Gradual

The gradual is a certain <a href="/facts/Chant/WUXJtIvJ">chant</a> or <a href="/facts/Hymn/UUNRCvY7">hymn</a> in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the <a href="/facts/Mass_in_the_Catholic_Church/bsLQyMVM">Catholic Mass</a>, <a href="/facts/Lutheranism/L4pMlRcS">Lutheran</a> <a href="/facts/Divine_Service_(Lutheran)/WNrmQ8Nd">Divine Service</a>, <a href="/facts/Anglicanism/CDICRNVn">Anglican</a> service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin gradus (meaning "step") because it was once chanted on the step of the <a href="/facts/Ambon_(liturgy)/0sWcfEkD">ambo</a> or <a href="/facts/Altar/x765TWyq">altar</a>. It is customarily placed after a reading of scripture.
In the <a href="/facts/Tridentine_Mass/6pSCH37s">Tridentine Mass</a>, it is sung after the reading or chanting of the <a href="/facts/Epistle/0PgfACQ1">epistle</a> and before the <a href="/facts/Alleluia/8c5tBcVe">Alleluia</a>, or, during penitential seasons, before the <a href="/facts/Tract_(liturgy)/nYpbVaGb">tract</a>. In the <a href="/facts/Mass_of_Paul_VI/m5M2kgTI">Mass of Paul VI</a>, the gradual is usually replaced with the <a href="/facts/Responsorial_psalm/UR7Pwjnz">responsorial psalm</a>. Although the Gradual remains an option in the Mass of Paul VI, its use is extremely rare outside monasteries. The gradual is part of the <a href="/facts/Proper_(liturgy)/IIbHs2p5">proper</a> of the Mass.
A gradual can also refer to a book collecting all the musical items of the Mass. The official such book for the <a href="/facts/Roman_Rite/ET6mMUQm">Roman Rite</a> is the <a href="/facts/Roman_Gradual/XwNzdWEv">Roman Gradual</a> (Graduale Romanum). Other such books include the Dominican Gradual.

Gradual open-in-new

Gradual