noun
definition
A devotional piece of music sung responsively.
definition
A response or reply.
Examples of antiphon in a Sentence
It speaks well for the patriotic devotion and discipline of her commons that Athens, weakened by plague and military disasters, should have withstood for so long the blows of her numerous enemies from without, and the damage inflicted by traitors within her walls (see Antiphon, Theramenes).
Lysias was the first to make this adaptation really artistic. His skill can be best appreciated if we turn from the easy flow of his graceful language to the majestic emphasis of Antiphon, or to the self-revealing art of Isaeus.
In it the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Deus in Adjutorium, &c., are followed by five psalms and five antiphons, after which come the "little chapter," the hymn and the verse, which vary according to the season, the Magnificat and its antiphon, and the appropriate collect.
The austere dignity of Antiphon, the plain elegance of Lysias, the smooth and balanced finish of that middle or normal character which is represented by Isocrates, have come together in Demosthenes.
The text is from the Magnificat antiphon of second Vespers at the feast of Corpus Christi.
Parsons, like William Byrd a Roman Catholic, showed the influence of the psalm motet and votive antiphon in his work.
He surpasses the school of Antiphon in perspicuity, the school of Lysias in verve, the school of Isocrates in variety, in felicity, in symmetry, in pathos, in power.
This antiphon received the name either because it was sung on the steps of the altar or while the deacon was mounting the steps of the ambo for the reading or singing of the Gospel.
As such he would have soon ceased to be respected in a society where literature was not recognized as a separate profession, where a Socrates served in the infantry, a Sophocles commanded fleets, a Thucydides was general of an army, and an Antiphon was for a time at the head of the state.