This is a big deal. Jeffrey Tucker of The New Liturgical Movement writes:

Given all the controversy over music these days, people are often surprised to find out that the Roman Rite has an official songbook that grew up alongside the Mass. If the Lectionary is for readers, the Sacramentary is for the celebrant, the Graduale Romanum is for singers. It is the official book of music that goes with the Mass. It is what the GIRM is referring to when it speaks of chant.

The current edition of the Graduale was put out in 1974, four years after the new rite. You can buy it from most Catholic book distributors such as GIA and OCP. The gap in years between 1969/70 and 1974, which occurred because of a series of missteps, accounts for much of the current confusion over music.

In the preconciliar form, there was no question as to what the ideal was (even if it was rarely done): the Propers and Ordinary according to the Graduale Romanum. The Second Vatican Council set out to reduce the role of vernacular hymnody and increase the status of the Graduale. That is what the Constitution means by giving chant "pride of place."

For this reason, it is very exciting that the last preconciliar edition of the Graduale is now online, with super clear, professional scanning with text underlay for easy use.

(all of these are pdf files)

Here is the whole thing – a huge file, which is better downloaded than viewed online.

The file is also split into several parts

The propers for the liturgical year

The propers for the saints days

And the ordinary of the Mass in the most common Gregorian settings

This is especially exciting for groups that will use the 1962 Missal once it is liberalized. This edition contains the Holy Week reforms of Pius XII. These files can be printed and distributed, and it is far, far better than attempting to sing from the old Liber Usualis that has such small print. Moreover, the Liber that is currently in print does not contain the Pius XII reforms.

How is this useful to regular parishes using the new rite? We’ve also published an index of chants in the new Mass:

Here.

The day can be looked up and the Graduale easily searched for the chants, which haven’t changed but in the most minor way for the last century.

No one expects that the Graduale in total will now be heard now in average parishes. The important thing about this is that it helps re-establish the ideal and standard of what Roman Rite music really is. That is what is missing in discussions of Church music.

All popes since the Council have emphasized that Gregorian chant is that ideal against which every other form of music should be compared. People imagine that this means that we should sing Adoro Te or some other chant as hymns. Actually, that’s not quite right. By Gregorian chant, the documents and the popes mean the Graduale, that is, the sung part of the Mass. Only this achieves the conciliar ideal of a Mass that is sung with the people’s full and conscious, internal and external participation.

I’d also recommend that you consider joining the Church Music Association of America. A reader kindly gifted me with a subscription to their journal, Sacred Music, and it’s very good. The next issue touches on many areas which we’ve been discussing of late:

EDITORIAL Singing the Mass | Jeffrey Tucker

ARTICLES
Graduale or Missale: The Confusion Resolved | by Christoph Tietze
The Ascendant Tone and the Desire for the Transcendental | Wilko Brouwers
Propers or "Other Suitable Songs"? | Michael Lawrence
The Communio Imperative | Jeffrey Tucker
Reflections on Mary’s Song | Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf
The Promise and Pitfalls of the Parish Music Workshop | Arlene Oost-Zinner and Jeffrey Tucker

REPERTORY
Advent: O Sing Unto the Lord an Old Song! | Michael Procter
Alma Redemptoris Mater: Notes Towards a Filiation of the Chant | Michael Procter
Compline with Tallis | Susan Treacy

DOCUMENTS
Blessing of the New Organ | Benedict XVI
William Byrd the Catholic | Kerry McCarthy

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