A Guide to Anglican Chant
For the Psalms and Canticles of the Lauds and Compline
With a note on pointing, on the plainsong inheritance, and on the psalters recommended for sung use
Companion to the Lauds Morning Prayer and Compline Night Prayer of the Saints’ Meditations Archive
WHAT ANGLICAN CHANT IS
Anglican chant is the system of harmonised melody used to sing the prose psalms and canticles of the BCP Daily Office. Unlike metrical psalmody — where the words are fitted to a regular verse-form — Anglican chant applies a fixed melodic formula to the irregular prose of Coverdale’s Psalter, allowing every verse to be sung regardless of its length. The same melodic pattern is repeated for each verse of the psalm; but within each verse, the singer holds a single reciting note for as many syllables as necessary before moving through a brief melodic inflection to the cadence. The result is a form of song that is neither speech nor melody but both at once: the natural speech-rhythm of the prose is preserved, while the pitches of the chant give it the sustained quality of sung prayer.
The system developed in English cathedral practice from the sixteenth century onward, growing directly from the Gregorian psalm tones that the medieval Church had used for a millennium before the Reformation. Cranmer’s translation of the Office into English required an English musical solution, and Anglican chant — at first improvised, then gradually codified — was that solution. By the eighteenth century it had become the standard sung form of the BCP psalms; by the nineteenth century it had developed the four-part harmonised form in which it is most widely known today, used in cathedrals from Canterbury to Washington, from Salisbury to Sydney.
THE STRUCTURE OF A SINGLE CHANT
A single Anglican chant consists of two halves, corresponding to the two halves of each psalm verse. Each half has the same structure:
Reciting note · Mediant inflection (2–3 notes) ― Reciting note · Cadential phrase (3–4 notes)
The first half of a chant carries the first part of each verse up to the mediant mark; the second half carries the remainder to the final cadential close. In a double chant — the most common form — two complete verses are set to a single melodic unit of four phrases before the pattern repeats. In a single chant, each verse is sung to a two-phrase unit.
A complete single chant therefore has the following architecture:
First half: [reciting note] · [mediant inflection]
Second half: [reciting note] · [cadential phrase]
The art of pointing is the art of distributing the syllables of the prose correctly across this architecture, so that the natural stress of the English falls on the melodic stress of the chant.
WHAT POINTING MEANS
Because each half-verse can contain any number of syllables, the singer must know precisely which syllable falls on the mediant inflection and which syllable begins the cadential phrase. Pointing marks these pivots in the text itself. The standard system uses:
• An asterisk (*) to mark the mediant — the point where the first reciting note moves into the inflection. Everything before the asterisk is sung on the reciting note; the syllable at the asterisk falls on the first note of the mediant figure.
• A colon (:) or vertical bar to mark the beginning of the cadential phrase. The syllable at this mark falls on the first note of the cadential figure; subsequent syllables carry through to the close.
• In the second half of the verse, the same asterisk convention applies: the first reciting note is held until the final cadential figure.
The pointing of a given psalm varies between psalters because different editors have made different judgements about where the stress falls and how the melodic rhythm best serves the prose. This is why a specific pointed psalter must be followed consistently: mixing the pointing of different psalters produces rhythmic incoherence.
POINTED EXAMPLES FROM THIS ARCHIVE
The following verses from the Lauds and Compline are shown with approximate pointing in the Parish Psalter tradition. The asterisk ✳ marks the mediant; the raised dot · marks the beginning of the cadential phrase. For definitive pointing consult the psalter recommended for the chant in use.
Psalm 63:1 (Lauds, Psalm 63)
O God, thou art my God ✳ early will I · seek thee.
Psalm 67:1 (Lauds, Psalm 67)
God be merciful unto us, and bless us ✳ and shew us the light of his · countenance.
The Benedictus (Lauds — Zechariah’s Canticle)
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ✳ for he hath visited and re- · deemed his people.
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us ✳ in the house of his · servant David.
The Magnificat (Lauds — Mary’s Canticle)
My soul doth magnify the Lord ✳ and my spirit hath rejoiced in · God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his hand- · maiden ✳ for behold, from henceforth all generations shall · call me blessed.
Psalm 31:4 (Compline, Psalm 31)
Into thy hands I commend my spirit ✳ for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou · God of truth.
Psalm 91:1 (Compline, Psalm 91)
Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High ✳ shall abide under the shadow of the · Almighty.
The Nunc Dimittis (Compline — Simeon’s Canticle)
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant de- · part in peace ✳ according to · thy word.
For mine eyes have seen ✳ thy sal- · vation.
THE PLAINSONG ALTERNATIVE
Anglican chant is the harmonised solution; Gregorian plainsong is the older solution from which it grew. For those who prefer plainsong — which is the tradition of the Patristic and medieval figures throughout this archive, from the Desert Fathers through Benedict through the Northumbrian monasteries through the great cathedrals of the medieval period — the Roman psalm tones are entirely appropriate for the BCP psalms and canticles.
