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Bible Encyclopedias
Chant
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (פָּרִט , parat´, to chatter, spoken contemptuously; Sept. ἐπικρατέω ) occurs only in Amos 6:5, where the passage, "That chant to the sound of the viol," may be rendered, "That sing to the sound of the harp." The Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate read, "who sing to the sound of the psaltery;" and the margin of our version gives "quaver." Josephus informs us that the instrument here termed nebel was of a triangular shape, and carried in the hand. In the paintings on the monuments at Thebes we find players on the harp in the act of singing to the sound of their own music. (See the cut below.) Similar scenes are depicted on the Assyrian monuments. (See MUSIC). Both among the Jews and the Egyptians musical instruments were chiefly played upon by women: the Psalmist, describing a musical procession,' says, "The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels" (Psalms 68:25). (See HARP).
(cantus, a song), the word employed in the early Church to designate the vocal music of the congregation. The term was applied, later, to special tunes adapted to prose; e.g. the Ambrosian, established by St. Ambrose, and the Gregorian, introduced by Pope Gregory the Great, who established schools of chanters, and corrected the Church music. This, at first, was called the Roman song; afterwards the plain song, as the choir and people sing in unison. In modern liturgical worship, the word designates the musical performance of all those parts of a prose liturgy which are permitted to be sung or recited in a musical tone. In a wider sense, it is used to denote those forms of sacred music in which prose (e.g. passages of Scripture) is sung in simple harmonies. (See MUSIC).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Chant'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/chant.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
