INTONING, according to the general use of the word, is the recitative form of offer ing prayer.• Intoning differs from ordinary reading in having fewer inflections of the voice, and these only at stated parts of the prayers, and according to certain rules. The greater part of the prayer is recited on one note, the last two or three words being sung to the proximate,notes of the scale. In the longer prayers, the terminal inflection is generally omitted. The words intoning and chanting are sometimes used interchange ably, but, though there is ffround common to both, each has a domain peculiar to itself. Intoning may be defined as ecclesiastical recitative, and when several voices are employed in its performance, they sing, for the most part, in unison, breaking into harmony at the termination of the clair..a or sentence. Chanting embraces recitative and rhythm, both divisions being in continuous harmony. In the Anglican service, as performed in cathedral churches, all those parts of the ritual, speaking generally, which are not set to rhythmical music, are intoned; these embrace that part of the morning and evening service which precedes the daily psalms, the litany, and the prayers in general.
John Marbeck (1550) was the first in England to adapt the offices of the reformed church to music; his work contained melody only. He was followed by Thomas Tanis, who flourished during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. The grave melody (founded on the ancient usage) and sublime harmonies of Tallis have never been equaled, and have continued in use till the present day with but slight modification. Talks seems to have invented the form of the Anglican chant now used
for the psalms. In the Roman Catholic church these are sung to the Gregorian tones. See GREGORIAN CttANT. The canticles are sung to rhythmical music of a more elabo rated character, in which form they are technically named services." The lessons, previous to the last review (1661) of the Book of Common Prayer, were intoned; since then, the invariable practice has been to read them The practice of intoning existed among the Jews at a very early period, and there is great probability that the ecclesiastical chant in present use throughout Christendom is but a modification of that which formed part of the ancient Jewish ritual. The eastern and western churches, at variance on most points, are at one on this. Moham medans also make use of this mode of prayer; and barbarous tribes (American Indians and South Sea islanders) are wont to propitiate their false gods in a species of rude chant; all which seems to point to some deeply-seated instinct of human nature, and to indicate an intuitive perception of the truth, that a solemn and reverential manner, distinct from his manner of ordinary intercourse with his fellows, best befits the creature in his approaches to the Creator. The Lutheran church and the church of England have continued the practice, thought only to a permissory and non-essential extent. The latter uses it in her cathedral and collegiate churches, and in these vast edifices its advantages over reading are strikingly manifest.