What is "chant"

Chant \Chant\, v. i.

1. To make melody with the voice; to sing. ``Chant to the sound of the viol.''
   --Amos vi. 5.

2. (Mus.) To sing, as in reciting a chant.

   To chant horses or To chaunt horses, to sing their praise; to overpraise; to cheat in selling. See Chaunter.
   --Thackeray.

Chant \Chant\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Chanted; p. pr. & vb. n. Chanting.] [F. chanter, fr. L. cantare, intens. of canere to sing. Cf. Cant affected speaking, and see Hen.]

1. To utter with a melodious voice; to sing.

   The cheerful birds . . . do chant sweet music.
   --Spenser.

2. To celebrate in song.

   The poets chant in the theaters.
   --Bramhall.

3. (Mus.) To sing or recite after the manner of a chant, or to a tune called a chant.

Chant \Chant\, n. [F. chant, fr. L. cantus singing, song, fr. canere to sing. See Chant, v. t.]

1. Song; melody.

2. (Mus.) A short and simple melody, divided into two parts by double bars, to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited. It is the most ancient form of choral music.

3. A psalm, etc., arranged for chanting.

4. Twang; manner of speaking; a canting tone. [R.]

   His strange face, his strange chant.
   --Macaulay.

   Ambrosian chant, See under Ambrosian.

   Chant royal [F.], in old French poetry, a poem containing five strophes of eleven lines each, and a concluding stanza. -- each of these six parts ending with a common refrain.

   Gregorian chant. See under Gregorian. [1913 Webster] ||

late 14c., from Old French chanter "to sing, celebrate" (12c.), from Latin cantare "to sing," originally frequentative of canere "sing" (which it replaced), from PIE root *kan- "to sing" (cognates: Greek eikanos "cock," Old English hana "cock," both literally "bird who sings for sunrise;" Old Irish caniaid "sings," Welsh canu "sing"). The frequentative quality of the word was no longer felt in Latin, and by the time French emerged the word had entirely displaced canere. Related: Chanted; chanting.

1670s, from chant (v.), or else from French chant (12c.), from Latin cantus "song, a singing; bird-song," from past participle stem of canere.

n. 1 Type of singing done generally without instruments and harmony. 2 (context music English) A short and simple melody, divided into two parts by double bars, to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited. It is the most ancient form of choral music. 3 Twang; manner of speaking; a canting tone. 4 A repetitive song, typically an incantation or part of a ritual. vb. 1 To sing, especially without instruments, and as applied to monophonic and pre-modern music. 2 To sing or intone sacred text.

n. a repetitive song in which as many syllables as necessary are assigned to a single tone

1. v. recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm; "The rabbi chanted a prayer" [syn: intone, intonate, cantillate]

2. utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The students chanted the same slogan over and over again" [syn: tone, intone]

A chant (from French chanter via Latin cantare, to sing) is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures, often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases, such as Great Responsories and Offertories of Gregorian chant. Chant may be considered speech, music, or a heightened or stylized form of speech. In the later Middle Ages some religious chant evolved into song (forming one of the roots of later Western music).

Chant is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, behind the southwest limb as seen from the Earth. It lies within the southwestern part of the blanket of ejecta surrounding the Mare Orientale, beyond the Montes Cordillera mountain ring. To the west-northwest is the large walled plain Blackett. Southward is the crater Mendel.

This is a nearly circular crater with a slight outward bulge in the northeast wall. The outer rim is sharp-edged, and the inner sides slope directly downward with only some minor terraces along the east wall. The interior floor is somewhat irregular, particularly in the southern half. There is a small central peak at the midpoint of the floor.

The name Chant was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1970.

This crater lies to the northwest of the Mendel-Rydberg Basin, a 630 km wide impact basin of Nectarian age.

Chant is an album of Gregorian chant, performed by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos at their monastery in Burgos, Spain. The music was recorded perhaps as early as the 1970s, but it did not sell significantly until it was re-released by Angel in 1994 when it was strongly marketed as an antidote to the stress of modern life. Chant is the best-selling album of Gregorian chant ever released. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 music chart, and was certified as double platinum, meaning two million copies were sold in the United States. Worldwide, the album sold around six million copies.

A chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds.

Chant or Chants may also refer to:

• Chant (Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos album), 1994
• Chant: Music For Paradise (titled Chant: Music for the Soul in the US), a 2008 album performed by the Heiligenkreuz Abbey
• Chant (Donald Byrd album), 1979
• Chant (Merzbow album), 1985
• Chants (Craig Taborn album), 2012
• Chants R&B, a rhythm and blues band from Christchurch, New Zealand
• Chant (crater), a lunar crater
• Chant (horse) (born 1891), American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1894 Kentucky Derby
• CHANT (ship type), a type of coastal tanker built in the UK during the Second World War
• Chant (band), a tribal-industrial drum project from Austin, Texas

Chant is the surname of:

• Barry Chant (born 1938), Australian author and co-founder of Tabor College Australia
• Christopher Chant, fictional nine-lived enchanter in the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones
• Clarence Chant (1865–1956), Canadian astronomer and physicist
• Donald Chant (1928–2007), Canadian biologist
• Ken Chant (born 1933), Australian Pentecostal pastor
• Joy Chant (born 1945), British fantasy author

Chant is an album by American trumpeter Donald Byrd recorded in 1961 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1979.

Chant is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was followed-up by Chant 2.

CHANT is a tribal-industrial drum project from Austin, Texas. Formed in 2004, CHANT has performed with bands such as Lords of Acid, Angelspit, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Pigface, KMFDM, Combichrist, and more.

Chant (foaled 1891 in Kentucky) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1894 Kentucky Derby, Phoenix Stakes, and Clark Handicap. He was related through his damsire, King Alfonso, to Kentucky Derby winners Fonso (1880) and Joe Cotton (1885) and through his sire, Falsetto, to His Eminence (1901) and Sir Huon (1906).

Chant was sold in September 1894 to Charles Head Smith for $5,100 at auction when Leigh & Rose dissolved their partnership. Chant injured his leg in February 1895 but was entered in several races at a track in Saratoga, New York in July 1895, finishing second in one of them to a horse named Sir Excess and winning $375 in a small stakes race in August 1895.

A 1910 Daily Racing Form article reports that Chant was sold to a western Thoroughbred breeder and produced a few stakes winners in California. He was still reported as being alive in 1910.