Religious music

Religious music is music created, performed, or used in connection with religious beliefs, rituals, worship, or spiritual expression. It includes traditions ranging from communal ritual song to composed works for worship.

Hymn: A song of praise or devotion, often sung collectively in religious worship. Hymns make shared belief and praise audible in congregational worship.
Call and response: A musical exchange in which a leader’s phrase is answered by a group or another performer. The pattern coordinates communal participation in many worship traditions.
Vedic chant: The oral recitation of the Vedas using carefully preserved pitch and accent patterns. It is among the oldest documented traditions linking sacred text and vocal performance.
Secular music: Music not created or used primarily for religious purposes. The distinction concerns context and purpose, not a fixed musical style.
Protestant Reformation: A sixteenth-century movement that divided Western Christianity and established Protestant churches. Reformers’ debates over worship transformed congregational song and church music.
Gregorian chant: A monophonic, unaccompanied tradition of Latin liturgical chant in the Western Christian Church. Its sung texts structure prayer and worship in the Roman liturgy.
Cantillation: The ritual recitation of sacred texts using patterned melodic formulas. Melodic speech gives scripture a form between speaking and singing.
Psalms: A collection of Hebrew religious poems and songs preserved in the Bible. Psalm texts became foundational repertory for Jewish and Christian worship.
Liturgical music: Music composed or selected for use within a formal religious service. It is narrower than religious music, which also includes private and informal devotion.
Bach cantata: A vocal composition, often with instruments, written for a particular occasion in the Lutheran church year. Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas joined theology, liturgy, and sophisticated composition.

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