Unmercenary Sacred Music Choir Practice Resources September 21, 2003

Parishioners Present:

Sloan, Emilie, Ursula, Nick, Mike, and Helise.

Business Matters:

Lesson:  Interpreting Notation and the Extended Beat.

• Typically, the half-note gets the beat.  Our chant is not typically metered, but if it was the metered it would some type of cut-time meter: 1/2, 2/2, 3/2, 4/2, etc.
• Phrases typically end in a dotted half or a whole note.  The dotted half is used to indicate that the next note is on an upbeat, that is, it is an unaccented syllable.
• A line that begins with a quarter rest is also an indicatory that the first syllable is unaccented and is therefore on the upbeat.

New Music

Lesson: Antiphons

Read the following excert from Save us Who Sing to You: The Form and Function of the Divine Liturgy by Sloan Rolando about the meaning of what antiphons and antiphonal singing is:

What is an Antiphon?

The term antiphon does not mean the same thing in every liturgical system. In particular, the Roman and Byzantine understandings are quite different. Moreover, in Byzantine usage it has several, although loosely related, meanings. Therefore, the term does not clarify its function without further explanation. Moreover, the multiple meanings may lead to its functional reinterpretation, i.e., the function of antiphon as it is used in Matins, for example, may be used to justify doing the antiphons at the divine liturgy in a similar way even if inappropriate. We will look at both the Roman and Byzantine uses in the hope of discerning the nature of antiphons and antiphonal singing.

Roman Usage. In the Roman rite, the antiphon is used in both the Mass and the liturgy of the hours in a similar fashion. The following definition best fits its use in the Roman Mass:

[It is] a short refrain, frequently a verse from a psalm, that is suggested as a repeated congregational response to a psalm during a liturgy, for example, as the entrance song or the communion song.¹

Typically the antiphons of the Mass consist of the introit, gradual, alleluia (or tract during Lent), offertory, and communion. The most elaborate of them is the introit or entrance antiphon. In missals published before the new Roman lectionary of 1969, the introit had the following form:

Table 1 : Structure of a Roman Antiphon

The psalm that forms the core of the introit and other antiphons has suffered the same fate that other liturgical families have suffered, that is, reduction to almost nothing. "In the Middle Ages the psalms were drastically reduced in length as the music became more elaborate…."³ The same happened to the other antiphons of the mass; in the case of the offertory and communion, the psalm was reduced to only the antiphon itself. Since the reform of the lectionary, however, the use of a whole psalm has been reintroduced such that the gradual antiphon is now the refrain to a complete psalm and has been renamed the "responsorial psalm" in English language missals. ⁴

In the liturgy of the hours, the antiphon precedes and antecedes a psalm or a scriptural canticle. The General Instruction of the post-Vatican II liturgy of the hours considers the antiphons, along with titles and collects or psalm prayers, as three aids to understanding the psalms for Christian Prayer.⁵ While it is considered traditional to sing the antiphon before the psalm or canticle and then again after the doxology is sung at the end, the General Instruction suggests another ancient tradition of responsorial singing.⁶

In addition, when the character of a psalm suggests it, the divisions of the strophes are indicated in order that, especially when the psalm is sung in the vernacular, the antiphons may be repeated after each strophe; in this case the Glory to the Father need be said only at the end of the psalm.⁷

The content of Roman antiphons is generally scriptural; they also use freely composed interpretive antiphons so as to "help bring out the character of the psalm."⁸ For example, the ancient antiphon sung at Compline during the Canticle of St. Simeon states: "Protect us, O Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep; that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace."⁹

While the Roman practice of using an antiphon does not exactly match the Byzantine use, there are enough common elements that we will be able to use this as part of the evidence towards determining the most appropriate character and elements of antiphonal singing.

Byzantine Usage. The most common worship element that is known as an antiphon is found in the opening part of the divine liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil.¹⁰ Either three psalms and their refrains or two psalms and the beatitudes are at this point. However, there are a few other items that take the name "antiphon."¹¹ These include sections of psalmody that occur in vespers and hymns that occur in matins.

Johann von Gardner notes that an antiphon indicates both a style of singing as well as a type of musico-liturgical element.

In principle, this style involves two choirs stationed at the right and left of the Icon Screen ( ikonostatis ). Both choirs, the right and the left, sing in alternation: first, the right choir sings a hymn or verse in its entirety, then the left choir sings the next hymn, also in its entirety. This style is employed primarily for the performance of stichera and psalms that are performed verse by verse. Similarly, in the case of lengthy hymns, such as the Great Doxology, the hymn is divided into sections that are alternately performed by the right and left choirs.¹²

This explanation is perhaps the most popular understanding of antiphonal singing; however, as noted earlier, antiphonal singing is more properly a form of responsorial psalmody. Gardner also notes four types of antiphons:

1. The psalms performed verse by verse during the Litany of the Catechumens.
2. The first three "Glories" of the first Kathisma at Saturday evening Vespers.
3. Three troparion-like stanzas performed at Resurrectional Matins, [known as] the graduals (α’ναβαθμοί, stepenny), since their contents are based on Psalms 119-132.
4. The troparion-like stanzas of varying length that are grouped into fifteen antiphons and performed at the Matins of Good Friday between the first five Gospel readings, three at a time. Each stanza is repeated by the opposite choir.¹³

We can conclude, in each case, that an element has been named as an antiphon for at least being performed in an alternating style or being somehow linked to the psalms.

