Repercussion (latinized form of "repeating" or "rebounding") is a special vocal singing technique consisting on singing a tone with a constant pitch. The technique has been and is especially used in

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...

Willi Apel ''Gregorian Chant'' 0253326508 - 1958 Page 107 "Another repercussion of seven notes occurs at the beginning of the Offertory Reges Tharsis 61 and one of nine notes in the Gradual Quemadmodum 478on “(siti)vit.” b. " where repetitions of sounds are prescribed by certain

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not nec ...

s, such as a distropha or a tristropha. The vocals are modulated in volume, without necessarily resulting in a pitch fluctuation, or a vibrato. If the singing is not performed by a soloist, the singers modulate their voices in unison according to the direction of the

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

. The perfect singing of repercussion requires vocal training and appropriate respiratory support. A similar term, which means something different, is the word "repercussa". This is another name for the recitation tone, an important structural tone within the church modes.

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Musical performance techniques {{Music-stub

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References