Chant (from French chanter[1]) is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes (e.g. woah woah) to highly complex musical structures (e.g. woah woah wo wo woah wo wo wo woah wo woah), 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).[2]
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Chanting (e.g., mantra, sacred text, the name of God/Spirit, etc.) is a commonly used spiritual practice. Like prayer, chant may be a component of either personal or group practice. Diverse spiritual traditions consider chant a route to spiritual development.
Some examples include chant in African, Hawaiiian, and Native American cultures, Gregorian chant, Vedic chant, Jewish hazzan, Qur'an reading, Baha'i chants, various Buddhist chants, various mantras, and the chanting of psalms and prayers especially in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches (see Anglican Chant).
Chant practices vary. Tibetan Buddhist chant involves throat singing, where multiple pitches are produced by each performer. The concept of chanting mantras is of particular significance in many Hindu traditions and other closely related Dharmic Religions. For example, the Hare Krishna movement is based especially on the chanting of Sanskrit Names of God in the Vaishnava tradition. Japanese Shigin (詩吟), or 'chanted poetry', mirrors Zen Buddhist principles and is sung from the Dan tien (or lower abdomen) — the locus of power in Eastern traditions.
Chants are used in a variety of settings, such as from ritual to recreational. Supporters or players in sports contests may use some, such as football chants. Battle cries are a type of chant heard on ancient battlefields. Protesters will use chants that are used by many groups with only a few words changed to reflect their particular topic. Auctioneers use auction chants or bid calling to focus the buyers' attention on the bidding process and drive up the price of the item for sale.
Recently, aggressive forms of music such as hardcore punk and grindcore have begun to use chanting. Many times during a breakdown (the segment of the song where the time signature is half counted or significantly slowed in some way), the singer will recite a chant to get the entire audience involved and create a feeling of passion throughout the room causing the overall reaction to the music, including in the pits, to be more intense. Reggae and rap music, both of which are primarily spoken rather than sung, depend heavily on a highly rhythmic delivery with many elements of chant, particularly in the chorus sections.
Chanting is also popular in film and video game scores, such as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Howard Shore, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace by John Williams , Ghost in the Shell (film) by Kenji Kawai, and Man vs Godzilla by Akira Ifukube, or in the case of games, the Halo (series) of First Person Shooters by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.
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