Single and Double Chants

An Anglican chant comes in two common forms. A single chant is one short musical strain, generally corresponding to one verse of a psalm, repeated for every verse in turn. A double chant pairs two such strains together, corresponding to two verses at a time, giving slightly more melodic variety across a long psalm before the pattern repeats, and quadruple chants, pairing four strains, exist as a rarer extension of the same principle for especially long or structurally distinct psalms. Cathedral and collegiate choral traditions in particular developed an extensive repertoire of both forms, many attributed to named composers and associated with specific institutions, sung daily as part of choral evensong and matins in a continuous tradition running from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into the present.

Compiled chant books and pointed psalters gathered this repertoire for practical use, pairing specific chants with specific psalms as a matter of established local custom passed down within a given cathedral or college choir. Because the same short chant can be paired with any psalm of suitable length, choir directors select and combine chants with particular psalms much as a hymn tune is paired with a text, and familiarity with a working repertoire of chants, together with fluent pointing, remains a core skill taught to choristers and organists within this tradition today.