Reciting tone

In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tuba, while the second includes psalm tones (each with its own associated Gregorian mode) as well as simpler formulae for other readings and for prayers. Reciting tones occur in several parts of the Roman Rite. These include the accentus prayers and lessons chanted by the deacons or priests such as the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Secret, Preface, Canon, and Postcommunion, as well as such regular texts as the Pater noster, Te Deum, and the Gloria in excelsis Deo. They are also sung in versicles and responds such as the Dominus vobiscum ("The Lord be with you") of the officiant followed by the Et cum spiritu tuo ("and with your spirit") of the choir. Some tones, presumably from the earliest layers of chant, such as the Collect, Pater noster, and Postcommunion for Easter, consist of just two notes, often a reciting tone on A or G, with inflected notes one pitch below on G or F. Other tones, from later in the medieval period, usually recited on a C or F, inflecting down to the two notes below, such as the Epistle for Easter. More complex patterns were used for the psalm tones, which are employed in the chanting of the Psalms and related canticles in the daily Offices. There are eight psalm tones, one for each musical mode, designed so that the antiphon that is sung between psalm verses transitions smoothly into the psalm tone. Each psalm tone has a formulaic intonation, mediant (or mediation), and termination (or ending). The intonation defines the notes for the first two or three syllables, with subsequent words sung on the reciting tone. Because of the parallel structure typical of the Psalms, psalm verses divide into two roughly equal parts; the end of the first part is indicated by the mediant, a slight bending of notes above and below the reciting tone.