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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Chants Abrégés des Graduels, des Alleluias, et des Traits”

Jeff Ostrowski · March 19, 2016

659 old chant books HE CMAA HAS SCANNED many books, making them available for free online. They were doing this at the same time the Lalande Library was scanning & uploading my own personal collection of chant books, and it was my pleasure to work closely with the CMAA. We both realized it made no sense to spend money obtaining, scanning, and uploading books already available through other websites.

The Lalande Library was the first to provide online access to extremely rare collections like the NOH, Mocquereau’s 1903 Liber Usualis, the graduals of Pothier & Hermesdorff, and so forth. But the CMAA also offered fantastic stuff, and the following are among their finest:

    * *  PDF Download • CHANTS ABRÉGÉS (1930)

    * *  PDF Download • CHANTS ABRÉGÉS (1955)

The 1930 version is beautiful, but contains several typos, 1 so it’s probably better to use the 1955.

Solesmes offered another version of the “Chants Abrégés” in 1954, but the typesetting may confuse some:

    * *  PDF • “Liber Brevior” version — CHANTS ABRÉGÉS (1954)

SOME HAVE ASKED who wrote the Chants Abrégés. In the minutes (circa 1903) from the committee in charge of the Editio Vaticana (“Vatican Edition”)—which is still the official Gregorian edition for the Catholic Church—we find the following:

With regard to the formulas to be adopted for the simple chanting of the Graduals, Tracts, and Alleluia verses, Dr. Wagner proposes that, to this end, reference be made to the formulas of the responsorial psalms that have fallen into disuse. The liturgical nature of these chants would thus be maintained. Dom Mocquereau shares this opinion.

When the question of provenance was put to Fr. Robert Skeris in 2008, he wrote:

HE MOST DIFFICULT CHANTS in the Graduale have always been a particular challenge for even the average parish choir, in any country. It is by no means only the XXth century that has sought to overcome this difficulty in practise by proposing simpler alternatives. The Chants Abrégés are an attempt to find a via media which would be useful in a typical parish. Dom Gajard was chef d`atelier of the Paléo at the time, and under his supervision the booklet went to press. The tunes seem to have been chosen from various sources ranging from ordinary psalm tones simple or solemn (e.g. Introit psalmody) through melodic types for Allelujas etc. (e.g. Processionale of 1887) and Toni Communes for Gloria and Alleluja in the Mattins responsories (e.g. Liber Responsorialis 1895) to tones for Invitatory psalms or other simple cantillation formulae such as lections or Historiae Passionis, similar to those which Gajard suggested to Mrs Ward for the booklet of seasonal Mass Propers she published during the Second War.

The 1954 version was taken from the Liber Brevior of Solesmes, which the CMAA also placed online about a decade ago.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Accents are sometimes incorrect—and some notes are, too.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Last Updated: January 13, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

I basically don’t favor Cardinal Kasper’s proposal; I don’t think it’s coherent. To my mind, “indissoluble” means “unbreakable.”

— Daniel Cardinal DiNardo (19 October 2015)

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