Buthidazole {3-[5-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl}-4-hydroxyl-1-methyl-2-imidazolidinone} was incubated for 30 days and then leached through Norfolk loamy sand, Lakeland loamy sand, Davidson clay, and Alamance silt loam soils. Similar amounts of the herbicide leached through all of the soils, but distribution in the soils varied greatly. 14C-buthidazole distribution in the Lakeland and Norfolk sandy soils was relatively uniform throughout the soil columns. In the Alamance silt loam and Davidson clay, much greater amounts of buthidazole were found in the upper soil zones than in the lower zones. Six metabolites of buthidazole (dihydroxy, desmethyl dihydroxy, dehydrate, methylurea, urea, and amine) were distributed in varying amounts in each of the soils.

The Editorial Committee extends its heartfelt thanks and warmest wishes to Rev. Jerome F. Weber, who is retiring as PMM's Audio Review Editor effective this issue. For a quarter century, Father Weber has regularly contributed reviews of hundreds of plainchant recordings to this journal, casting his net widely to capture Gregorian and post-Gregorian repertoires, monastic and regional traditions including Byzantine Chant, and chants on recordings devoted mainly to polyphony. Having published A Gregorian Chant Discography in 1990, addenda et corrigenda in PMM 19/1 (2010), he launched the website chantdiscography.com in November 2010, a relational database of sound recordings in formats ranging from shellac 78s and vinyl LPs to cassette tapes and compact discs. An enormously useful resource for scholars and music lovers alike, the online discography analyses well over a thousand new and re-issued CD recordings produced since 1990 along with data from the 1990 discography. We wish our colleague the very best in his well-earned retirement!

Herbicide soil/solution distribution coefficients (Kd) are used in mathematical models to predict the movement of herbicides in soil and groundwater. Herbicides bind to various soil constituents to differing degrees. The universal soil colloid that binds most herbicides is organic matter (OM), however clay minerals (CM) and metallic hydrous oxides are more retentive for cationic, phosphoric, and arsenic acid compounds. Weakly basic herbicides bind to both organic and inorganic soil colloids. The soil organic carbon (OC) affinity coefficient (Koc) has become a common parameter for comparing herbicide binding in soil; however, because OM and OC determinations vary greatly between methods and laboratories, Koc values may vary greatly. This proposal discusses this issue and offers suggestions for obtaining the most accurate Kd, Freundlich constant (Kf), and Koc values for herbicides listed in the WSSA Herbicide Handbook and Supplement.

The latest entry in the traversal of Graduale Novum 1, the AISCGre edition of restitutions of Mass Propers, arrived too late for last year's roundup of new recordings (no. 1 in the list below). It offers the Propers for the eleventh to the fifteenth Sundays in Ordinary Time. The title, ‘Gustate et Videte’, comes from the incipit of the communion for the fourteenth Sunday. The chants are sung in the best semiological interpretation with superb choral tone. The notes are interesting for a wry explanation of the lack of correspondence between the new liturgical calendar and the old. The first four sets of Propers on this disc match the fifth to the eighth Sundays after Pentecost, but the last set come from the tenth Sunday after Pentecost (with the exception of the communion). Because of the imprecatory introit of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, averte mala inimicis meis . . . disperde illos, this set was passed over. The editors of the 1970 Roman Missal, on second thought, decided, upon reaching the sixteenth Sunday of the Year, to restore the missing chants (except the communion) to that service, while removing the offending lines in favour of another verse from the same psalm. (As the Graduale Triplex shows, the text of the introit escaped the tampering.) At this moment, EOS has three more CDs awaiting issue by three of the directors who have contributed earlier discs to the series. The second volume of Graduale Novum is expected to be published in 2017.

Three continuing series of recordings are represented by new releases this year. The systematic coverage of Mass Propers in Graduale Novum begun by Johannes Berchmans Göschl continues with the participation of three other directors, including his pupil Stephan Zippe, mentioned last year. Alexander M. Schweitzer, who was Göschl's associate choir director earlier and has made several recordings with his Oslo ensemble, has grouped Masses for the Easter vigil, Easter day, Easter Monday, and the second and third Sundays of Easter (no. 1 in the following list). Göschl grouped the first five Sundays in Ordinary Time with the thirty-third Sunday (no. 2). Franz Karl Prassl directed his female ensemble in five Mass Propers of the Christmas season: Holy Family, Mary Mother of God, Second Sunday after Christmas, Baptism of the Lord and Presentation of the Lord (no. 3). All carry on the fine chant interpretations that represent these melodic restitutions to full advantage.

