(Lat.).
In the Western Christian Church, a collection of chants for the Ordinary of the Mass, that is, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Ite or Benedicamus; or a book or section of a book containing these chants.
The chants are found in medieval books from the 10th and 11th centuries onwards, usually with troped texts. A group of troped Kyries might be followed by a group of untroped melodies, then troped Glorias, untroped Glorias and so on. Credo and Ite settings appear separately and much less frequently. Different regions preferred different ways of grouping the melodies. Northern French books of the 11th to 14th centuries, which generally lacked other tropes, often placed the Kyrie collection together with the Gloria collection, and the Sanctus collection together with the Agnus collection, on either side of a collection of proses. German books from the 12th century onwards would often pair Kyrie with Gloria, and Sanctus with Agnus; first a series of Kyrie–Gloria pairs would be written, then the Sanctus–Agnus pairs.
The melodies were rarely rubricated and it is often uncertain now for which feast they were intended. The following are among the exceptions: I-Ra 123, ff.190v–265v (11th century, from Bologna, facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., xviii, 1969), has Proper tropes, Ordinary tropes and proses for each feast in the order in which they would be sung within the service; Md I.16 (12th century, Italian) has rubrics for its Kyrie–Gloria pairs (ff.6r–14v), Sanctus (ff.77r–80v) and Agnus (ff.80v–82r). From the 13th century onwards rubrics are more comprehensive; thus duals from the mid-13th century GB-Mr lat.24 onwards have separate Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus and Ite or Benedicamus collections with rubrics (the latter often taken from Office responsory melismas and named after the melisma text; seeNeuma); the incipits of Kyries and Glorias are entered in several masses in a 13th-century gradual from St Bénigne de Dijon (B-Br II 3824). Several graduals have a marginal text incipit of the Kyrie to be used on a high feast.
The new papal and Franciscan missal of the 13th century grouped the chants in ‘cycles’ for use on different feasts (see Van Dijk and Walker, 1960, p.328); those cycles are the basis of the current Vatican kyriale. Other sources with cycles include D-Bsb mus.40078 (12th century, Quedlinburg: 4 cycles), Mbs lat.3919 (13th century, Augsburg: 11 cycles; facs. in MGG1, ‘Messe’, pl.10), DK-Kk S.632 (French: 8 cycles), F-Pa 110 and Pn lat.830 (13th century, from Notre Dame and St Germain-l’Auxérrois, Paris, respectively: 15 cycles). The Cistercians had two cycles (from the 12th century), the Carthusians three, the Dominicans seven.
The name ‘kyriale’ is a comparatively recent term analogous to graduale (gradual), antiphonale (antiphoner) and so on, and may have been invented for the title-pages of early printed graduals such as that of Francis of Bruges, a Franciscan, whose Graduale secundum morem sancte romane ecclesie, integrum et completum videlicet dominicale sanctuarium commune et cantorinum sive kyriale first appeared in Rome in 1499–1500. The section of the book containing the Ordinary chants has no new heading; it includes three Credo chants: the first is a mensural ‘Credo maior’, a reworking of the present Vatican melody no.IV (facs. in F. Tack: Der gregorianische Choral, Mw, xii, 1960; Eng. trans., 1960, p.50; cf the setting for two voices in I-Sc H.I.10: see RISM, B/IV/4, 1972, p.1036), followed by a less ornate mensural Credo ‘de apostolis’ and a non-rhythmic Credo ‘de dominica’ (Vatican I). Rhythmic chants are not uncommon at this period. For instance, the Missale basiliense printed by Wenssler of Basle in 1488 has a rhythmic Gloria at the end of its Kyrie–Gloria pairs (for the Blessed Virgin), then two rhythmic Credos; a plain Credo and the Sanctus–Agnus pairs are followed by a collection of proses.
Vatican books since the Kyriale seu ordinarium missae of 1905 have also included other minor Ordinary Mass chants: the Asperges antiphons, Gloria tones for the introit and alleluia tones for Eastertide (for introit, offertory and communion).
See also Mass, §I, 2 (ii).
W.H. Frere, ed.: Graduale sarisburiense (London, 1894/R) [pls.1*–19*; facs. ofGB-Lbl Lansdowne 462, late 14th century]
P. Wagner, ed.: Das Graduale der St. Thomaskirche zu Leipzig (Leipzig, 1930–32/R) [ff.232–49; 14th century]
Le codex VI.34 de la Bibliothèque capitulaire de Bénévent (XIe–XIIe siècle): graduel de Bénévent avec prosaire et tropaire, PalMus, 1st ser., xv (1937–53/R) [ff.274r–288v]
D. Hiley, ed.: Missale carnotense: Chartres, Codex 520, MMMA, iv/1–2 (1992) [ff.295r–301v, 309v–311r]
D. Hiley, ed.: Moosburger Graduale: München, Universitätsbibliothek, 2° Cod. ms. 156: Faksimile (Tutzing, 1996) [ff.154v–164r, 253v–258r]
P. Wagner, ed.: Kyriale sive ordinarium missae cum cantu gregoriano, quem ex vetustissimis codicibus manuscriptis cisalpinis collegit (Graz, 1904)
Kyriale seu ordinarium missae (Rome, 1905)
Kyriale seu ordinarium missae cum cantu gregoriano ad exemplar editionis Vaticanae concinnatum et rhythmicis signis a Solesmensibus monachis diligenter ornatum (Tournai, 1905; Eng. trans., 1905) [Eng. trans. has modern note shapes and rhythmic nuance signs]
MGG1 (‘Messe, §A’; B. Stäblein)
M. Sigl: Zur Geschichte des Ordinarium missae in der deutschen Choralüberlieferung (Regensburg, 1911)
A. Gastoué: Musique et liturgie: le graduel et l'antiphonaire romains (Lyons, 1913/R)
D. Catta: ‘Aux origines du kyriale’, Revue grégorienne, xxxiv (1955), 175–82
S. Van Dijk and J.H. Walker: The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy (London, 1960)
L. Schrade: ‘The Cycle of the Ordinarium Missae’, In memoriam Jacques Handschin, ed. H. Anglés and others (Strasbourg, 1962), 87–96
K. von Fischer: ‘Neue Quellen zum einstimmigen Ordinariumszyklus des 14. u. 15. Jahrhunderts aus Italien’, Liber amicorum Charles van den Borren (Antwerp,1964), 60–68
DAVID HILEY