The Recovering Choir Director

There has been some discussion here of Paul E. Ford’s By Flowing Waters, which is an Englished version of the second of two official Roman songbooks, the Graduale Simplex. As the title of the Roman version implies, the chants are much simpler than those found in the Graduale Romanum, the primary official songbook of the Roman rite. In fact, in many cases, the By Flowing Waters adaptations are simpler than the ones found in the Graduale Simplex on which the work is based.

Now comes word of an Englished version of the Graduale Romanum.

The American Gradual—Bruce E. Ford, ed. and adapt.

From the St. James Music Press website:

This two-volume work (568 pages) contains the proper melodies of the introits, graduals, alleluias, tracts, offertories, and communions for all Sundays of the year, for all Feasts of Our Lord included in the calendar of the American Episcopal Church, and for other occasions on which a parish church is likely to have a sung mass. The culmination of 27 years work, Mr. Ford has adapted the melodies to the words, employing the methods used by composers of Latin chant both in the Middle Ages and in the 20th century and not merely strung English words under notes arranged for Latin words. His principal source for the melodies has been the Graduale Romanum. Texts are based on the psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer (1979) and the Revised Standard version of the Bible.

The book is organized according to the lectionary of the Episcopal Church, which is modelled closely on the Ordo Lectionum Missae. For those occasions to which the ECUSA lectionary and the OLM assign entirely different readings there are two sets of chants provided.

The price of the book is $99 (U.S.). Purchasers are authorized to make photocopies for local use.

The three items that stick out for me are: the length of time spent on the work (about as many years as I have lived); the melodic sources (these are truly challenging melodies); the generous copyright provision (basically, a parish choir need only spend $99 plus the price of photocopies).

For those getting their feet wet in Englished Gregorian chant, By Flowing Waters should be the first stop. The price is right ($12-14 at major online bookstores) and the melodies, while challenging, are accessible for congregation and choir. An accompanying BFW CD is also available, though a Yale sacred music scholar I spoke to last year wasn’t wowed by the interpretations provided therein. Caveat emptor.

Based on my experience with the Graduale Romanum, The American Gradual is for the advanced class. People may quibble about translations, certain melodic adaptations, the fact that these are strictly chants for the choir, etc. Still, even before examining it one can tell that it is a monumental work.