A ND T R UE AN TIPH O NY 3

true question is, and shoul d always have been , not how to make
the Psa l m verse fi t the for m of a chant , but h ow to make the c hant
-

serv e the rh yth m o f the Psalm -

verse.

In at t e m pting to car ry out these principles four leadi n g

points have bee n kept i n view .

L eadi n g p u r p o s es .

FI R ST rec over a g re a t er free d o m fro m m e t ri c al b on d s

. T o

t o t h e R hy t h m o f t he P s alm an d m o r e e l as t ic i t y an d v arie t y
,

J
of f or m t o t he Chan t .

I m us t here at on ce ackn owl e dg e my v ery g rea t deb t to M r .

ohn Heywoo d whose int erest ing an d sug gestiv e li ttl e book o n
,

the A r t of Ch ant ing (C lowes ) g ave m e the clue to the rhythm ic al

defec t i n m o s t E n g l ish C hant s an d to t he t r u e rem edy ,

S EC ON D LY T o e scape t h e ne cessi ty inv o l ve d s o c o ns t an tl y

.
,

i n t h e prev ai l in g s y s t e m s o f pu tt in g fa l s e e m ph asi s o n u n
,

i m por t an t w o r ds This second object i s gained , incidenta ll y ,

.

an d yet co m p l etely, through t he methods e m ployed to obtain

the fi rst .

T H I RD LY T o ob t ain s m o o t hnes s an d d i g n i ty an d t o r i d
.
,

ou r c han t i n g o f t he t ri ppin g u n P s almli k e j in g l e o f d ac t y l s

,
-

an d an apaes t s whethe r of n otes or sy ll ables (See p 6 I I I ,

, . .

and p 1 7 note ).
, .

F O U RTH LY T o res t or e t h e t ru e A n t i ph o n y or R es ponsive

.

ne s s whic h e xis t s w i t hin e ac h P s alm verse an d w i t h i n e ac h

,
-
,

s i n g l e ch an t and als o withi n each half of a double c han t,

,

as w e l l as b e t w een t he s i d e s o f a ch o i r (and congregati o n ) .

To these four leading purposes everything, h owever u n

n e c essary or irre l evan t , or fanciful it may at fi rst sight appear,
, ,

is dir ectly referable and subse rvient .

The Poetical Form f

o the Ps alms .

Our fi rs t consideration m ust be the words of the Psa lm

verse — the form and character of their poetry
,
.

The Psa l m verse , as distin guished fro m ordinary prose on

-

one hand , an d fro m m etrica l hym ns on the other, has two

marked characteristics of its own .

1 T o ant icipat e mi sapprehensi on i t m ay be well to say tha t ab solu t e

J
freedom in c oncert e d singing is obvi ous ly unatt ainab l e ; an d to add
that t h e free rhyt hm here S poken o f h as n oth ing in c omm on with
’

the free chan t of the lat e Mr ohn Crowdy except a c ommon ai m

‘
. .

(S ee p I O )
. .
 A ND T R U E AN TI P H O NY 9

The W i t n ess of H i s t or y .

I A n t i ph ony — I t wi l l be expe cted that what has been said

. .

shoul d be jus t i fi ed by reference t o the theory origi n gr ow th , , ,

and hist ory of the H ist o ry will n ot c arry us far back .

Psal m s had been chanted , as t he chief ele m ent in worship by

Hebrew and by Chris t ian for 1 50 0 years before hist o ry shows
u s a chant B u t it is safe t o assu m e that the ger m o f the chan t
. ,

an d its essence , was a si m ple recita t ion on one m usical note

A

( higher or l ower as the character of the Psa l m dictated ) by two

responding bodies o f singers, reciting the two resp o nsive halves
O f a Psa l m V erse ; but t his in practice wou l d i mm e diat ely de
-

v elop into so m ething m ore Le t any two individua l s (or bodies )

.

reci te on a note antiphonally, by half verses a fe w verses of a

,
-
,

Psal m , and they wi l l so o n crave , not on l y so m e relief fr om the

m ono t one but som e very si m p l e i n fl exi on — rise o r fa ll , at the
,

en d of each half verse — to express in the fi rs t an expec t a t i o n of

-

re ply and i n the second a satisfaction of that expectation by a

,

cadence the m on o to nic reci tati on s t i l l re m aining the essential

—

part “N o w, when history at l ast does show us chan t s in the

.

