Communion (chant)

The Communion (Latin: communio; Ancient Greek: κοινωνικόν, koinonikon) is a refrain sung with psalm recitation during the distribution of the Eucharist in the Divine Liturgy or Mass.

During the 5th century, when the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts had established and this communion chant became associated with it, the custom spread over the Lenten period, presumably with the recitation of different psalm sections (staseis).

The communion part of the Ambrosian Mass, as it had been celebrated in the cathedrals of Milan (called after the famous local bishop Ambrose), was composed around the Anaphora.

33:9 ("Gustate et videte") as a kind of prototype of the genre, but Ordo romanus I describes the communion chant as an antiphon with psalm sung by the Schola cantorum accompanying the distribution of the Eucharist, until the presiding pope interrupts it.

[6] Nevertheless, the genre communio became an important and favored subject in the process of a compositional planning of the Mass Proper by the leader of the Schola cantorum, which had already about 141 items during the 7th century.