Dom Jean Claire succeeded Dom Joseph Gajard in 1971, the year before Dom Gajard’s death. He continued the programme of recordings with Société française du son, the French branch of Decca, which used the London label in America. It became part of the International Pelgrims Group about 1977 and went out of business about 1979. Dom Gajard had begun to remake his monophonic recordings in stereo (Epiphany/Dedication, Easter, Christmas), a plan that Dom Claire continued with his first two LPs. The last years of Dom Claire’s IPG recordings were the quadraphonic era, and Dom Claire once recounted to me his delight when the Decca engineers played back the ‘Times of Distress’ recording, which simulated a procession around the church. This effect was doubtless created electronically, since the recordings were made in a small room.

The first recording to be made from the new Liber Antiphonarius, volume 1, of 2005, a volume that bears the old title Antiphonale Monasticum on its cover, offers twenty-four antiphons and a brief responsory from that volume; six communions and an introit from the Graduale Triplex; and five responsories from the Liber Hymnarius (no. 1 in the list below). All the chants are chosen for the words of our Lord that are quoted in the texts, which recounts the life of Christ from Cana to Emmaus. Some of these chants have been re-edited from the 1934 edition, but half of the group heard here are newly created, including one, Venite ad me, that has a new melody for a text still assigned to the same office of the Sacred Heart. Essential to understanding the method of editing these chants is Dom Daniel Saulnier’s article in Études Grégoriennes (15056 in Günther Paucker’s chant bibliography). The singing is exquisite in the semiological style.

One new recording is a landmark of sorts, for the line of choirmasters at Solesmes runs from Dom André Mocquereau (1889–1914), Dom Joseph Gajard (1914–71), Dom Jean Claire (1971–96), and an interim visitor from St Benoît-du-Lac, Dom Richard Gagné (1996–2003), to a young monk of Solesmes, frère Yves-Marie Lelièvre. His first recording (no. 1 in the list below) offers the Mass Propers for the first three Sundays of Ordinary Time, formerly the Sundays after Epiphany, a programme that matches Dom Gajard’s last recording directing the nuns of Argentan in 1971 (7536 in my discography). Two of those chants have been replaced here, as in the Graduale Triplex, and the expanded playing time of a CD has been given over to seven organ selections played on the abbey’s Schwenkedel organ by Jacques Kauffmann of Paris. Frère Lelièvre selected a schola of twenty-one monks, perhaps not much smaller than Dom Claire used, and elicited a lightness of execution that simply must be heard. There is a forward motion in the singing that is particularly effective in the melismas. Just hear the seldom-recorded gradual ‘Benedictus Dominus’. This is the portent of a fine series of recordings.

Last year (2005, no. 6), we greeted a recording that seemed to be directed in a special way to chant scholars. Two more discs of similar interest have arrived, the newest one an interpretation of the conflict, shall we call it, between Roman and Frankish cantors during the introduction of Roman chant into the Frankish kingdom (no. 1 in the list below). The chants were chosen for specific characteristics of Old Roman and Gallican style, but the stage is set by beginning with ‘Gregorius praesul’. Most of the selections have been recorded only rarely, and the Old Roman offertory ‘Deus enim firmavit’ (from Bodmer 74) with its verses is new to records. Benjamin Bagby accompanies himself on the lute in ‘A solis ortu’, the lament for Charlemagne, the choice of verses (neither version is complete) partly different from Alfred Deller's recording, 237 in my discography (1992, no. 19 on CD). The disc concludes with two familiar pieces, the Palm Sunday processional responsory ‘Collegerunt’ and the laudes regiae ‘Christus vincit’. The last (from Paris, BNF lat. 13159, a source not cited by Bukofzer in ‘The Music of the Laudes’) is the most imaginative performance on disc, the only one known to me that interjects the acclamations more fluidly than the familiar editions indicate.

