A chant (from
French chanter) 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).