Anglican chant

Anglican chant
a harmonized, strictly metrical chant to which canticles, psalms, and other liturgical texts are sung in the Anglican Church.

* * *

      simple harmonized setting of a melodic formula devised for singing prose versions of the psalms and canticles in the Anglican Church. The formula is made up of a reciting tone with middle and final cadences (mediation and termination), much like the Gregorian-chant psalm tones from which Anglican chant derives. When John Marbeck (Marbeck, John) published The Booke of Common Praier Noted (1550), he used the first seven psalm tones for the canticles and tone eight for the psalms. Like Marbeck, various English composers used the psalm tones in their polyphonic (multipart) psalm settings, placing them in the tenor part “measured,” i.e., with a regular metrical pattern. The harmonic style of these polyphonic settings was probably derived from the continental falsobordone (fauxbourdon) style, which also employed the plainsong psalm tones but in the topmost voice. The double chant (two successive verses set to different melodic formulas) traditionally dates from about 1700, but Robert Crowley's (Crowley, Robert) psalter (1549) contains what is virtually the same thing. Triple and even quadruple forms also exist.

      When the Restoration of the English monarchy was effected in 1660 and choirs and organists returned to their posts, a great need was felt for cathedral choral service settings. Thus, plainsong harmonizations again appeared, as in James Clifford's Divine Services and Anthems Usually Sung in Cathedral and Collegiate Choires in the Church of England (1663). By the end of the 17th century English composers began to write their own melodies, using the recitation note and the cadences of the psalm tone as a framework but omitting intonation. In the 18th century the psalm tone melody was placed in the upper part if it was used at all.

      After the Oxford movement (promoting a reorientation toward Roman Catholic liturgy) began in 1833, parish churches turned to choral services, formerly confined to cathedrals. To facilitate better singing by lesser trained choirs, a method of pointing the psalms first appeared in printed form in 1837—a system of signs that pointed out how a text was to be fitted to a given chant.

      A renewed interest in Gregorian chant sung in the vernacular was promoted by the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society (founded 1888). Francis Burgess in England and C. Winfred Douglas in the United States had great influence in the movement. In 1912 the English poet Robert Bridges (Bridges, Robert) pointed out that the chant must be fitted to the words and not the other way around. He gained the support of Dr. Hugh Allen at Oxford, and in 1925 the Psalter Newly Printed was published.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Anglican chant — is a way to sing un metrical texts, such as prose translations of the psalms, canticles, and other, similar biblical texts by matching the natural speech rhythm of the words in each verse to a short piece of metrical music.Anglican Chant was… …   Wikipedia

  • Anglican Chant —    Method of chanting psalms and canticles in four voiced harmony used by the Anglican Church (See figure 1.). The first half of each verse is chanted without meter on the first harmony for as long as the number of syllables demands, until the… …   Historical dictionary of sacred music

  • anglican chant — noun Usage: usually capitalized A : a harmonized chant consisting of two strains of three and four measures respectively, the first measure of each containing a single reciting note and the remaining measures a cadence sung in strict rhythm …   Useful english dictionary

  • Anglican chant — noun a method of singing unmetrical psalms and canticles to short harmonized melodies, the first note being extended to accommodate as many syllables as necessary …   English new terms dictionary

  • Anglican church music — is music that is written for liturgical performance in Anglican church services.Almost all of it is written for choir with or without organ accompaniment. The choir typically uses SATB voices (soprano or treble, alto or counter tenor, tenor, and… …   Wikipedia

  • Chant — For other uses, see Chant (disambiguation). Chant (from French chanter[1]) is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a… …   Wikipedia

  • chant — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) n. Gregorian, Roman, or Anglican chant; plainsong or chant; intonation, incantation; psalm, canticle, requiem. See music, rite. II (Roget s IV) n. Syn. religious song, incantation, plainsong, Gregorian… …   English dictionary for students

  • Evening Prayer (Anglican) — Part of a series on the Anglican Communion …   Wikipedia

  • Morning Prayer (Anglican) — Part of a series on the Anglican Communion …   Wikipedia

  • Independent Anglican Church Canada Synod — The Independent Anglican Church (Canada Synod) (IACCS) is an Anglican jurisdiction that is not affiliated with the Anglican Communion headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It descends from a single parish that separated from the Anglican Church …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”