(from Lat. canticulum, diminutive of canticum: ‘song’).
A designation for hymns in the scriptures apart from the psalms; it is sometimes applied loosely to the Te Deum and other non-scriptural texts as well as to certain psalms, particularly in the Anglican rite.
MILOS VELIMIROVIĆ (1–2), RUTH STEINER/KEITH FALCONER (3), NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY (4)
Canticles are similar to psalms in form and content and several appear in various Christian rites. Biblical canticles are often referred to as ‘Psalms outside the Psalter’. In the Old Testament there are a number of such hymns, a few of which were used by the Jews both in the Temple and in the Synagogue rites. The most prominent were the Song of Moses (Exodus xv.1–19) and the Hymn of the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel iii.57–88 in the Apocrypha). The Greek term in the Septuagint for such songs is ōdē (from adō: ‘to sing’). Of the New Testament canticles, it seems likely that some are new versions, maybe only slightly reworked, of earlier Jewish or Jewish-Christian material, the latter most probably consisting of hymns or psalmic compositions; the original versions, presumably in Hebrew or Aramaic, are lost and cannot now be reconstructed with certainty. Three New Testament canticles are used daily in the Roman rite: Benedictus, or the Canticle of Zechariah (Luke i.68–79), at Lauds; Magnificat, or the Canticle of the Virgin Mary (Luke i.46–55), at Vespers; and Nunc dimittis, or the Canticle of Simeon (Luke ii.29–32), at Compline. Among other psalm-like compositions, those such as the Gloria in excelsis Deo and the Greek morning hymn Phōs hilaron are at least as old as the 3rd century. Some songs of this type were suspected as early as the 4th century of being heretical (psalmi idiotici) and were eventually suppressed.
In spite of a paucity of documentary evidence, it may be assumed that early Christians used some of the Old Testament canticles in their services. One of the earliest Christian rituals, Easter, was expanded at the end of the 2nd century with a vigil service during which the book of Exodus was read; the Song of Moses from that book was sung not later than the beginning of the 4th century. In the ‘Daniel Papyrus’ (EIRE-Dcb) dating from the 2nd or 3rd century, the text of the Hymn of the Three Children (also known as Song of the Three Young Men) is divided into verses and supplied with accentual marks suggesting musical performance. The growth of monasticism in the 4th century, particularly in Egypt, and the gradual establishment of a daily cycle of services in which the canticles were sung during the morning Office contributed to the increasing prominence of the biblical canticles. By the first half of the 5th century, 14 canticles were collected in the Codex Alexandrinus (GB-Lbl Roy.1.D.V–VIII) and placed after the book of Psalms. Of the 14, ten are Old Testament canticles, three are from the New Testament and the last is the Gloria (i.e. the Great Doxology) of which only the opening words are biblical. (Although the Gloria is now part of the Roman Mass, it still occupies a place in the Byzantine morning Office, Orthros, for which all 14 were originally intended.) The copying of a group of canticles after the psalms served as a model for a later type of manuscript known as ‘Psalter and Odes’. The number of canticles contained in such manuscripts varied considerably until well into the Middle Ages; most include no more than a couple of dozen, but in one Mozarabic source, E-SC Cod.1055, there are as many as 106.
See also Christian Church, music of the early.
Much of the present Byzantine rite is derived from the observances of the early Christians in the Greek-speaking areas of the eastern Mediterranean. Within that area there were two main centres that influenced the liturgy: Constantinople, the political capital of the eastern Roman Empire, and Jerusalem, the focal point of pilgrimages and a spiritual centre whose practice was regarded as a model. At this time a type of refrain was sung after every verse of the psalms, whose text might itself be taken from a psalm, or be newly composed; such a refrain was designated a hypopsalma.
This practice spread and is important in view of later developments. It appears that at least some verses of the 14 canticles in the Codex Alexandrinus were used as hypopsalmata in the early 6th century in Constantinople, particularly during the chanting of the Psalter, which was, for the sake of convenience, divided into 69 (or 72) antiphona. The hypopsalma surrounding the performance of those antiphona was designated antiphonon.
