Has Anyone anything to say about the Adoremus Hymnal

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Greetings to All who have posted in this thread,

Guess what came in the mail today. I opened it and have begun to peruse it. I am very pleased with it.

I may go ahead and get the Vatican II hymnal, but have not decided whether I will use the gradual psalsm from here on out.

Thank you for all of your help and assistance.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
Please use the graduals. So much history there that is essentially wiped from most masses today.
 
YoungTradCath said:
Please use the graduals. So much history there that is essentially wiped from most masses today.
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I so hope I can figure them out. Still waiting to get the new computer before I can look at the link with the graduals.

What history are you alluding to? I am not familiar with it, please by all means enlighten me.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
Anathama_Sit said:
I so hope I can figure them out. Still waiting to get the new computer before I can look at the link with the graduals.

What history are you alluding to? I am not familiar with it, please by all means enlighten me.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
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Graduals are no more complicated than any other Proper. That is all they are.

The graduals are part of the Propers assigned to each mass. These Propers have thousands of years of history, of evolution. Hymns don’t have that history, that evolution. Graduals like Introits or Offertory verses, as Propers, are the mass texts, while hymns are not and have very little history in the Roman liturgy. Propers have been largely the same for a very long time, over a thousand years. You can check out manuscripts of old chant books (900-1000 years ago) online and you will be able to see exactly the same lyrics and notation in the modern Roman Gradual (don’t be confused by that, it’s just the name of the official chant book of the Church, and does not refer to the graduals themselves, which are contained in the Roman Gradual). That is all I mean.

Graduals (referring to the actual songs, not the books) have been largely replaced by the “responsorial psalm,” a modern “liturgist”-archaeologist addition to the OF. Yes, they were used a very long time ago, but have not been used in the Roman liturgy for a very long time. Graduals have a solid traceable history, while responsorial psalms don’t.
 
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Thank you so much for taking out the time to explain this. I will submit this to the priest, as the parish has asked for more traditional music and an near eradication of the contemporary music.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
Anathama_Sit said:
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Thank you so much for taking out the time to explain this. I will submit this to the priest, as the parish has asked for more traditional music and an near eradication of the contemporary music.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
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No problem. Personally, I find responsorial psalms highly annoying, as I can’t ever remember the refrain and so I have to stare at a book to sing it. With graduals there is no refrain, just a straight-through song (Psalm-based of course) sung by the choir, and so it is much easier, I find, to meditate on the preceding reading that way. You don’t have to worry about making a response and remembering that response.
 
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Sounds much easier and that’s a huge plus in my books. Do they make an organ edition of the graduals?

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
Anathama_Sit said:
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Sounds much easier and that’s a huge plus in my books. Do they make an organ edition of the graduals?

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
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Uh. I’m not quite sure. I actually don’t know. You see, in its purest form, there would be no accompanying music in the Roman Rite. The music of the Roman Rite is Gregorian Chant, which, in its purest form, is completely accompaniment-free.

The music in the Roman Gradual is the unaccompanied, but notated, Propers, which are, as far as musical classification goes, Gregorian Chant. Pure, unaccompanied Gregorian Chant. Of course, there would be absolutely no problem with someone writing an organ piece to go along with the Propers. The nature of Gregorian Chant is such that it is very hard to write music that goes well with it. But remember that not everything has to be accompanied. The most valuable instrument is the voice, and the Church knows and teaches as much. It can be very beautiful, basically haunting, to have an unaccompanied gradual (from the Roman Gradual) surrounded by other accompanied pieces. I think that is actually best. The readings are not accompanied, and the gradual is stuck between two readings, and so what better way to meditate on the word than listen to beautiful chanted word?

My recommendation is to do this:
  1. Drop the responsorial psalm, which are a poor (IMO) replacement for the gradual.
  2. Instead use the traditional, first option, the chanted gradual, and do it unaccompanied. Much better historically and fosters a more meditative atmosphere, I think, devoid of the sappy “community lovefest” quality.
 
Anathama_Sit said:
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Sounds much easier and that’s a huge plus in my books. Do they make an organ edition of the graduals?

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, the participatory responsorial Psalm assigned in the Lectionary “is an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word and which has great liturgical and pastoral importance” (GIRM no. 61), and it is the normative and preferred option for the Mass, as the Church has repeatedly stated. “[R]esponsorial singing,” not passive listening, “as far as possible, is to be given preference” (GIL no. 20), bringing to bear “every means available in each individual culture” to “foster the congregation’s singing” (id. no 21). It might make sense to replace it with the Gradual on certain limited occasions, but “[a]s a rule the psalm to be used is the one assigned to the reading” (id. no 89), and therefore the responsorial Psalm “should usually be taken from the Lectionary” (GIRM no. 61).

Personal preferences are nice and all for internet posts, but they need to be put aside when it comes to the liturgy, where it is crucial to sentire cum Ecclesia (to think with the Church).
 
Greetings YoungTradCath,

Very sound advice and I will move to recommend those reccomendations to the priest. I used some of the Mass settings from Adoremus Hymnal in Mass today and the reaction was very positive. The parish will pick it up quickly I am confident.

Thank you for your last post. It is most helpful.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
Greetings MarkThompson,

But there is nothing that forbids the use of graduals. After all if you use the one that goes with the Mass, then it’s okay I would think. I would be wrong. After all it is Father’s ultimate decision as to what is going to be done, but he usually always agrees with any of my suggestions.

God Bless,
Anathama Sit
 
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