GRADUAL. —
I. THE BOOK
The present Liber gradualis, from which an excerpt was later combined with parts of the Antiphonary, constitutes the widely used Liber usualis, approved by the Church as a collection of the chants of the Mass in the Vatican edition of 1907. It contains, in addition to the ancient core, all the later additions resulting from the introduction of new feasts into the calendar.The definitive naming of liturgical books may date back to Amalario of Metz (9th century). The term Antiphonary was initially applied to any collection of liturgical chants. This term was later reserved for the manuscript containing the antiphons for both the Mass and the Office. Finally, "Antiphonary" referred only to the book containing the chants of the Office, including the responsories. The "Cantatorium" or "liber Gradualis" or "Gradualis," which at first included the chants of the Mass intended for the soloist, later became the collection of all the chants of the Mass. The responsorial chants of the Mass were incorporated into the "Liber Responsorius," intended for the responsories of the Office, and into the "Liber Sacramentorum," compiled for the celebrant (from the 10th–11th centuries onward, the "Missale plenarium," heir to the "Liber Sacramentorum"), which also included the chants of the Mass and the readings.
II. THE CHANT
The Gradual is the chant performed during the Mass after the reading of the Epistle. The Introit, Offertory, and Communion — chants that accompany an action — were introduced into the celebration of the Mass after the Gradual, the Tract, and the Alleluia (which replaced the Tract). The latter follow some readings, whether the primitive reading from the Prophets retained in some Masses (the four Ember Days) or the second reading, that of the Apostle, now the Epistle. These are chants of rest, or rather of contemplation, intended to give the listener time to absorb the teaching and, with the aid of music, to evoke those affections that form the concluding part of meditations according to modern methods. The so-called action chants, on the other hand, must keep the faithful’s attention focused as the rite unfolds: processions, offerings, or Communion. The chants after the readings are inherited from the Synagogue; the others are innovations of the Church.Various etymologies have been proposed for the word "Gradual." The least accepted derives "gradualis" from "gradalis," meaning pleasant, because the highly ornate melody is pleasing to the ear. The most commonly accepted etymology refers to the place where the soloist stood to sing this melody, namely the ambo or "gradus": the deacon ascended to the pulpit; the reader of the Epistle and the singer of the Gradual remained on a lower step, whence the expression "responsorius gradualis," a chant performed on the steps. The earliest term for this chant was "Psalmus responsorius." This expression may have been abandoned when, in place of the simple refrain form, more elaborate melodies were introduced, reducing the number of soloist’s verses. Indeed, the text of the Gradual responsory is normally taken from the Psalter. In the manuscript 339 of St. Gall, a good witness to ancient tradition, out of 118 Graduals, 104 are drawn from the Psalms; the others come from biblical texts, with one exception for the Dedication, "Locus iste." Initially, the psalm was sung in its entirety (cf. St. Augustine, on Ps. 138). The refrain consisted of a verse or part of a verse from the same psalm, repeated after each of the verses performed by the soloist.
By the 8th century, the chant of the Gradual had been reduced to its current form, that is, without a refrain, so that it was no longer a responsory. It was also no longer a Gradual, since it was no longer sung at the ambo but in plainchant with the antiphons. Exceptionally, some manuscripts still report two verses. Some traces of ancient usage persist, for example, during Easter Week: each day of the Octave resumes the Gradual "Haec dies," and the verses are all from the same Ps. 117; originally, all were sung on the same day. Even on the First Sunday of Lent, the Tract "Qui habitat," which modulates the entire Ps. 90, is nothing other than a Gradual; the same applies to the Tract "Domine audivi" on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday.
In some places, for example in England, the refrain was still repeated after the verse until the 13th century. The proper responsorial form of the Gradual requires that the first part of the chant be intoned and sung in full by the soloist; the choir repeats the refrain. The soloist, having rested, then performs an ornate verse, and the choir repeats the refrain; after all the verses, the choir takes up the refrain once more, followed by the entire first part of the chant again. If this chant had been highly ornate, it would have resulted in excessive length and disproportion in the celebration of the Mass: St. Augustine excuses himself in one of his sermons because the psalmus responsorius lasted longer than he wished; the chosen psalm had 24 verses! (Ps. 138). This is one reason to acknowledge an evolution in the melodic style of the Gradual responsory. It is likely that at the outset not only the first part intended for the choir but also the soloist’s verse was nearly syllabic. Evidence for this view is found in the fact that for the Responsories of the Office, the soloist’s part has remained in this style, indeed with fixed formulas, while the part intended for the choir is much more varied and ornate.
Until the time of St. Gregory, the soloist for the Gradual responsory was a deacon, as is still the case in the Ambrosian liturgy. Excessive zeal for vocal display led St. Gregory himself to deprive deacons of this privilege at the Roman Council of 595. In the 7th century in Spain, the number of soloists for the Gradual verse could be two or three (cf. St. Isidore of Seville, *De ecclesiasticis officiis*, I, ch. 9); in Rome, this change would not be recorded until the 12th century: for five centuries, the soloist remained unique and was chosen from among the most capable of the Schola cantorum. The practice of singing from memory required a skill not possessed by all; at most, the soloist carried in hand the "Cantatorium," where originally he read only the words without neumes. In the early days of responsorial psalmody, the choir responsible for "responding" may have been the assembly of the faithful; when the refrain was in neumatic style and sometimes even melismatic, the performance was entrusted not to musically untrained persons but to the schola cantorum.
It is observed that not all Gregorian modes are used for the melodies of the Gradual: the 8th mode is missing; the 1st and 4th modes are scarcely represented. It is true that generally the first part of the Gradual is sung in the plagal form of the mode, and the verse in the authentic form, so that the Graduals of the 5th mode, the most numerous and probably the oldest, are in the first part in the 6th mode and in the second part in the 5th mode.
The melodic compositional style to which the Graduals belong is mostly the "contensive" genre: pre-existing formulas are stitched together according to precise artistic rules. This genre, derived from the use of Greek — and perhaps also Hebrew — music, along with the choice of psalmodic text, demonstrates the antiquity of the Gradual chant.
The Eastern liturgies have in the Mass a chant equivalent to the Roman Gradual, the "Prokeimenon"; in the Office, a chant following a reading also exists, and the term recalls the steps on which the Roman soloist stood — it is called the "Katabasia." In the Ambrosian liturgy, the chant that follows the reading of the Epistle is called the "Psalmellus" and corresponds to the Roman Gradual.