E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

52
THE TRACT.
triumphant Alleluia takes its place. (See the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, Gihr. English translation, p. 461.)
The ancient baptismal rite on Holy Saturday has
long since fallen into disuse, but the Gradual in
Easter Week is retained. Another survival of an old
custom.
The Tract.
In certain seasons, as from Septuagesima to Easter,
the joyful Alleluia is exchanged for the Tract, which is
of a mournful character. The word Tract is derived
from tractim ; Tract meant something sung tractim,
without break or interruption of other voices as in
responsories and antiphony. The Tract is usually taken
from Scripture, very often from the Psalms. Its
character or tone sometimes resembles the Gradual
(see for example the Gradual and Tract in the Votive
Mass of the Holy Ghost after Septuagesima, and in
Requiem Masses).
The Sequence, sometimes called the Prose, from the
irregularity of its metre, derived its name from the last
vowel of the Alleluia which followed on through a series
of notes without words. Different notes on one syllable
without words may easily be difficult even to correct
singers. In the tenth century words were put to these
notes and this is the origin of what is now called a
Sequence (a following on). Five are said or sung in
church, the Victimae Paschali at Easter, the Veni Sancte
Spivitus at Whitsuntide, the Lauda Sion for Corpus
Christi ; the Stabat Mater and the Dies Irae.