>> The term "chant" is like the term "dialect." It tends to be used in
>> discussions of this sort to mean "something less than a "proper" "song"
>> or "language."
>
> This may be true in general, but in the Navajo literature "chant" is a
> specific genre term ("The Hail Chant", etc.). I suspect that this was
> the sense intended in the original posting.
I hope that appending this to my comments will mitigate any offense I may
have given to the original poster. In any event, I want to add that it was
clear to me from the post that no denigration of Navajo music was intended,
and that I was concerned only to question the advisability of the term.
Chant (and chanty) are also used as genre terms in English, especially for
ritual songs or songs with unusual musical styles, generally ones considered
archaic (plainsong), simple (jump rope songs, work songs), primitive, etc.
The term chant can be applied reverentially, opprobriously, etc. It isn't
always clear what nuances of meaning it is intended to have when applied to
non-Western music. I take it in this case that rituality is the intended
sense!
John E. Koontz
NIST:CAML:SCED 883.04 Boulder, CO
koontz@boulder.nist.gov