s o ca l led Greg o rian t o nes , i t reveals to us , in t he si m p l er and

-

shorter fo r m s of the 8 t h and other Tones , exac tl y this pri m itive

pa t tern B u t a fu rther natural develop m en t had t aken place i n
.

m ost of t he m , and the i n fl ex i on h ad extended back w ard , by

tw o n o tes at l east further over the reci t a t ion : an d we ge t
,

nearl y to the pattern , i n length , of our Ang l ican chant I t will .

n ot be necessary to notice the further extension of the m e l ody,

which is found in later ti m es in festal form s of the ancient
chan t .

I I T i m e l essness — The original chant would be t imeless T h e

. . .

pri m itive recitation w o uld have , of course , no accen t uation of

i t s own apart fro m tha t o f the words which wou l d vary w ith
, ,

every verse — n o m easure d beats no bars , no fi xed re l ative

, ,

leng t h of n ot es When the o ne note of responsive i n fl ex i on

.

was intro duced at the end o f each ha l f verse , this a lo ne woul d -

have it s accent , which wou l d in the na t ure of t hings fa l l o n the

last s trong syl lable withou t any pre arrange m en t o r pointing ‘ -
.
’

When this n o te devel oped into m ore , sti ll there was n o regula
tion of their ti me no fi xing of their accent N o m arks of ti m e
, .
I6 C H AN T I N G IN FR EE R HYT H M

sh ou l d n ot an d would n ot be accen ted unless t h e words requir ed

, ,

it Th e C athedral sys t em o f point ing is a m o dern inn ov at i on

.
,

arisin g from a su ppo se d necessity of adapt ing itself to th is deform

o f the e arlier E ng lish chant .

Again , here t ofo re t he cha n t has b een considered t o consist (in

each ha l f ) o f ( I ) a m onoton ic recitation , an d (2 ) a m ediation o f
three notes or a cadence of fi v e ( as in Ex I above )
,
H ere .
, .

it is treated as consisting in each hal f ( I ) of a recitati o n pa rt l y

m onotonic and par tl y inflected ; and ( 2) a m edia t i o n of one ( or
two) , or a ca dence of two , notes on l y ; tha t is to say the o ther ,
.

two notes i m m ediate l y fo ll owing t he m onotone are reck o ne d

‘ ’

as being pr oper l y part of the recita t ion , of w hich they are an

‘
i n fl ex i on , l eading it to the c l i m ax or accen t ed note of the
’

t rue m ediati o n and cadence , and no t as be l onging to these

latter thus
,

E x ample 5 .

Mon oton i c ) (I n fl ec t ed)

w — J (
Mediation v .
—
v J
M on oto n i c ) (I nfl ec t ed)
— C aden c e .

R ec i tati on . R ec i tation .

This co m bination of these t wo notes with the m onotone as

an integra l par t o f the recit ation of c o urse de m an ds a m e lo dy
flo w ing s m o o th l y fr o m the one to the other without wi de rising
inte rva l s or zigzags , but it de m ands also , in singing t he
‘ ’
,

suppression t o the utm os t of the habit of pausing be tween

m
the , as if at this p o int a tune s t rikes up ; and above
‘ ’

all the suppressi on , as far a s possible , of the accent on the fi rst

of these two n ot es as it is not the fi rst in a bar
, .

It wil l be n ow u n ders t ood h ow the str o ng accents are reduced

in nu m ber, but s o m ewhat increased in relati v e fo rce ; h o w the
pointing is thereby si m pli fi ed , an d m ore freedo m of rh yt h m
gained It shou l d al so be understood that the actua l process of
.

pointing which we follo w is in o n e im p ortant respe ct just the

, ,

reverse of t ha t usua ll y fol lowed Under b o th the sys t e m s

.

hi t he rt o prevai l ing the workers , starting as i t h as been already

said fro m the idea of a strict m etrical tune with fi v e fi xed
,

accents of near l y equa l force , and seeking to supp l y a str o n g

syllable for every accented n ote work back fro m the fi nal
,

strong syllable in each h alf, as far as they fi n d n ecessa ry,