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Discant

Descant or discant can refer to several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice (cantus) above or removed from others.

A discant (occasionally, particularly later, written descant) is a form of medieval music in which one singer sang a fixed melody, and others accompanied with improvisations. The word in this sense comes from the term discantus supra librum (descant "by the book"), and is a form of Gregorian chant in which only the melody is notated but an improvised polyphony is understood. The discantus supra librum had specific rules governing the improvisation of the additional voices.

Later on, the term came to mean, the treble or soprano singer in any group of voices, or the higher pitched line in a song, and eventually, by the Renaissance, referred generally to counterpoint.

Descant can also refer to the highest pitched of a group of instruments, particularly the descant viol or recorder. Similarly, it can also be applied to the soprano clef. Descant could also refer to a high, florid melody sung by a few sopranos as a decoration for a hymn.

There is also a poetry and fiction magazine named Descant .

Hymn tune descants as represented in many modern hymnals date from the year 1915. Although The English Hymnal of 1906 did not include descants, this very influential hymnal, of which the music editor was Ralph Vaughan Williams, served as a source of tunes for which the earliest known hymn tune descants were published. These were in collections compiled by Athelstan Riley, who wrote "The effect is thrilling; it gives the curious impression of an ethereal choir joining in the worship below; and those who hear it for the first time often turn and look up at the roof!"

Among composers of descants during 1915-1934 were Alan Gray, Geoffrey Shaw, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Several of their descants appear in what is possibly the earliest hymnal to include descants: Songs of Praise (London: Oxford University Press, 1925, enlarged, 1931, reprinted 1971).

During the last quarter of the twentieth century, a new editions of hymnals increased the number of included descants. For example, the influential Hymnal 1940 (Episcopal) contains no descants, whereas its successor, Hymnal 1982, contains 32. Among other currently used hymnals, The Worshiping Church contains 29 descants; The Presbyterian Hymnal, 19; The New Century Hymnal, 10; Chalice Hymnal, 21. The Vocal Descant Edition for Worship, Third Edition (GIA Publications, 1994) offers 254 descants by such composers as Donald Busarow, John Ferguson, Richard Hillert, Robert Hobby, Hal Hopson, David Hurd, Austin Lovelace, Ronald Nelson, Sam Batt Owens, Robert Powell, Richard Proulx, William P. Rowan, Carl Schalk, Randall Sensmeier, Scott Withrow, and Michael Young.

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The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD) and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century.
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melody, also tune, voice, or line, is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord (see harmony). However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly Gestalt) to be called a
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æculorum, amen." The Latin is pronounced in the manner of Renaissance Germany, based on Åbo's German ecclesiastical connections.
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polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).
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soprano is a singer with a voice range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high A" (A5) in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) or higher in operatic music.
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Renaissance (French for "rebirth"; Italian: Rinascimento; Spanish: Renacimiento), was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.
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In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony. It has most commonly been identified in Western music, developing strongly in the Renaissance, and also dominant in much of the common
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viol (also called viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted stringed musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
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The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina.
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clef (from the French for "key") is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes.* Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line.
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM (October 12, 1872 – August 26, 1958) was an influential English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also an important collector of English folk music and song.
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Alan Grey (23 December 1855 – 27 September 1935) was a British organist and composer. His compositions include an Evening Service in F minor (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) for use in the Church of England's liturgy of Evening Prayer according to the
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The Hymnal 1982 is the hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is one in a series of official hymnals of the Episcopal Church, including the 1940 Hymnal.
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The New Century Hymnal is a comprehensive hymnal and worship book published in 1995 for the United Church of Christ. The hymnal contains a wide-variety of traditional Christian hymns and worship songs, many contemporary hymns and songs (typically in traditional idioms,
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John Ferguson may refer to one of the following:

Sports

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Hal H. Hopson is a full-time composer/church musician residing in Dallas, Texas. He has over 1000 published works, which comprise almost every musical form in church music.
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David Hurd (born 1950) is a composer, concert organist, choral director and educator.

He is a Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, New York City.
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Richard Proulx (born St. Paul, Minnesota, 1937) is a prolific American composer and editor of church music, including anthems, service music, hymn concertatos, organ music and music for handbell choir, currently based in Chicago.
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Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington (August 9, 1915, Manchester - January 14, 2002) was a British sociologist, social activist and politician. During an active life he founded or helped found a remarkable number of socially useful organizations.
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