CANTICLE

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CANTICLE – One of as many as fourteen Biblical and extra-Biblical odes originally gathered into an appendix to the Psalter to facilitate the singing of divine services; specifically, one of the scheme of nine canticles used at Matins by the Palestinian monks as the basis for the genre of liturgical poetry called the kanon. The nine c. are: 1. the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-19); 2. the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-43); 3. the Prayer of Hannah (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 2:1-10); 4. the Prayer of Habbakuk (Habbakuk 3:1-19); 5. the Prayer of Isaiah (Isaiah 26:9-20); 6. the Prayer of Jonah (Jonah 2:3-10); 7. the Prayer of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3:26-56); 8. the Song of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3:57-88); 9. the Song of the Theotokos (Luke 1:46-55) and the Prayer of Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79) While they are prescribed to be sung at Matins before each respective ode of the kanon, in today’s practice only the ninth canticle, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” is sung.