Graduale Romanum 1961 & Liber Usualis 1962 Questions

[rben20]

Hello fellow Catholics,

I wanted to know the differences between the Graduale Romanum 1961 and the Liber Usualis 1962 for the Extraordinary form of the Mass. Here are some questions I have:

1.) Which parts of the office does the Liber Usualis have? I believe the Graduale Romanum only has what pertains to the Mass so there would be no parts of the office in it.

2.) I believe the Liber Usualis does not contain daily propers for chanting at Mass. Does the Graduale Romanum have daily propers? If neither have the propers for daily Mass then what does a Schola use?

3.) In regards to the Mass only, does the Graduale Romanum have anything more than what would come with the Liber Usualis?

Thank you for your help as I am a Gregorian Chant noob.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

The Extraordinary Form does not have nearly as many daily propers as the Ordinary form does (e.g., weekdays of Easter) but even now there are not proper texts assigned to every day of the year; and when proper texts are lacking then the commons (for a feast of some sort) or preceding Sunday (for ferias) supplies the Mass parts.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

We use the Liber Brevarias. Also, I don’t think too many, if any, parishes have sung daily Masses, save for the odd one. We spend two hours minimum practicing together just the propers for Sunday Mass. I couldn’t imagine doing that for all daily Masses.

 

[OraLabora]

We use the Liber Brevarias. Also, I don’t think too many, if any, parishes have sung daily Masses, save for the odd one. We spend two hours minimum practicing together just the propers for Sunday Mass. I couldn’t imagine doing that for all daily Masses.

In the OF Graduale Romanum, most of the proper chants for the weekdays carry over from the Sunday. There are a few exceptions, where chants more closely associated to the day’s readings are substituted, but for the most part they are the same. So when our abbey’s choirmaster does a rehearsal Sunday night for the propers, it generally also applies to the whole week except of course for memorials, feasts and solemnities which have their own propers, or more often chants from the Commons which do recur or are taken from other Sundays. Generally by Friday they get pretty good at it

Our own lay choir does a monthly Mass in Gregorian chant. We practice the propers for two hours generally one week before the Mass, and again 1 hour before the Mass starts.

 

[bobballen_18]

1.) Which parts of the office does the Liber Usualis have? I believe the Graduale Romanum only has what pertains to the Mass so there would be no parts of the office in it.

2.) I believe the Liber Usualis does not contain daily propers for chanting at Mass. Does the Graduale Romanum have daily propers? If neither have the propers for daily Mass then what does a Schola use?

3.) In regards to the Mass only, does the Graduale Romanum have anything more than what would come with the Liber Usualis?

I can’t really answer your questions, because I’m not familiar with the Graduale Romanum (though I should/need to be…), but I can touch on your second question with regards to the Liber Usualis.

The EF Mass does not have daily propers, as far as I know. Daily Mass is celebrated for the saint of the day/feast day or a votive Mass, or if there is no saint for the day, then the propers used for the Mass will be from the previous Sunday. For the saint of the day, if there are chants specific to the saint/feast day (there are specific chants for some but not all), then one will refer to the Commons. There are different categories from which to choose based on who the saint/feast day is - martyrs, confessors, virgins, doctors, etc. And each of these categories has their own set of chant propers.

That is a rather general answer - for all I know there are probably things I’m missing…but this is some stuff I’ve figured out myself in the past year or two since acquiring a full-blown interest in the Church’s chants. Many days now I will just pull out the Liber on any random day and sing the chants for the day, whether it be for a particular saint or if it’s for a particular Sunday. It’s an adventure.

 

[rben20]

Thank you all for your responses. I suppose it will only come with continued exposure and study. I wanted some shortcuts and thankfully I learned some things thanks to you all

But yes I agree, this is truly an adventure. Discovering this ancient tradition of the church is immensely humbling to me.