Softening murmur returned in a chant (10)

I believe the answer is:

humanising

'softening' is the definition.
(humanising someone softens how they're portrayed)

'murmur returned in a chant' is the wordplay.
'murmur' becomes 'hum' (I've seen this before).
'returned' says the letters should be written backwards.
'chant' becomes 'sing' (chant can mean to sing).
'in'+'a'='ina'
'ina' backwards is 'ani'.
'hum'+'ani'+'sing'='HUMANISING'

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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