Table 1. The Mass-Prayers, Readings, Chants
Chants Prayers and readingsProper Ordinary^
Fore-Mass
Introit
Kyrie
Gloria
Collect
Epistle
Gradual
Alleluia-tract
(Sequence)
Gospel
Credo
Mass of the Faithful
Offertory
Preface
Sanctus
Eucharistic prayer
Lord’s Prayer
Agnus Dei
Communion
Postcommunion
(Ite missa est)The distinction between Proper and Ordinary chants, of doubtful application to the
ecclesiastical song of the early church, is now of fundamental importance. The texts of
the Proper chants relate to a particular feast day so that they change more or less daily,
while the texts of the Ordinary chants are the same for every Mass. All the Proper chants
of Table 1 are present in Ordo romanus I, with the exception of the Sequence, a poetic
extension of the Alleluia, that the Franks added in the 9th century. The Introit consisted
of an antiphon, a melodious chant of moderate length and elaboration, that was sung as a
refrain to a psalm chanted while the pope (later bishop or abbot) processed down the nave
of the church to the sanctuary. At Rome, the singing of the Introit and the other Proper
chants was the responsibility of the schola cantorum, a group of skilled clerical
musicians; similar organizations were established in the principal ecclesiastical centers of
Francia already before the end of the 8th century. After the declaiming of the Epistle, a
member of the schola stood on the steps of the ambo to chant the Gradual (called
responsum in Ordo romanus I). It was starkly different from its 4th-century psalmodic
ancestor, consisting in a highly elaborate refrain sung by the schola and an equally
elaborate single verse sung by the soloist. This was followed by the singing of the
Alleluia, or during penitential seasons the Tract; the Alleluia consisted of a rhapsodic
refrain sung by the schola before and after a solo verse, while the Tract was unique in
that it consisted of a series of psalm verses sung to a florid melody without any sort of
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