Kyrie IV is a beautiful melody that appears in the Vatican II Hymnal (which has more than 100 pages of Mass settings in Latin & English). It appears in hundreds, if not thousands, of MSS down through the centuries. Perhaps I should post a bunch here . . . Well, let’s start with a few. Here is a beautiful example from around the year 1400:

Here is a rare version I found in an 1853 book from Paris. If only people had sung from this edition in 1853, instead of the various “corrupt” versions!

And here is a “corrupt” edition printed in 1857:

Finally, here is the Vatican Edition, which is still the official version of the Catholic Church:


What Are The Mass Propers? is an ongoing series dedicated to exploring the Catholic Liturgy. Although this series will focus on the Graduale Propers, other subjects will also be included. The views presented here do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed. Comments, advice, and criticism are welcome, and can be E-mailed. E-mails will be read, but cannot always be answered (due to time constraints). To learn more about how Watershed is helping spread the love of Propers, please visit the Vatican II Hymnal website. “AF” refers to Adrian Fortescue, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (1912).

Pictures of ancient manuscripts appearing in this blog come from various sources. The author has collected his own color photographs of manuscripts from libraries and monasteries in the United States and Italy. A Canadian chant scholar who has been taking photographs of MSS since the 1960’s has generously made his collection available as well, and the author is grateful. Some photographs also come from online archives hosted by libraries and universities the world over. All photographs are used with permission.