antiphon

(ănˈtə-fŏnˌ)

1. A devotional composition sung responsively as part of a liturgy.
2. a. A short liturgical text chanted or sung responsively preceding or following a psalm, psalm verse, or canticle.
   b. Such a text formerly used as a response but now rendered independently.
3. A response; a reply: “It would be truer . . . to see [conservation] as an antiphon to the modernization of the 1950s and 1960s” (Raphael Samuel).