Selected Recording
"Sāmaveda, Opening Hymn" (The Four Vedas; Folkways FE 4126, I:B:1).
The presentation of Sāmaveda mantras is rather different from that of the other Vedas. The difference is between between that of chanting and of recitation: priests chant the Samaveda with melodies that can involve a range of more than an octave.
The Sāmaveda draws almost entirely on verses from the Rgveda. The tradition of Sāmaveda chanting modifies the verses of the Rgveda to fit the various structures of the melodies. According to Howard (2000: 239), the melodies themselves may predate the Rgveda as they form the core of the seminal agnicayana ceremony (in which priests sing songs to accompany the laying of bricks for the sacrificial altar). These changes can obfiscate the phonetics of the original words to accommodate built-in divisions such as breaths. Often, in these instances, the melodies create new words (stobhas).
The following text — an invocation (6.16.10) to the god of the sacrificial fire, Agni — appears first as a Rgvedic verse and then set to three different melodies.
Samhitā
aum || aum.
ágna a yahi vitáye grnano havyadataye | O Agni, come to the banquet, after being extolled, come to the gift of offerings;
ní hóta satsi barhísi || Sit down, (as) invoker, on the sacrificial grass.
 
Gramageyagana(1.1-3)
References
Howard, Wayne. 2000. Vedic Chant. In South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent. Edited by Alison Arnold. In The Garland Enclyclopedia of World Music 5: 238-245. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
The Vedas Outline Teaching the Vedas
 
29 January, 2013