From Heavenly Harmony
Wonder & Wandering
by Ken Myers
For centuries, the singing of the Psalms has been at the heart of the Church's worship. The poetic form of the Psalter, with verses typically in two-line parallelisms, lends itself to antiphonal chanting. Typically, two groups of singers alternate lines of each verse, chanting back and forth in what we sometimes call "responsive" singing. The Gregorian chant repertoire includes a collection of eight short melodic patterns called "psalm tones," each with two phrases, to which any psalm could be chanted. Each of the two phrases in each tone includes some introductory notes (the "intonation"), a single reciting note on which a variable number of syllables may be chanted, and a final pattern of notes called a "cadence."
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also served as editor of Eternity, the Evangelical monthly magazine, and This World, the quarterly predecessor to First Things. He also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
23.1—January/February 2010
It’s Bent on Bringing Down the House on the Family & the Church by Douglas Farrow
32.2—March/April 2019
Reality Shows, Even in a Popular TV Series by C. E. Smith
32.4—July/August 2019
on Probability, Death & the Existence of God by Graeme Hunter
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