At about the same time (early 6th century) the Psalter was divided at Jerusalem into 20 sections known as kathismata. To these was added an extra kathisma consisting of nine canticles; this represents a reduction from the 14 in the Codex Alexandrinus. Furthermore, each kathisma of the Psalter was subdivided into three sections, each of which, in turn, normally consisted of three psalms and was known as a stasis. This subdivision of the kathisma is also found in the organization of canticles in Jerusalem. They are arranged in three groups, each containing three odes (ōdai). Between each stasis and the next, intermediary songs (mēsōdia) had been inserted by the beginning of the 7th century, which seems to be the period in which this Jerusalem practice began to spread through the Byzantine domain. The order of odes became fixed in the following sequence: Ode 1: Exodus xv.1–19 (Moses’s song of thanksgiving); Ode 2: Deuteronomy xxxii.1–43 (Moses’s admonition before his death); Ode 3: 1 Samuel ii.1–10 (prayer of Hannah, mother of Samuel); Ode 4: Habakkuk iii.2–19 (prayer of Habakkuk); Ode 5: Isaiah xxvi.9–19 (prayer of Isaiah); Ode 6: Jonah ii.2–9 (prayer of Jonah); Ode 7: Daniel iii.26–45 (prayer of Azariah), 52–6 (First Hymn of the Three Children); Ode 8: Daniel iii.57–88 (Hymn of the Three Children); Ode 9: Luke i.46–55 (song of the Virgin Mary: Magnificat), 68–79 (song of Zechariah: Benedictus).
This regulated order of canticles was performed in its entirety at Orthros on Sundays and feasts. In time it came to be known as akolouthia (i.e. ordo; see Akolouthiai) and also as Kanōn (‘rule’). On the ferial days of Lent, however, only three canticles (odes) were prescribed, equal to a single stasis of a kathisma; this in turn led to the concept of the triōdion. Since Odes 8 and 9 were performed daily, in order to obtain a full performance of all the odes in the course of a week it was necessary to increase the number of odes on Saturdays from three to four. The order of the odes sung during each week of Lent was as follows: Monday, Odes 1, 8 and 9; Tuesday, Odes 2, 8 and 9; Wednesday, Odes 3, 8 and 9; Thursday, Odes 4, 8 and 9; Friday, Odes 5, 8 and 9; Saturday, Odes 6 and 7–9; Sunday, Odes 1 and 3–9.
The reasons for the omission of Ode 2 on Sundays as well as the date at which this practice became mandatory are still unknown, in spite of many conjectures. During the 7th century a new practice began to gain ground, that of paraphrasing the ideas of the text of each canticle. Not later than the end of the 7th century, these paraphrases were substituted in the services for the original canticles, leading thus to the formation of a new poetical form of the kanōn which still maintains its place in the morning Office of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The
Rule of St Benedict (c530) prescribes the singing of canticles in the
Divine Office, and specifies that a different Old Testament canticle is to be
sung at Lauds on each day of the week. This custom was described by St Benedict
as being ‘sicut psallat Romana ecclesia’, and may thus date back in Rome to at
least the 5th century. The Rule does not name the individual canticles, but
those in use during the Middle Ages are as follows:Sunday:
Canticle of the Three Young Men, Benedicite omnia opera (Daniel
iii.57–88, 56)
Monday: Canticle of Isaiah, Confitebor tibi, Domine (Isaiah
xii.1–6)
Tuesday: Canticle of Hezekiah, Ego dixi (Isaiah
xxxviii.10–20)
Wednesday: Canticle of Anna, Exultavit cor meum (1
Samuel ii.1–10)
Thursday: Canticle of Moses, Cantemus Domino (Exodus
xv.1–19)
Friday: Canticle of Habakkuk, Domine audivi (Habakkuk
iii.2–19)
Saturday: Canticle of Moses, Audite caeli (Deuteronomy
xxxii.1–43)
The canticle for Sundays was also used for feasts. In Pius X’s reformed
breviary of 1911, a second series of canticles was added.
Lauds begins with five ‘psalms’ (really five selections of biblical poetry), of which the Old Testament canticle is the fourth. Each of the selections is preceded and followed by its own antiphon. The antiphon texts for the ferial Office canticles are generally taken from the canticles they accompany; on Sundays and feasts the fourth Lauds antiphon often makes reference to the Canticle of the Three Children. The mode of the antiphon determines the psalm tone.
In Matins of the monastic Office there is another series of Old Testament canticles chanted to psalm tones. Three such canticles begin the third nocturn of Matins on Sundays and feasts; a single antiphon (often in the manuscripts bearing the rubric ‘ad cantica’) precedes and follows them. St Benedict did not specify the texts of these canticles, saying only that they were to be chosen ‘ex prophetis’ by the abbot. There is occasional disagreement among the early manuscripts on the choice of canticles for individual feasts; a list of some that are frequently given, with their biblical sources, is provided by Cabrol (cols.1985–6). The canticles for the third nocturn of Matins on Christmas Day are Populus qui ambulabat (Isaiah ix.2–7), Laetare Jerusalem (‘Laetamini cum Jerusalem’, Isaiah lxvi.10–16), and Urbs fortitudinis (Isaiah xxvi.1–12) in the 13th-century monastic breviary from Vendôme (Bibliothèque Municipale 17 E); the order of the last two canticles is reversed in the Benedictine breviary published in Mechelen in 1939. It is not easy to interpret the testimony of the manuscripts that call for other canticles; a 12th-century monastic antiphoner from Benevento (I-BV V 21) names only two canticles for Christmas, Populus gentium and Parvulus filius. Occasionally a separate antiphon for each of the three canticles is found, as for Christmas in the antiphoner of Hartker (CH-SGs 390, from c1000).
