Antiphon

ANTIPHON. - From ἀντιφανή = alternating chant between two choirs. It is a brief formula, composed of one or more phrases that highlights the meaning of the psalm: it is like a key for the interpretation of the psalm itself, from which it is almost always taken, and it indicates its principal thought, for example in the ferial and Sunday offices. At times, moreover, it illustrates the mystery being celebrated, like the proper antiphons of feasts or of the Commune Sanctorum (v.), which are brief prayers, praises and invocations taken from scriptural passages or composed anew, such as the rhymed offices very much in vogue in the Middle Ages. In ancient times the antiphon was a refrain, a brief intercalary chant in the psalms sung by two choirs, which was called antiphonal psalmody. It was repeated at every verse of the psalm; but, with the passage of time, whether for lack of singers or also to make the office shorter, it was sung only at the beginning and at the end of the psalm. In the Mass, on the other hand, at the Offertory and at the Communion, with the psalm suppressed, only the antiphon has remained, and at the Introit the antiphon with the first verse of the psalm.

Properly antiphonal psalmody originated at Antioch (cf. Socrates, Hist. Eccl., 6, 8; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., 2, 19); it was then introduced at Constantinople, through the work of St. John Chrysostom, and at Milan, through the initiative of St. Ambrose, whence it then spread to all the churches of the Latin rite. In the 6th century the antiphon ceased to be an intercalary chant in the psalms, and came to assume the value of that which is placed before the psalm, which is said before it. St. Germanus of Paris says indeed: « Antiphona dicta, quia prius ipsa anteponitur » (Ep. altera de comm. officio).

Antiphonal chant was already in use among the Jews (Ezra 2, 12, 30) and among the pagans, as is shown for the Indians by the Regeada, for the Greeks by the hymn in honor of Apollo of Delphi, and for the Romans by the versus fescennini. Tertullian affirms that the most zealous Christians added to their prayers the Alleluia and to the psalms a certain concluding formula that those present could repeat (De Orat., 27). Eteria Silvia (v.), speaking of the night office at Jerusalem in the 4th century, writes: « Psalmi responduntur », and that one of the priests says in the morning office a psalm « et respondent omnes » (Peregr., 24, 1-9).

In the present Latin liturgy the antiphon is recited in full before and after the psalm at Matins, at Lauds and at Vespers on days of double rite; in the semidouble and simple rites it is intoned at the beginning and said in full at the end of the psalm. In the minor hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, None and Compline it is always intoned at the beginning and said in full at the end of the three psalms. To intone the antiphon is an honor which, for example, at solemn Vespers, in cathedral, collegiate and conventual churches, is manifested by a pre-intonation made by the first cantor who, vested in sacred vestments, goes to the place of the one who is to intone.

Filippo Oppenheim

MUSIC

The singing of the a. was performed in several

46. - ENCICLOPERIA CATTOLICA. - I.

ways: either by combining simultaneously the same melody in a different tessitura, for example at the octave; or by following the same melody with two distinct choirs, or with a different melody. In the East, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the psalms were thus sung antiphonally: the men on one side, the women and children on the other. A refrain or short phrase (with a lengthening of tempo) that was intercalated between the verses of the psalms, or at least sung at the beginning and at the end, was also called an a. This manner of singing was as it were opposed to another form, called indirectum or sine antiphona, since then the whole psalm was performed without intercalation.

The text of the a., taken from the same psalm, has a very simple musical form, such that it can easily be learned by heart by all the faithful alternating with the clergy or with the soloist. But when, later, the text was drawn from other biblical books, from hagiographic compositions, or was specially composed, then the melody too is at times more developed. The tone of the psalm depends absolutely on the mode of the a.; indeed the very ending of the saeculorum amen (E.U.O.A.E.) is chosen by preferring the one that best favors the transition from the psalm to the a.; a thing even more necessary when the a. was repeated between the verses of the psalm. On certain solemnities this repetition, for example in the singing of the Magnificat, was said "to make the a. triumph." The choice of a single dominant has been fixed, in Gregorian chant, for the convenience of the singers, but it is not always the one required by the construction. In Ambrosian chant the dominant of the psalm is taken as that proper to the a. At times the musical theme of the a., especially if the text is from the same psalm, is so well cadenced and harmonious in its proportions that it has been used as the melodic formula of the small responsories with the Alleluia. The hypothesis has been put forward that several themes of these simple a. would be taken from profane popular songs the better to facilitate the singing of the faithful. Nothing concrete can be affirmed, however; but it must be said that it is not impossible, just as it is not impossible that there are Oriental themes. In any case, the Church has known how to assimilate and adapt such themes perfectly, sanctifying them.

The music follows, in the a., almost step by step the phrasing of the text, with its own melodic accentuation. It cannot be denied that some melodies, originally made for a determined text, have become as it were a type and model to be adopted for different texts that present a similar literary arrangement, and also with cadential modifications or of simple passage, which reveal to us a whole system proper to Gregorian chant. In the a. we find in particular the form of the centone with its nomoi. This very ancient procedure, even earlier than Gregorian chant, constitutes musically a true mosaic of wandering formulas, but which reveal an exquisite taste. At other times the melody of the a., because of the text, is arranged as in a strophe, in the manner of a hymn or εἰμνος (v. IRMO). The construction of the melodies of the a. presents especially the ad arco form, as corresponding to the melody of the word; beginning from the lower notes, they develop upward toward the center and return to the base. Not rare, however, are the cases in which the melody begins on high, as ex abrupto, particularly inspired in the very expression of the text.

Gregorio M. Suñol