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Let us first consider the text, as the liturgical chant is essentially an enrichment of the liturgical text.
For gradual, at least 80% are taken from the Psalms,
So, to turn a psalm into a psalmody, what is more logical than that?
All texts are taken from Scripture,
the remaining 20% is derived primarily from the books of wisdom, or from St. Paul;
this is especially the case with sanctoral Masses.
Any gradual consists of two verses;
when you sing the melody as it appears in the repertoire,
the first verse is sung by the whole choir,
next comes, at the beginning of the second verse, a double bar,
which always shows an alternation;
the verse is sung by singers,
and the chorus takes over at the star for the final.
If you psalmody the gradual, you do not take into account all these details;
you are faced with two verses, you will now have to choose the mode in which you pasalmody:
you choose the mode of the piece;
here is a gradual with mode 5,
So we refer to the chanting of mode 5.
A good singer knows or should know the eight tones of the Psalms by heart.
If you do not know them, it's not dramatic,
yet take some time to learn them, it will make your life easier
and check the beginning of the parishioner, at p. 128, where you find the eight tones of the Psalms ...
You can also find them in the book of Chant of the Magnificat on page 70.
Note that there are two forms of psalmody:
simple psalmody and enriched psalmody.
The simple psalmody is on p. 128 and is the usual one,
the most common, whether for the regular singing of psalms,
or sometimes, as in this case, for psalmodying our gradual.
Enriched psalmody is the tone of Gloria Patri of the Introit that you find at the beginning of your Gregorian parishioner at p. 14
So there is actually no law, it is just the custom of the Church to use enriched psalmody with the Introit;
otherwise there is some freedom of use,
as to the choice between simple and enriched psalmody.
For example, the singing of the Magnificat at Vespers:
The Church leaves the choice between simple and enriched psalmody
for first class feasts.
So, you are not obliged to use enriched psalmody at first class feasts, but you MAY use it.
There is therefore a holy freedom for the children of God, which should be maintained.
In the psalmody, you have verses and in each verse, two hemistiches,
ie 2 parts of the verse, separated by the star
or a pause, so that the psalmody does not convert into a marathon.
The chant must generate a sense of peace, of balance
and this, you obtain on the one hand marking this one second long pause around the star
secondly, by making a pause on the finals, especially that of the first hemistich.
Let's take an example:
Intentionally, I made the finals so blurred that they can hardly be heard any more;
in this, I only imitated a bad habit which is fairly widespread;
That said, you must not fall strongly on the finals either
it is true that you must retain them,
but to retain them does not mean to blurr them off to the point you almost can't hear them.
They must be sung quite normally, but without insisting.
Listen:
Note that in psalmody, there is the first verse that includes intonation,
and the following verses that are NOT sung in
thus directly beginning on the string of recitation.
And therefore, the following verses, instead of:
error
directly give:
The only exception are cantiques:
the Magnificat at Vespers, and the Benedictus at Lauds.
Each verse is newly sung in.