Thursday, April 19, 2018

A New Graduale Parvum to be Launched in England This Saturday

The Introits of the Graduale Parvum, a new work to support the use of Gregorian chant in parish churches, will be launched at St Mary’s College, Oscott, in Birmingham, England, on Saturday, April 21, at 11 a.m. See the poster below for the full schedule events for the launch, which includes a solemn Mass celebrated with the chants from this book.

The Graduale Parvum is a collection of Gregorian chant Propers for every Sunday and Holy Day in both Latin and English. It is wholly authentic – it uses the same modes as the Graduale Romanum and follows its texts precisely – but simple to sing, and well within the capability of choirs of any parish church. This launch of the Introits will be followed in stages by the other chants of the Propers. The work has been compiled and set by Fr Guy Nicholls, the Director of the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music, in conjunction with the Association for Latin Liturgy.

Christopher Francis, the Chairman of the Association for Latin Liturgy, writes “Although Latin is the core language of the Church, for most people’s lifetimes it has been usual for worship to take place in the local vernacular. For this reason, the Graduale Parvum is as much an English book as it is a Latin one. But it points the way to bringing that essentially Catholic language back into the Mass, whether as part of a mixture, with some chants in Latin and others in English, or in a fully Latin celebration.”

Archbishop Bernard Longley, who will celebrate Mass as part of the launch event, said “I welcome the work of the Graduale Parvum project and I hope that the Graduale Parvum will help and inspire all who want to enrich their parish liturgy with this extraordinarily significant and uniquely beautiful form of sacred music.”

For further information, or to attend the launch at Oscott, please email: enquiries@latin-liturgy.org. or call 0117 962 3558.

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