A further piece of evidence comes from the cathedral-rite sung offices of Constantinople that were used before the eventual ascendancy of monastic typika such as the Studite typicon and later the Sabbaite typicon. Antiphons, like today, had more than one meaning in the Cathedral-Rite office. First, an antiphon was primarily a selection of psalms to be sung at an appointed service.¹⁴The psalms chanted at these offices consisted of fixed psalms for certain services, like Psalm 85 being the first antiphon of Vespers,¹⁵ and the distributed psalmody that changed each day so that all 150 psalms would be sung in a week's time. Those psalms that were not fixed were "then divided into sixty-eight antiphons, roughly equal in length, each antiphon containing from one to six psalms."¹⁶ The antiphons were also split into even and odd antiphons with the odd ones having the refrain, "alleluia," and the even using a preassigned, short refrain of which there were only ten total.¹⁷ The refrains were phrases like, "Have mercy on me, O Lord"¹⁸ or "Save us, O Lord."¹⁹ The psalm ended with the Trinitarian doxology (split into two verses-"Glory to the Father…" and "Now and ever…") followed by the refrain.²⁰ Unlike the Roman style, the first verse of the psalm was always sung before the refrain was sung, whereas Roman usage always starts with its "antiphon refrain."

The antiphons, then, of the Constantinopolitan office are much like the Sabbaite kathisma. Therefore, this can provide a link between the antiphons noted in the first kathisma of Saturday night vespers. The Sabbaite typicon states the following, "First kathisma: Blessed is the Man, the first antiphon, but the second and third antiphon, sing in the tone of the day."²¹ When we trace the history of the antiphons at the liturgy, the Constantinopolitan office will again figure in prominently in the discussion of the liturgy antiphons and its execution with certain refrains and Only Begotten Son (‘ο Μονογενής).

Early Byzantine documents detail that the most elaborate form of antiphonal singing followed this structure:

A remnant of this structure still exists in the singing of the trisagion at the Divine Liturgy. The psalm has long disappeared, but the use of a clause²⁴ remains after the singing of the doxology and is then completed with the full refrain.

’Αντιφωνέω and α’ντίφωνος. Before drawing final conclusions, we need to look at the linguistic element. As we have seen from the examples of the use of the term antiphon, it does not seem to have only one meaning. However, when we simply translate the term from Greek, it is very simple. An α’ντίφωνος is an adjective that means sounding in answer or responsive; literally, it means opposite (from α’ντί) voice (from φωνή).²⁵ Similarly, the verbal form, α’ντιφωνέω, means to sound an answer or a reply.²⁶

From the Latin, Byzantine, and linguistic evidence, we can now draw up a root definition for the term antiphon. An antiphon is a liturgical element consisting of a strophically divided psalm or scriptural canticle and a refrain that is sung as a response, ideally by the congregation, between the strophes of the psalm or canticle; moreover, the psalm or canticle is sung in alternation, right to left, by two choirs or cantors culminating in the Trinitarian doxology²⁷ and a final singing of the refrain. The refrain can be from either a scriptural or an ecclesiastical source and serves to focus the meaning and Christian understanding of the psalm or canticle in the present liturgical celebration.

This definition is the minimum requirement for an element to be considered antiphonal. The antiphonal style can also involve multiple refrains, a longer refrain at the beginning with truncated refrains used throughout, and even a different summary refrain at the end. Stylistically, the congregation or choir that is responding with the refrain can also be split into two or more groups, which may be singing different refrains.

¹ Dennis C Smolasrski, S.J., Liturgical Literacy: From Anamnesis to Worship. 1990 NY: Paulist Press, 60.

²Roman-Seraphic Missal, (Paterson: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1968), 1.

³ R.H. Fuller, "Lectionary," The Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, 298.

⁴ Mary Berry, "Chants of the Proper of the Mass" The Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, 160.

⁵General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, 110. (GLIH) As found in The Liturgy of the Hours: According to the Roman Rite. Volume I . New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1975. Hereafter known as GILH.

⁶Ibid., 122-123.

⁷Ibid., 125.

⁸Ibid., 113.

⁹Salva nos, Domine, vigilantes, costodi nos dormientes: ut vigilemus cum Christo, et requiescamus in pace. This antiphon is common to both Roman and Anglican compline or night prayer.

¹⁰ That is, when St. Basil's liturgy is not part of a vigil vesperal liturgy.

¹¹ Assuming we exclude those items that are spuriously called antiphons by less official documents or uninformed sources.

¹² Johann von Gardner, Russian Church Singing, Vol. 1, (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: Crestwood, 1980), 32.

¹³Ibid., 48-49.

¹⁴ Oliver Strunk, "Byzantine Office at Hagia Sophia," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 9-10, 181.

¹⁵Ibid., 184.

¹⁶Ibid., 185.

¹⁷Ibid., 185.

¹⁸’Ελέησον με, κύριε.

¹⁹Σωˆσον ‘μâς, κύριε.

²⁰Ibid., 182.

²¹Typikon, Sîest' Ustav, 4. "pervuju kathismu: Blazhen muzh, pervyj antifon: vtoryj zhe i tretij antifon pojem na glas dne."

²² "Choirs" in this case means the congregation.

²³ Adapted from Robert F. Taft, Beyond East & West: Problems in Liturgical Understanding (Washington DC: Pastoral Press, 1984), 158.

²⁴ "have mercy on us," "have put on Christ," or "And Your Holy resurrection we glorify" depending on whether the trisagion hymn or one its replacements is sung (As many as have been baptized or Before your Cross).

²⁵ Henry G Lidell and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon: New Edition. Oxford: Claradon Press, 1977, 165-166.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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