gradual

In contrast with Catholic graduale, which could mean the Gregorian song after the reading of the mass, or the song book containing the songs of the mass, gradual was a song book containing special Protestant religious songs. Besides psalms and prayers there were a lot of Hungarian Gregorian songs - inherited from the Catholics - in it. It contained the songs which were closely connected to the service: hymns, that is the verse forms of prayers, and other parts of the liturgy appeared in prosaic form. The first Protestant gradual was compiled by István Székely in 1538. The most popular Lutheran gradual was Gál Huszár's song book from 1574. In its preface the author defined the place and time of hymn singing, because a lot of people sang them in "pubs or other low places".

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