Antiphonary

What it means

The antiphonary (also antiphonal or antiphoner) is the liturgical book containing the texts and melodies of the Divine Office: antiphons, psalms, responsories, and hymns for the daily hours of prayer and the feasts of the church year. Alongside the gradual, which gathers the chants of the Mass, it forms the second great chant book of Western liturgy.

The oldest surviving antiphonaries date from the early Middle Ages and were at first notated without pitch-specific signs, later with neumes, an early notation that sketched the shape of a melody graphically, before staff-based chant notation became standard.

In the notation

Early antiphonaries often show unlined or lightly lined neumes above the text, serving more as memory aids for melodies already known than as an exact record of pitch. Later antiphonaries, especially those restored during the nineteenth-century revival of Gregorian chant, use four-line square notation, the form still standard in liturgical chant books today.

Musical use

As a collected work, the antiphonary sets out the musical shape of the Divine Office across the whole church year, fixing which antiphon, psalm tone, and responsory belong to which hour and feast. It served both the practical performance of the office in monastic or cathedral choirs and the preservation of a shared liturgical repertoire across wide regions.

The antiphonary should be distinguished from the gradual, which contains the chants of the Mass (such as the introit, gradual proper, alleluia, offertory, and communion), while the antiphonary serves the Divine Office. It differs from the more general choirbook, a large-format collection of polyphonic compositions of various genres meant to be read by several singers together, in that the antiphonary is exclusively liturgical, monophonic chant. Surviving medieval antiphonaries are also important sources for the history of notation and for research into regional chant traditions, such as the St. Gall neume tradition.

Performance practice

When singing from a historical antiphonary or its modern edition, orient yourself first by the associated antiphon, since it determines the psalm tone and its execution. Where possible, compare different antiphonary editions or manuscripts to hear how melodic details have shifted regionally and over the centuries.