How the Egyptians Sing the Psalms

That is why they do not even try to get through the Psalms they sing in the service in one unbroken, continuous recitation. They repeat them separately, bit by bit, divided into two or three sections according to the number of verses, with prayers in between. For they care not about the quantity of verses but about the understanding of the mind, aiming with all their might at this: “I will sing with the spirit; I will sing with the understanding also.” So they think it better for ten verses to be sung with understanding and thought than for a whole Psalm to be poured out with a confused mind. This sometimes comes about through the haste of the one singing: thinking of the kind and number of Psalms still to be sung, he takes no trouble to make the sense clear to his hearers, but hurries on to reach the end of the service. [a]

Then, if any of the younger monks, whether through fervor of spirit or because he has not yet been properly taught, goes beyond the proper limit of what is to be sung, the elder stops the one singing the Psalm by clapping his hands where he sits in his seat, and makes them all rise for prayer. In this way they take every possible care that no weariness creeps in among them as they sit through a long stretch of Psalms. Otherwise not only would the singer himself lose the fruit of understanding, but those whom he had made weary of the service by going on so long would suffer loss as well.

They also observe this with the greatest care: that no Psalm is said with the response Alleluia except those marked with Alleluia in their title. The number of twelve Psalms we spoke of they divide in this way: if there are two brothers, each sings six; if there are three, four each; and if four, three each. They never sing fewer than this in the congregation, and so, however large a congregation has gathered, no more than four brothers sing in the service.