There are eight psalm tones, one for each of the eight modes of the Western modal system, plus the Tonus Peregrinus — the wandering tone — used in the Roman tradition for Psalm 113 (In exitu Israel) and adopted in Anglican use for the Magnificat in some traditions. Each tone has a simple two-part structure: a reciting note with an intonation at the beginning of the psalm, a mediant cadence at the half-verse, and a final cadence at the close. The tones are simpler and more ancient than Anglican chant; they can be sung in unison by any group regardless of musical training; and they carry the weight of fifteen centuries of monastic prayer.
The standard Anglo-Catholic plainsong resource is the Manual of Plainsong (H. B. Briggs and W. H. Frere, first published 1902, revised edition 1951, SPCK), which provides full plainsong settings for every canticle and psalm in the BCP with the pointing adapted for Coverdale’s English. Appendix III of the Manual provides the psalm tones with their differentiæ — the variant endings that allow each tone to lead smoothly into the antiphon that follows the psalm. This is the resource used in Anglo-Catholic houses and communities when the Office is sung to plainsong, and it has been in continuous use since its first publication.
THE PSALTERS RECOMMENDED FOR THIS ARCHIVE
Three psalters are recommended for sung use with the Lauds and Compline of this archive, in order of accessibility:
1. The Parish Psalter
Sidney Nicholson, 1928. Designed specifically for parish use with non-specialist choirs. The pointing is carefully calculated for singability without sacrificing faithfulness to the prose. The chants are chosen for accessibility. Its date — 1928 — matches the BCP revision this archive follows, making it the natural companion volume. Published by SPCK; widely reprinted.
2. The Cathedral Psalter
Stainer, Coward, and others, 1875. The standard Victorian cathedral psalter, used in cathedrals and collegiate chapels throughout the English-speaking world. More demanding than the Parish Psalter; the pointing is more refined and the chants include many of the great settings of the Anglican tradition by Purcell, Croft, Battishill, Attwood, and their successors. Published by Novello; still in print.
3. The Manual of Plainsong
H. B. Briggs and W. H. Frere, 1902; revised 1951, SPCK. The standard Anglo-Catholic plainsong resource. Provides the eight Gregorian psalm tones with Coverdale’s Psalter pointed for English use, plus plainsong settings of all BCP canticles. For those who wish to sing the Office as the medieval tradition sang it — simply, in unison, without harmonisation — this is the volume. The revised edition of 1951 incorporates Frere’s later scholarship and remains the definitive text.
A NOTE ON DOUBLE CHANTS AND THE DOUBLE PSALM VERSE
When a double chant is used, two verses of the psalm are sung to the complete four-phrase melodic unit before the pattern repeats. This means that verses must be paired: verse 1 with verse 2, verse 3 with verse 4, and so on. When a psalm has an odd number of verses, the final verse is sung alone to the first half of the double chant, or to a single chant. The pointed psalter will indicate how each psalm’s verses are to be paired. The Gloria Patri at the end of each psalm is always sung as a paired double verse: Glory be to the Father / and to the Son / and to the Holy Ghost || As it was in the beginning / is now and ever shall be / world without end. Amen.
A NOTE ON LEARNING TO SING THE OFFICE
No special musical training is required to sing Anglican chant at a basic level. The reciting note is held until the pointing mark is reached; the inflections are brief and follow a fixed formula that the ear learns quickly with practice. The greatest obstacle is not musical but psychological: the conviction that one cannot sing. Every monastic community in every century has included members who struggled to carry a tune in any conventional sense; the Office was sung anyway, because the singing is not a performance but a prayer, and the quality of the sound is less important than the act of offering it.
The Psalmist did not say let those with musical ability praise the Lord; he said let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Coverdale’s English, set to Anglican chant on a pointed page, is the practical instrument by which that commandment is obeyed in the Anglican tradition. The sung Office is not a higher form of the Office reserved for those with voices; it is the same Office offered in the form that the whole of the Christian centuries have considered its fullest expression, the form in which prayer becomes something the body makes as well as the mind thinks and the heart means.
THE RELATION OF THIS GUIDE TO THE ARCHIVE
This guide is a companion to the Lauds Morning Prayer and Compline Night Prayer of the Saints’ Meditations Archive. It does not replace a pointed psalter; it explains what a pointed psalter is for and recommends those best suited to the tradition this archive inhabits. The psalms appointed in the Lauds — Psalms 63, 67, 95, 100, and 148, with the Benedictus and the Magnificat — and in the Compline — Psalms 31 and 91, with the Nunc Dimittis — are among the most frequently sung psalms in the Anglican choral tradition and will be found in any of the psalters recommended above. The pointed examples given in this guide follow the Parish Psalter (1928) tradition and are intended as illustration only: the definitive pointing for any given chant is that of the psalter being used.
Miles Coverdale gave the Church of England the words; the choir tradition gave it the music; and the pointed psalter gives the singer the map between them. The rest is prayer.