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Views from the Choir Loft

Graduale Renovatum: New Resource Brings Chant Rhythm to Life

Keven Smith · September 14, 2020

AVE YOU BEEN frustrated in your search for a reliable approach to Gregorian chant rhythm? This topic has been the cause of much controversy. Some choir directors adhere to the rhythmic system developed by Dom Mocquereau about 110 years ago. In my experience, those little ictuses under certain notes are the most commonly asked-about marking among people who are new to Gregorian chant. In fact, just yesterday someone stopped me in my church parking lot between Masses to ask me what they mean. (How does one explain without mincing words?)

If you’re ambivalent about the Dom Mocquereau system, then you’ve probably delved into the marvelous Graduale Triplex, which provides semiological markings from the Laon and Saint-Gall manuscripts above and below the neumes from the Vatican Edition. You may have also read Dom Cardine’s landmark 1982 work, Gregorian Semiology. (I would probably have a Dom Cardine poster over my bed if such a thing existed—and if I weren’t married.)

Having the semiology—and in particular, the Laon neumes—at our disposal is a big help in determining the proper rhythm of a particular chant. But there’s a translation that takes place on the fly; a singer must keep one eye on the square notes and another on the “chicken scratch.”

Hoping to overcome this challenge, many choir directors (including me) have taken to editing the propers using such handy resources as the Illuminare Score Editor and Gregobase. Still, the questions about rhythm abound: “Are we taking time on that last note before the descent?” “Should those next two notes be a little lighter, or are they equal to the others?” The central problem is that the commonly accepted system of chant neumes doesn’t allow for fine distinctions of rhythm. We can use horizontal episemas (lines) or dots to indicate the lengthening of notes. We can remind our singers that these signs aren’t meant to double the notes, but rather to indicate only a slight lengthening. Nevertheless, rhythm often remains a tug-of-war.

That’s why I’m excited to announce a new resource for chant propers: Gradule Renovatum, developed by my good friend Royce Nickel.

Meet the Man Behind Graduale Renovatum

If you’ve dug into the many resources Corpus Christi Watershed has to offer, Royce Nickel’s name will ring a bell. He has composed beautiful yet accessible settings of the Responsorial Psalms and Gospel Acclamations for the Ordinary Form. Royce described his approach to this project in a 2013 guest article.

I’ve had the privilege of calling Royce my friend for about nine years. He joined the St. Blaise Schola Cantorum in Fresno, California while I was still the director. As I prepared to move to Sacramento in 2014, Royce graciously agreed to take the reins. He has since brought the schola to a new level of artistry. Meanwhile, the Fresno Latin Mass community is now Holy Cross Chaplaincy, administered by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. How fitting, then, that I should be writing this article on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (which, by the way, is a felicitous mixture of two of my favorite liturgies: Holy Thursday and Good Friday). Happy feast day to Royce and his Fresno colleagues!

Capturing the Rhythmic Nuances of Gregorian Chant

Over the years, various chant scholars have issued reformed manuscripts that corrected wrong notes in the Vatican Edition and perhaps attempted to clarify Gregorian rhythm. What’s different about Graduale Renovatum is that the manuscripts indicate rhythm by repurposing two existing elements of chant notation:

  • Note shapes. You’ll still see virgas, punctums, and diamond-shaped notes, but now they have a specific rhythmic significance. You’ll also see a few signs that don’t appear in the Vatican Edition but do show up in more recent scholarly editions such as Graduale Novum.
  • Note spacing. The amount of space between notes indicates their relative rhythmic value and function.

For an in-depth description of the rationale behind Graduale Renovatum, I highly recommend you read Royce’s essay, Reformed Chant Notation: An Introduction to Method and Rationale.

But why go to all this effort? Royce explains at length in his essay. To me, this sentence sums it up:

The singer needs to be able to see in the notation which note or notes bear the weight of the syllable and represent the melody’s underlying structure and which of the notes are an ornamentation of that structure. 

Royce is generously posting the manuscripts of Graduale Renovatum online for free download. Many (including those for the next several Sundays) are already available—so check out Gradule Renovatum now. I’m looking forward to bringing these propers to my choir and will share the results in a future article.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Chant Last Updated: September 15, 2020

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(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

“We wish to express the hope that students of Gregorian Chant come back to the pure Vatican Edition, in the ancient block-note form, without the addition of any signs whatever, in order to achieve Gregorian unity.”

— Josef Gogniat (12 March 1938)

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