt has put together a new version of The Anglican Use Gradual, Second Edition, revised in 2019 according to DW:TM, and only containing the Psalm-tones of Burgess. This I do not have.

    My question is, how does The Anglican Use Gradual, Second Edition compare with The Saint Peter Gradual, the new draft Divine Worship: Gradual, and The Plainchant Gradual?
  • There is a draft of Divine Worship: The Gradual, circulating around ordinariate circles, which is a revised edition of the Burgess psalm-tone Propers arranged according to the Ordinariate Calendar & Divine Worship the Missal. It is in square notes, and edited by Burt circa 2017. The presumption is that the Chancery was looking to add this to the growing number of official ordinariate books. However, the recent publication of The Anglican Use Gradual, Second Edition, of which I do not have a copy but which I presume is the finalized version of the so-called Divine Worship: The Gradual is highly suggestive that this project was nixed by the chancery. If that is the case, I would not be too unhappy, as it seems silly to me to promulgate an official graduale of psalm-toned propers, when the most obvious choice would be to edit the Plainchant Gradual according to Divine Worship.

    I do know that the US ordinariate hymnal in its later stages of evolution, so perhaps the project of the graduale was put on the backburner in order to work on the hymnal instead.

    Other than the difference in notation with the St. Peter Gradual, and the welcome restoration of latin incipits (which the St. Peter left out), the draft of Divine Worship: The Gradual contains a complete set of votive masses, as well as all of the special antiphons for various feasts such as the entrance rites on Palm Sunday, various Triduum chants, the entrance right of Candlemas, Sprinkling rite antiphons, the Advent and Lent Prose, the O Antiphons for Sapientiatide, etc. I assume these made it into the Anglican Use Gradual, Second Edition as well.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Thank you.
    the most obvious choice would be to edit the Plainchant Gradual according to Divine Worship.

    That's what I was hoping the draft would be. I guess I'll be doing more waiting on that, alas.

    I am looking forward to seeing the hymnal when it's published.
  • I do know that the US ordinariate hymnal in its later stages of evolution, so perhaps the project of the graduale was put on the backburner in order to work on the hymnal instead.


    I find it strange to publish yet another hymnal when the 1940 Hymnal used in the Episcopal Church would fill the gap with great ease.
  • Sorry, I published twice the same comment.
  • I imagine they're trying to get away from using hymnals which are literally protestant hymnals, despite the gems they may contain. In my area, less in-the-know folks are often confused about what exactly the Ordinariate is. Using a hymnal from a prominent American protestant denomination probably doesn't help distinguish them as Catholic. I know I would feel more comfortable singing from a difinitively Catholic hymnal, and conversely I would feel strange always singing from an Episcopalian book. This is total speculation on my part though; maybe their reasons are wholly unrelated to this.
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores WGS
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    The other thing is that the proposed Ordinariate Hymnal will likely be a dream come true for many of us: A solidly Catholic, English-language hymnal, devoid of the "traditional" rubbish from the turn of the twentieth century that is sadly still republished in so-called "traditional" hymnals and the modern nonsense, and, most likely without the drastic destruction of texts found in publications of the Big Three Minus One. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ordinariate Hymnal finds its way into regular parishes.
  • I know I would certainly be interested…
  • devoid of the "traditional" rubbish from the turn of the twentieth century that is sadly still republished in so-called "traditional" hymnals
    Hear, hear. No Catholic with any taste can simultaneously reject all post-conciliar music and remain attached to that trash. Almost every "Catholic hymnal" from before Vatican II is at least faintly embarrassing for that reason. (Not that what followed it was any better.)
  • There are some weaknesses I have noticed in the 1940 other than the awkwardness of of singing from a denominational hymnal, which will hopefully be addressed by a diocesan hymnal for the ordinariate

    1. There is a dearth of Marian hymns
    2. The communion hymn section does not express the full riches of Catholic eucharistic theology, except for the few notable translations of office hymns such as Adoro Te, etc.
    3. There are no gregorian masses in original latin

    In addition, the new hymnal would include settings of the english office hymns in Divine Worship: The Office so that the office can be more easily sung.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    FWIW:

    To points # 1 & 2, above: If you have any clout at all, see if you can get the committee to include "From glory to glory advancing" (#286 in the New English Hymnal, tune SHEEN, Gustav Holst) & "Sweet Sacrament divine" (#307 in the NEH, tune DIVINE MYSTERIES, Francis Stanfield). I would also suggest a look through the 1958 New St. Basil Hymnal, there are some solid hymns that are worth a look: e.g. #136 "O Purest of Creatures", text by Fr. Faber; tune: PADERBORN arr. & harm. by Healey Willan.