Syrian Hymnody

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There was much activity in Syria as early Christians carried the Gospel beyond Palestine. The practice of antiphonal singing was introduced at Antioch early in the 4th c, and the chanting of the psalm verses became the responsibility of the congregation. Its members were divided into two semi-choruses, one of men, one of women and children, and the groups alternated with one another in the singing of the psalm-verses and combined in singing an Alleluia or, perhaps, some new refrain. The intercalating of passages of song between psalm-verses became, in the course of time, an organized practice and was destined to be imitated with telling effect in the West. (From, Music in the Middle Ages, Gustave Reese, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1940, p. 68)

In Syria, as in other places, the singing of hymns with texts in verse form was common. Ephraim (died 373 C.E.), the foremost Syrian hymn writer, employed the poplar tunes of heretical groups [such as Gnositcs] and substituted orthodox texts for the people to sing. Less than forty years after the founding of Constantinope, the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 367, prohibited the participation of the congregation and the use of instruments in the service. It further provided that only the Scriptures could be used for singing. With this restriction, hymn writers were limited to the canticles and the psalms, which accounts for the absence of hymns of personal experience during this period.