An effort to catch up on missing discs to be included in the Second Edition of my discography has resulted in an unusually long list this year. ‘Christus Rex’ (1997, no. 2) proved to be the first disc in a series featuring Hervé Lamy, a soloist with the Chœur Grégorien de Paris. It has been followed by ‘Spiritus Domini’ (no. 1 in the list below) and ‘Pater Noster’ (no. 3) to form a Trinitarian programme of chants related to each of the Three Divine Persons. In a similar vein, ‘Le Livre d’Heures de Charlemagne' (no. 2) offers groups of chants that focus on the Carolingian chant reform and other aspects of the king's life. Most of the chants belong to a soloist, Lamy's superb professional tenor a perfect vehicle for interpretations that are faithful to current standards yet inspired by a sensitive interpreter. Credo IV, leading off no. 1, is not a good choice for a solo, but it is sung with great panache. The Ambrosian Gloria and the Te Deum on the same disc are better alternating with the men's schola. For the rest, the Exsultet (on no. 3), lamentations, lessons from Office and Mass, and offertories with verses are ideal selections. An original touch also in no. 3 is a passage of St Matthew's gospel that leads into the communion chant Pater si non potest. The Laudes Regiae, heard on the earlier disc already, are sung again for Charlemagne, Pope Leo and Archbishop Hincmar. These are magnificent examples of recorded chant.

Another reissue of Decca's long series of recordings made at the abbey of Solesmes is good news. Accord is a French reissue label of the Universal group (formerly PolyGram) that earlier had reissued about a dozen CDs that matched each original LP in content. The first five reissues were listed in A Gregorian Chant Discography, and five more were reported here in 1994 (nos. 19 to 23). Now, duplicating the contents of at least seven of those earlier discs, a new programme has begun with the cooperation of the monks of Solesmes to arrange the chants according to the liturgical year. Titles have been brought up to date, such as ‘Sixth Sunday of Easter’ and ‘chant d’entrée'. New digital transfers made from the original tapes provide superb sound. The first twelve discs have appeared in eight packages (two or three discs in some cases), and we can expect as many as another dozen discs to come.

In the century of recorded interpretation of Gregorian chant, the introduction of a new choir director at the abbey of Solesmes might be considered a moment of the highest importance, though the event seems not to have been reported widely. After all, we have heard only Dom André Mocquereau in 1904 (admittedly directing French seminarians in Rome), Dom Joseph Gajard from 1930 to 1971, and Dom Jean Claire from 1972 to 1996. The début of Dom Richard Gagné as choirmaster is marked by a pairing of two feast-day Propers (no. 1 in the list below), followed by a collection of popular chants from Liber Cantualis (no. 2). It would take a sharp eye to notice on Dom Claire's last recording (1997, no. 1) that Dom Gagné was listed as assistant to Dom Claire. If Dom Claire's interpretations were lighter and quicker than Dom Gajard's, it may be equally true that Dom Gagné is still lighter and quicker. The familiar sound of the monks has not changed much, though Jean Allard, the engineer who has recorded all of the Solesmes discs (and those of several other monasteries as well) since the Decca era, has been succeeded by Igor Kirkwood, a familiar engineering presence on French recordings.

This year has brought new issues from several long-time contributors to the chant discography. Ranking with the abbey of Solesmes in sheer quantity of chant recordings is Schola Hungarica, whose new disc is titled ‘The Holy Lady of Chartres’ (no. 1 in the list below). Although this is not billed ‘Magyar Gregorianum’ as the last entry was (2001, no. 10), it does in fact include an Office originating in Chartres that is preserved only in Hungary. Matins responsories for the common of the Blessed Virgin include three responsories attributed to Fulbert of Chartres (two of which were recorded by Ensemble Venance Fortunat, 1993, no. 18, since reissued as L'Empreinte Digitale ED 13036). The third responsory, Ad nutum Domini, receives its first chant recording here. This is a set of Matins responsories in numerical modal order. Despite the neat fit of Fulbert's three pieces with the rest, the notes decline to assert that this integral set of responsories originated at Chartres. Masses for Purification and Assumption from two Chartres sources, Provins 12 and Chartres 520, fill out the disc.