Old Testament canticles are occasionally found as the texts for Mass chants, most conspicuously on Holy Saturday, where the 12 lessons, or ‘prophecies’, of the Mass are interrupted three times by canticles. After the fourth lesson, which is drawn from Exodus and describes the passage of the Israelites across the Red Sea, the Canticle of Moses, Cantemus Domino, is sung to the formula for tracts of the 8th mode. Its text begins at the verse in Exodus where the lesson ended, and is an abbreviated version of the Lauds canticle for Thursday. The second canticle is Vinea facta est (Isaiah v), the third, Attende caelum (Deuteronomy xxxii.3); a much longer version of this is also in Lauds for Saturday. They follow the eighth and 11th readings, respectively, and again supply the continuation of the biblical passages that precede them in the lessons. The ‘canticle’ that follows the 12th lesson is, however, a psalm text (Sicut cervus); like all the others it is sung to the 8th-mode tract formula. There has been much discussion of the origin and the early history of this service, and of the role of the canticles in it; this is summarized by Hesbert (1935/R, pp.lx–lxi) and Righetti (ii, pp.264–7). Another Old Testament canticle, the Benedicite (Canticle of the Three Children/Song of the Three Young Men), was sung during the Middle Ages on Ember Saturdays in those masses that are often marked in the manuscripts ‘in XII lectionibus’. They are related structurally and liturgically to the Mass of Holy Saturday; the Canticle of the Three Children may have stood in the place of Sicut cervus at one time, for its text is drawn from the same passage in Daniel as the 12th lesson of Holy Saturday.
Each of the New Testament canticles contributes significantly to the character of the service in which it appears. The reason for the inclusion of the Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel (see Benedictus (ii)) in Lauds seems clear; the service is held at daybreak, and the canticle contains the phrase ‘to give light to them that sit in darkness’. The Nunc dimittis, in which the aged Simeon welcomes death, is similarly appropriate for Compline; it is said just before going to bed and sleep is treated as the image of death. The Nunc dimittis was not part of the original nucleus of Compline, however, and was not included in the monastic form of the service. On the other hand, in the Magnificat (see Magnificat, §1) there is no reference to a time of day, and it originally formed part of a morning service. Its position in Vespers, towards the end of the service, is comparable to that of the Benedictus in Lauds, which lends a similarity in format to the two services, despite a difference in content. Lauds has a unified theme (the praise of God at daybreak) while Vespers, with all of its psalms constantly changing, does not.
The Benedictus and Magnificat were chanted to a special canticle tone, more elaborate than a psalm tone, in which the beginning of every line (not only the first one) was marked with a special musical figure. Antiphons for these often have texts drawn from the Gospel of the Mass for the day, and they are sometimes the only Proper chants in the Office for an entire day, for example, the weekdays of Lent. The Nunc dimittis is chanted to a psalm tone, and Proper antiphons for it are very rare.
Manuscript psalters of the Middle Ages often end with a short appendix containing the Old and New Testament canticles. A number of other texts commonly employed in the Divine Office and the Mass may also be included: the Te Deum, the Pater noster, the Apostles’ Creed, the Greater Doxology, the Athanasian Creed etc. Some writers have called all these texts ‘canticles’, at least in this context, but it is not a common way of using the term.
The
Book of Common Prayer uses the word ‘canticle’ only for the Benedicite,
but it has become the general term for those psalms and hymns prescribed for
daily use in Morning and Evening Prayer, as opposed to the psalms which vary
from day to day and from Sunday to Sunday. They are usually known by the Latin
form of their opening words:Morning Prayer:
Venite (Psalm xcv): daily (1549) (except on Easter Day;
1662)
Te Deum (Hymn of St Ambrose): daily except in Lent
(1549); daily (1552)
Benedicite (Daniel iii.57–88, 56 ): daily in
Lent (1549); alternative to Te Deum (1552)
Benedictus (Luke i.68–79): daily (1549)
Jubilate (Psalm c): alternative to Benedictus
(1552)Evening Prayer:
Magnificat (Luke i.46–55): daily (1549)
Cantate Domino (Psalm xcviii): alternative to Magnificat
(1552)
Nunc dimittis (Luke ii.29–32): daily (1549)
Deus misereatur (Psalm lxvii): alternative to Nunc
dimittis (1552)
In early choral use, the canticles may have been sung to psalm tones with faburden, or to adaptations of plainchant such as those found in Marbeck's Booke of Common Praier Noted (1550). Simple polyphonic settings of the canticles from the 1549 Prayer Book are found in the Wanley and Lumley partbooks (GB-Ob Mus.Sch.E.420–22 and Lbl Roy.App.74–6) from the reign of Edward VI. In Elizabethan times polyphonic settings of the canticles began to be combined with music for the Communion to form a Service.
