Antiphon
ANTIPHON
In Western liturgical practice, a refrain sung before and after a Psalm or canticle. In Byzantine liturgical usage it means several verses of a Psalm, a complete Psalm, or even several Psalms followed by a doxology. Although the original meaning seems to have referred to an alternation of groups in Psalm singing (see psalmody), by the 6th century it had come to mean in the West a refrain that accompanied such alternation. It forms the largest category of chants found in the Office and in the Mass. Later medieval pieces with alternating choruses but not with accompanying psalmody are also called antiphons (processional antiphons and marian antiphons).
Bibliography: o. strunk, "The Antiphons of the Oktoechos," Journal of the American Musicological Society 13 (1960) 50–67. a. gevaert, Le Mélopée antique dans le chant de l'église latine (Gand 1895).
[r. g. weakland]