Precentor
precentor
(Latin: prae, before; canere, to sing)
An official in choir service ordinarily ranking second in dignity, who presided over the chanting of the office, or in general over liturgical functions. Frequently he had had various other duties in cathedral and collegiate chapters.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Precentor
(Latin Præcentor, from præ, before-cantor singer).
A word describing sometimes an ecclesiastical dignitary, sometimes an administrative or ceremonial officer. Anciently, the precentor had various duties: he was the first or leading chanter, who on Sundays and greater feasts intoned certain antiphons, psalms, hymns, responsories etc.; gave the pitch or tone to the bishop and dean at Mass (the succentor performing a similar office to the canons and clerks); recruited and taught the choir, directed its rehearsals and supervised its official functions; interpreted the rubrics and explained the ceremonies, ordered in a general way the Divine Office and sometimes composed desired hymns, sequences, and lessons of saints. He was variously styled capiscol (caput scholæ, head of the choir-school), prior scholæ, magister scholæ, and primicerius (a word of widely different implications). Victor of St. Hugo tells us that in the care of the primicerius were placed the acolytes, exorcists, lectors, and psalmists (chanters). In the Middle Ages the principal dignitaries of cathedral, collegiate chapters, and monastic orders, imitated the example of St. Gregory the Great in acting as directors of chant-schools. The schola was always in attendance when the bishop officiated in his cathedral, and to the precentor was assigned a place near the bishop and high in dignity. His office was obviously one demanding much learning and executive ability, and his dignity corresponded with his duties.
In the cathedrals of England, France, Spain, and Germany, he ranked sometimes next to the dean, sometimes next to the archdeacon. In some instances his sphere of activity was much broader, including the duty of installing deans, canons, and other dignitaries; and in some monasteries, the duties of librarian and registrar. But from the fourteenth century his title and dignity were largely handed over to incumbents whose musical knowledge did not fit them for the duties to which the name of precentor owed its origin; the dignities remained, but the duties became obscured. “In France, some chapters retain traces of the dignity of Precentor, and one may see sometimes an archdeacon, sometimes a titular or honorary canon, carrying the baton cantoral, the insignia of his office”(Migne, “Dict. de Droit Canon”, s.v. Chantre). This “baton cantoral” is a silver or white staff. “In the dioceses of Aix, Carcassonne, Coutances, Dijon, Metz, Orléans, the dignity of Precentor is still the highest in the chapter…. Some chapters have sub-chanters, those of Arras being among the honorary resident canons” (Migne, “Dict. de Jurisprudence”, s.v. Grand Chantre, where also the quoted statutes of the Bishop of Dijon may serve to illustrate the modern idea of the office of precentor: “The Précenteur or Grand Chantre is the head of the choir and . . . brings the antiphon to the bishop when officiating pontifically. Sacristans, chanters, choir-boys, and employés of the Cathedral are placed under his surveillance. He will also preserve order and silence in the sacristy”). In the Anglican Church the precentor directs the choir, his stall in the cathedral corresponding with that of the dean.
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CURWEN, Studies in Worship Music (London, 1888), 141-8, 170-2, gives interesting details of the duties of precentor in the Scotch Presbyterian Churches; For Præcentrix, Præcentorissa, etc., see DU CANGE, Glossarium, s.v. Præcentor; VENABLES in Dict. Christ. antiq., s.v.
H.T. HENRY Transcribed by Brenda Eileen Metcalfe. Dedicated to Wm Stuart French, Jr.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Precentor
(Gr. , ; Lat. domesticus cutorum; Fr. gruand chant-re; Sp. chantre, or capis col) was in the ancient and mediaeval churches the person who led the singing. He generally commenced the verse of the psalm, and the people joined him in the close. The versicles were divided into two parts, and sung alternately, the singers answering to one another; but ordinarily the precentor commenced, and the people joined in the middle, and sometimes at the end of the verse. This was called singing acrostics. SEE ACROSTICS. The precentor was the dignitary collated by the diocesan and charged with the conduct of the musical portion of divine service, and required on great festivals and Sundays to commence the responses, hymns, etc., to regulate processions, to distribute the copes, to correct offences in choir, and to direct the singers. In France, England, Germany, and Spain he ranked next to the dean. He gave the note at mass to the bishop and dean as the succentor did to the canons and clerks. He superintended the admission of members of the choir and tabled their names for the weekly course on waxen tablets. He corrected and had charge of the choir books. In England when he ruled the choir he wore a rochet, cantel or cantor’s cope, ring, and gloves, and carried a staff; and the rectors followed him in soutanes (often of red color), surplices, and copes. He installed canons at Exeter, at York the dean and dignitaries, and at Lichfield the bishop and dignitaries. He attended the bishop on the left hand, as the dean walked on the prelate’s right hand. At Paris he exercised jurisdiction over all the schools and teachers in the city and respondents in the universities. In French cathedrals, upon high festivals he presides over the choir at the lectern, and carries a baton of silver as the ensign of his dignity. At Rodez, Puy-en-Velay, and Brionde he, like the other canons, wears a miter at high mass, and at Cologne was known as chorepiscopus. At Chartres during Easter week all the capitular clergy go to the font, with the subchanter preceding the junior canons, carrying white Wands, in allusion to the white robes of the baptized. At Rouen the chanter carries a white wand in certain processions, and no one without his leave could open a song-school in the city. In England his stall faces the dean, being on the northwest. In foreign cathedrals he occupied either the same position or sat next to the dean. The Greek precentor at Christmas wore white, and the singers violet. The exarch was the imperial protospaltes. The dignity of precentor was founded at Amiens in 1219; at Rouen in 1110; at Exeter, Salisbury, York, Lincoln, in the 11th century; at Chichester, Wells, Lichfield, Hereford, in the 12th; and at St. Paul’s in the 13th century. The precentor was required to be always resident, and usually held a prebend with his dignity. The Clugniac precentor was called armaius because he was also librarian the treasurer being aprocrisiarius. The singers of the primitive Church were regarded as a minor order by pope Innocent III, by the Council of Laodicea (360), and by that of Trullo. When the service of song was entrusted to lay persons in course of time, the title (. chanter was preserved in cathedral chapters and collegiate churches as that of a capitular dignitary, having precedency, rights, and duties.
In modern times the name is applied to those who, in non-ritualistic churches, lead the congregation in singing. This office, lately revived, appears, from Bingham’s Antiquities, to be of a very early date; the precentor, or phonascus (q.v.), as he was called in the early Church, either leading the congregation, or singing one part of the verse, the other part being sung by the congregation in response. See Music. In the mediaeval churches the precentor was one of the officers belonging to the old religious houses, whose office was afterwards continued in collegiate and cathedral churches in the capacity above first referred to. In Scotland the duties of the precentor have been greatly curtailed. He seems to have succeeded to the reader (q.v.) of earlier times. It was the habit of the precentor to repair to church about half an hour before the minister came, and read to the people several passages of Scripture. When the minister entered the precentor gave out a psalm and led the singing. After the beginning of last century he ceased by degrees either to read the Scriptures or prescribe the psalm. But his desk is still, from its original use, called by the old people the lectern-that is, reading desk. Walcott, Sacred Archaeology, s.v.; Hook, Eccles. Dict. s.v.; Eadie, Eccles. Dict. s.v. SEE DESK; SEE LECTERN; SEE SINGING; SEE STAFF; SEE WORSHIP.