What is a “chant”? From football terraces to political demonstrations to playground rhymes and perhaps even ancient plainchant, we have all chanted in one form or another. But the questions stands: what is “chant”? The Latin cantare means “to sing”, with cantus being a song, or singing. The French chanter means “to sing”, with chant being a song, or singing. In Middle English, chaunt or chant was a song or melody, particularly one sung repeatedly or in a ritual way.
It may be many decades since you last sang them, but I’m sure many readers will remember playground clapping games such as:
A sailor went to sea, sea, sea
To see what he could see, see, see
But all that he could see, see, see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea
And then there are of course times tables. Who remembers chanting those in class? Singing – or chanting – disparate facts makes them so much easier to remember than a list of standalone words. I still remember chants for the accusative, dative and nominative German grammar case systems (I took my O level many years ago – and got an A!)
But why do we chant in worship? Repetitive vocalisations are often used in spiritual settings to achieve a deep state of meditation or foster inner peace. Ther earliest recorded Christian spiritual chants are probably Gregorian, but these are predated by Islamic, Jewish and Buddhist chants, which are themselves predated by ancient African and Aboriginal chants, amongst many others.
There are contemporary Christian chants from all around the world, for example from Taizé and Iona, and we sing them regularly in our parish, sometimes in English, sometimes in Latin. The choir or congregation sings a verse of scripture repetitively, and sometimes a Cantor sings a prayer to a counter melody alongside. Recently we sang the Shona chant “Come all you people”, arranged by John Bell of the Iona Community https://youtu.be/KrVbughlIpU?si=eRJg7lx1UKqaf8hq. Others include:
- Bless the Lord, my soul
- Eat this bread, drink this cup
- In the Lord I’ll be ever thankful
- Jesus, remember me
- Magnificat (Margaret Rizza)
- Lord hear my prayer
- Stay with me
- Surrexit Christus
- The Lord is my light
- Ubi caritas
- Veni, lumen cordium (Margaret Rizza)
- Wait for the Lord
Nearly all of these were written by Br Jacques Berthier of the Taizé community. The idea is to sing the verse of scripture so often that the words move from head to heart, opening the soul to the Lord.
In choir rehearsals I’m often asked how many times we’ll be singing a particular chant, and I can never answer. We sing them as many times as feels “right”, moved by the holy spirit. We don’t have to sing every repetition the same way – we could add harmonies, just hum instead of singing the words – and Tom certainly doesn’t play every repeat the same way.
Chants are inclusive, accessible and memorable. Open your head, heart and soul. Sing, and see what happens.
Carol P
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 