Inflection
Change of pitch in the psalm tone.
What it means
Inflection (German Inflexion) designates in liturgical psalm singing the departure from the reciting tone: a small melodic bending with which a unit of sense of the text is articulated. While the greatest part of a psalm verse is delivered on an unchanging note, such turns mark the caesuras — the beginning, the middle, and the end of the verse. The melody thus fulfils the same task as punctuation in the written text.
In the notation
In liturgical books the inflections appear as short note sequences notated before and after the reciting tone. Markings in the text indicate on which syllables they fall; usually the distribution follows the last stressed syllables of a line. Modern editions use bold type, italics, or accent marks for this.
Musical use
The system makes it possible to sing texts of any length with a few formulas without the articulation being lost. Musically this yields a performance that stays close to speaking and at the same time has fixed points of reference. Because the inflections depend on the stress of the text, they show how closely language and melody are connected in this repertoire. The same principle has an after-effect in polyphonic psalm settings, which take the reciting tone and its cadences as a basis.
Performance practice
Before singing, determine the distribution of syllables using the markings and speak the verse aloud to secure the stresses. Keep the reciting tone calm and even; it is the reference, and any unrest there stands out. Execute the inflections without delay so that the flow of text is preserved. Breathe together at the intended caesuras. In alternating singing, agree the connection between the groups so that no gap arises.
Bear in mind that the inflections fall on the last stressed syllables and the distribution therefore changes from verse to verse: whoever distributes mechanically the same way stresses wrongly. Mark the syllables in the text and speak the verse aloud before singing. For the distribution of syllables, liturgical books provide accent marks or bold type.