[1] Its chief distinctives are: Gelineau was himself part of the working group of the French Jerusalem Bible and he developed a revised version of that psalter which respected the rhythms of the Hebrew original.
In that sense, it may be regarded as similar to the song Three Blind Mice: each line contains the same number of bars (pulses), but the number of syllables varies from three ("Three blind mice") to eleven "Did ever you see such a thing in your life".
[1]: 28 But unlike that song, Gelineau insists "the words must never be allowed to fall into set musical rhythmical patterns which are opposed to the natural relative lengths of their syllables when correctly spoken.
[3]: 79 Unlike the chant-like verses, the antiphon is more like a short hymn-verse in a regular metre.
The tempo of the antiphon is directly related to that of the verse: the one-beat-in-the-bar verse equals the beat unit, typically crotchet (quarter note) or dotted crotchet, of the antiphon.