antiphony

Antiphony is a musical practice in which two or more groups, typically choirs or vocal ensembles, alternate singing in a call-and-response fashion. The term also refers to antiphons, short liturgical chants that are sung as a refrain before and after psalms or canticles. The word derives from Latin antiphona, from Greek anti- “opposite” and phone “sound.”

In liturgical use, an antiphon serves as the recurring refrain that frames the psalm or canticle. Verses are usually sung by a cantor or one group, while the other group repeats the antiphon, then the process may be repeated with new verses. Antiphons are often drawn from biblical or liturgical texts and may change with the season or feast.

Historically, antiphony was especially important in medieval and Renaissance church music. The Baroque period saw further development of antiphonal writing through spatially separated choirs and the exchange of musical material between them. Venice’s St. Mark’s Basilica is a notable example, where composers and performers implemented antiphonal schemes to create spatially distributed sound, as in the works of Giovanni Gabrieli and his contemporaries.

Antiphony is distinct from responsorial singing, in which a single leader alternates with a choir rather than two equal groups. Beyond liturgical use, the term can describe any deliberate call-and-response between groups placed in different acoustic locations, contributing to a surround or dialogic musical effect. See also antiphon, responsorial psalm, and choral antiphony.