The Gradual (Latin: graduale, sometimes called the Grail) is a chant in the extraordinary form of the Roman Catholic Mass, sung after the reading or singing of the Epistle and before the Alleluia, or, during penitential seasons, before the Tract. It is part of the Proper of the Mass.

Gradual can also refer to the book collecting all the musical items of the Mass; in Latin it is called the Graduale Romanum.

History

The Gradual, like the Alleluia and Tract, is one of the responsorial chants of the Mass. Responsorial chants derive from early Christian traditions of singing choral refrains called responds between psalm verses. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it (and the associated Alleluia or Tract) is the oldest of the chants of the Proper of the Mass, and, in contrast to the Introit, Offertory, and Communion, the only one that was not sung to accompany some other liturgical action, historically a procession. Until about the fifth century, it included singing a whole psalm. They were sung in the form of a psalmus responsorius, i.e. the whole text was chanted by a reader appointed for this purpose. For some time before Gregory I, to sing these psalms was a privilege of deacons at Rome; it was suppressed by him in 595. The people answered each clause or verse with an acclamation. This apparently dates back to the synagogue tradition, and can even be seen in the structure of some Psalms (such as 136|135). Originally, there was a psalm sung between each reading, of which in the fifth century there were three (Prophets, Epistle, and Gospel). When the Old Testament reading was later dropped, the other two psalms became the Gradual and Alleluia, ordinarily sung one after another, until the 1970 Missal restored the three readings (at Sundays, Solemnities and Feasts; at ferial days Gradual and Alleluia still follow one another).

The modern Gradual always consists of two psalm verses, generally (but not always) taken from the same psalm. There are a few Graduals which use a different scripture (for example, the verse from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is from Judith), or even non-scriptural verses (for example, the first verse in the Requiem).

The Gradual is believed to have been so named because it was sung on the step (Latin: gradus) of the altar, or perhaps because the deacon was mounting the steps of the ambo for the reading or singing of the Gospel. However, early sources use the form gradale ("graded" or "distinguished"), and the Alia Musica (c. 900) uses the term antiphona gradalis for the Introit.ref: ref01

Liturgical use

In the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Gradual is sung after the reading of the Epistle. It is ordinarily followed by the Alleluia or Tract, but in Masses that have more readings than normal, such as during Lent, they may be separated by the other reading, or, if there are more than three readings, there is more than one Gradual, and finally the Tract, to separate each reading. In Eastertide, the Gradual is normally omitted, and a second Alleluia is sung in its place, except for within the Octave of Easter. In the ordinary form of the Roman Rite the Responsorial Psalm normally takes the place of the Gradual, occurring after the reading from Hebrew scriptures, though the Gradual may be chanted in place of the Responsorial Psalm.