Without a doubt, responsorial or antiphonal singing is
especially suitable for processions because such songs have an open musical
form and thus a variable length that can accommodate the infinitely variable
length of an entrance procession. Repeated antiphons also facilitate active
participation because the gathered faithful can sing them from memory, in
contrast to singing a hymn from a book, and thus engage more fully in the
entrance procession. (p. 110)
Indeed, antiphons are a unique liturgical-textual genre.
Their purpose is neither to proclaim nor to allude to the ancient Christian
textual tradition, but to appropriate it.
In so doing, antiphons reflect and pass on a tradition of textual
interpretation. This occurs through the way a specific antiphon text employs
the textual tradition and relates to and interacts with its verses to produce a
particular Christian meaning, and then how the antiphon and verses together
relate to and reveal something about a specific day of the liturgical year,
thereby announcing "the mystery of the liturgical time or festivity"
(GIRM 47). (p. 167)
