Snape's chanting was: Re: CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 161326

wynnleaf wrote:
>
> While I have thoroughly enjoyed Carol's questions and all the
> varying answers on this chapter, I have read them all day wondering
> why so many people assume that the songlike spell was a "chant." No
> where does the narration describe it as a chant.
>
> Perhaps many assume that the word "incantation" automatically means
> that the words are done in a chant. This is not so.
>
> Some definitions of "incantation" include: <snip>
>
> "A formulaic use of words to produce a magical effect and to create
> an intensifying emotional temperature. The words may be chanted or
> spoken. It is very common in primitive literatures and is much used
> by sorcerers and witches, and also for ritual purposes as in a
> charm" princeton wordnet <snip>

> Because the words are formulaic or are recited, in no way means they
> must be "chanted" and even chanted does not necessarily equate to
> *rythmic* chanting, as some have supposed. In fact, because JKR
> uses the word "songlike," I think we're being told that they were
> *not* chanted at all, but were closer to being a song.
>
> So please do not assume that the countercurse (or whatever you'd
> call it) was chanted.
>
> Or is there some other reason why so many of you thought it was
> chanted?

Carol responds:

I wonder if you're using definition 2 of chant here, while I'm using
definition 1:

Main Entry: 1chant
Pronunciation: 'chant
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English chaunten, from
Anglo-French chanter, from
Latin cantare, frequentative of canere to sing;
akin to Old English
hana rooster, Old Irish canid he sings
intransitive verb
1 : to make melodic sounds with the voice; especially : to sing a chant
2 : to recite something in a monotonous repetitive tone <protesters
were chanting outside>
transitive verb
1 : to utter as in chanting
2 : to celebrate or praise in song or chant

And here's the definition of "enchant," which is closely related to
"incantation":

Main Entry: en·chant
Pronunciation: in-'chant, en-
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French enchanter, from Latin
incantare, from in- + cantare to sing -- more at CHANT
1 : to influence by or as if by charms and incantation

At any rate "enchant," "enchantment," "incantation," etc., all point
to the relationship between chanting and spells (as indicated in the
definition you cited: "an incantation may be *chanted* or spoken," and
the kind of chanting I had in mind is the very songlike Gregorian
chant (note "to sing a chant," in definition 1 of "chant"). For
examples of Gregorian chant, click here:

http://www.christdesert.org/noframes/chant/chant.html

If you've ever attended a Mass conducted in Latin, or even a
high-Church Anglican communion service with the priest and
congregation alternating chanted responses, you'll know what I mean by
a songlike chant. And the combination of "songlike" with "muttered" to
me indicates a chanted incantation. Note "song*like*. What else
besides a chant ("making melodic sounds with the voice") is songlike
but not quite an actual song? (Like Gregorian chant, Snape's spell is
chanted a cappella, but, of course, it's a solo, not a choral
performance).

Also note "cantata" and "canto" and other "song" words with the root
"canto, cantare," "to sing or chant," the same root that appears in
"incantation." If you prefer to believe that Snape actually *sang*
rather than chanted the incantation, that's fine, but the word the
narrator uses is "muttered." In any case, it's a fine distinction, and
Gregorian chant, which I had in mind when I typed the question, is
classified as a form of music. At any rate, I agree that he didn't
simply recite it. IMO, it resembled a song without actually being one.
(You don't need to have a two-octave range to chant it.)

I don't think anyone here is thinking of the sort of rhythmic chant we
hear at an American football game: "Go! Go! Go!" or in the GoF film:
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Again, when I used "chantlike" in my chapter
discussion, I meant resembling Gregorian chant in being "songlike" but
not quite a song. (If Snape has any kind of musical ability at all, I
expect that it was quite beautiful, though the narrator, reflecting
Harry's pov, didn't say so.)

I was also thinking of ancient magic from the time of the medieval
monks when I suggested the resemblance of Snape's spell to Gregorian
chant. I'm not sure whether he researched the counterspell or invented
it, but it seems to me to be influenced by medieval healing magic in
its complexity and in being chanted rather than spoken--very different
from the counterspell to Levicorpus, which is simply Liberacorpus,
another one-word nonverbal spell.

On a sidenote, I'm also quite certain that Snape is the only one who
knows this spell. I doubt that Lupin, had he been there, or Madam
Pomfrey, or even Dumbledore could have saved Draco. I keep thinking,
"Severus! I need Severus!" Just as he has a deep interest in and
knowledge of the Dark Arts, he also has a deep interest in and
knowledge of their counterparts. And this particular counterspell is
so complex that he may have developed (or discovered) it as an adult
rather than a boy at Hogwarts. It's interesting that no countercurse
is written in the margins of the book, not even scratched-out attempts
such as "Sectum Adverto" ("heal the cut"). To me it seems important
that the person who invented the spell also be the one who created or
discovered the countercurse--part of his remorse, as Jen says.

Carol, quite convinced that Snape was chanting the "songlike"
incantation (as opposed to merely speaking a one-or two-word phrase or
actually singing, say, a hymn or other musical composition)