- published: 16 Dec 2010
- views: 135846
A chant (from French chanter) is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures, often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases, such as Great Responsories and Offertories of Gregorian chant. Chant may be considered speech, music, or a heightened or stylized form of speech. In the later Middle Ages some religious chant evolved into song (forming one of the roots of later Western music).
Chanting (e.g., mantra, sacred text, the name of God/Spirit, etc.) is a commonly used spiritual practice. Like prayer, chant may be a component of either personal or group practice. Diverse spiritual traditions consider chant a route to spiritual development.
Some examples include chant in African, Hawaiian, and Native American, and Australian Aboriginal cultures, Gregorian chant, Vedic chant, Qur'an reading, Islamic Dhikr, Baha'i chants, various Buddhist chants, various mantras, Jewish cantillation, and the chanting of psalms and prayers especially in Roman Catholic (see Gregorian chant or Taizé Community), Eastern Orthodox (see Byzantine chant or Znamenny chant, for examples), Lutheran, and Anglican churches (see Anglican Chant).
Chaos in the friendly skies
Liberty did shield her eyes
And this was one day like any other
Before a brother betrayed another
Woman trembling cold and pale
Taken through the daily mail
But this was one life that should have mattered
Before the circuits of death were scattered
This was one of a series
A chain of events
Delivered in silence
It doesn't make sense
Children dancing in the street
Flaming banner at their feet
And this was one complicated vision
Of an unavailing decision
This was one for the register
Slipping of time
When the more you deplete us
The higher we climb
Yes, the higher we climb
First one falls and then there's two
The colors bleeding red, white, blue
But humanity cannot replace
The victims in the fall from grace
Again the chant, again
Again the chant, again
Again the chant, again