cantation

Noun

cantation (usually uncountable, plural cantations)

1. (obsolete, usually) A singing.
   • These words were jabbered as fast as ever tongue could utter them, and when he had finished, up he jumped, again commenced the same mad rotations, and broke into the same extravagant cantation as before.1838 August, Paddy the Piper, “Tales of the Parish Wake”, in Harrison's monthly collection, number 3, page 135
   • When we have come to hear thy sweet oblation Of love and joyance from thy sylvan station, Why, in the place of musical cantation, Balk us with pratings?1875, Wilson Flagg, “To The Mocking-Bird”, in The Birds and Seasons of New England, page 293
2. (usually) Synonym of incantation.
   • Whether or not there was any mystic virtue in the exorcisory cantation of the previous night, I cannot determine; but it is certain, that next morning, though headaches abounded among our officers, indications of the yellow fever there were none.1836, Edward Howard, Rattlin, the Reefer, page 193
   • This literature contained a corpus of texts, most probably one for each school of Vedic cantation (the words śakhā, 'school' or 'branch', speaks in favor of this guess).2012, David B. Zilberman, Robert S. Cohen, The Birth of Meaning in Hindu Thought, page 104

   Synonyms:

   incantation