Also 7 canter. [L. cantor singer, agent-noun f. can-ĕre to sing.]
† 1. A singer. Obs.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 4. A Cantor, who doth … sing those things, which the Musitian … doth set downe.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Ballad-monger, 10. Stanza’s, which halt and hobble as lamely as that one-legg’d Cantor that sings them.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cantor, a singer.
2. He whose duty it is to lead the singing in a church; a precentor.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 26. The Cantor of S. Davids.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, III. 155. Being Canter of that Church.
a. 1789. Burney, Hist. Mus. (ed. 2), III. ii. 255. The Cantor or Chanter who directs the singing in Lutheran churches.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., vii. 176. The pillars where the Cantors stand during service.
1887. J. Baden Powell, in Ch. Union Gaz., XVII. 145. A prose consists of a chorus, with intervening verses sung by cantors.
Hence Cantorship.
1856. The Israelite, II. 1 Feb., 246/1. The son of professor Sulzer is among the candidates for the cantorship.
1884. Edin. Rev., July, 227. [Bach’s] appointment to the Cantorship at Leipzig.