During the exile under Mary Tudor the Anglican or ‘Prayer Book’ party centred at Strasbourg and Frankfurt caused the three New Testament canticles to be versified along with the psalms, and these versions became part of the English metrical psalm book under Elizabeth I. Metrical versions of the Te Deum and Benedicite were then added, and each canticle had its own tune. Under the influence of Puritan ministers they were often illegally substituted for the prose canticles, in cathedrals as well as parish churches, and some polyphonic settings of them have survived. The practice was stopped under Charles I. From the Restoration onwards the metrical canticles were used only as additions to the liturgy, in the same way as metrical psalms or (later) hymns. That they were sometimes so used is shown by the fact that fresh metrical versions were provided by Tate and Brady in A Supplement to the New Version of Psalms (1700). Of the old tunes associated with the metrical canticles, that to the Magnificat (Frost, tune 4) was the most popular. It was called by the Puritan William Barton (1644) ‘a most delicate joyfull tune, used frequently of old, and not fit to be forgotten’; it remained in use at least until the middle of the 18th century.
The Prayer Book canticles were normally spoken in parish churches; the parson read verses in alternation with the people, who were at first led and eventually replaced by the parish clerk. With the advent of voluntary parish choirs in the 18th century (see Psalmody (ii), §I) efforts were sometimes made to emulate cathedrals by chanting the canticles. Many collections of parish-choir music, beginning with Chetham's Book of Psalmody (1718), contain chants underlaid with the words of the canticles, usually in two- or three-part harmony. Some of these books also contain polyphonic settings of the canticles. At this date the Venite, Te Deum, Jubilate, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis were invariably used, the alternatives being forgotten. Even as late as 1840 the canticles were still spoken by parson and clerk in many churches, and the Benedictus was still a rarity. In Victorian times the surpliced choir in the chancel became typical in parish churches, and simple settings of the canticles were specially composed for parochial use. Elsewhere congregational chanting of the canticles was common, and this tradition has survived, especially in schools and colleges. The canticle texts have occasionally been used for large-scale choral and orchestral settings (see Te Deum).
When the prayer book was revised for the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States two more alternative canticles were added to the order for Evening Prayer: Bonum est confiteri (Psalm xcii) and Benedic, anima mea (Psalm ciii).
LeHurayMR
F. Procter: A History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices (London, 1855)
F. Cabrol: ‘Cantiques’, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. F. Cabrol and H. Leclercq (Paris, 1903–53)
J.W. Legg: English Church Life from the Restoration to the Tractarian Movement (London, 1914)
J. Mearns: The Canticles of the Christian Church, Eastern and Western, in Early and Medieval Times (Cambridge, 1914)
F.E. Brightman: The English Rite (London, 2/1921/R)
R.-J. Hesbert: Antiphonale missarum sextuplex (Brussels, 1935/R)
H. Schneider: Die altlateinischen biblischen Cantica (Beuron, 1938)
H. Schneider: ‘Die biblischen Oden im christlichen Altertum’, Biblica, xxx (1949), 28–65, 239–72, 433–52, 479–500
M. Frost: English and Scottish Psalm & Hymn Tunes c.1543–1677 (London, 1953)
J. Pascher: Das Stundengebet der römischen Kirche (Munich, 1954)
M. Righetti: Manuale di storia liturgica, ii (Milan, 1955, 3/1969)
R.-J. Hesbert: Corpus antiphonalium officii, i–iii (Rome, 1963–8)
New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1967) [M. McNamara: ‘Benedicite Dominum’; S.D. Ruegg: ‘Benedictus’; L.F. Hartman: ‘Canticle’; M.E. McIver: ‘Magnificat’; A. Le Houllier: ‘Nunc dimittis’]
M. Korhammer: Die monastischen Cantica im Mittelalter und ihre altenglische Interlinear-Version (Munich, 1976)
M. Jenny: ‘Cantica’, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, ed. G. Krause and G. Müller (Berlin, 1977–), vii, 624–8
N. Temperley: The Music of the English Parish Church (Cambridge, 1979), i, 31–3, 167–70; ii, exx.31, 49, 62, 64
R. Steiner: ‘Antiphons for the Benedicite at Lauds’, JPMMS, vii (1984), 1–17