# Psalms to Music



## Ingélou

At Mass today, the Psalm was no. 130 (Catholic numbering) or 131 (Protestant), and was just read in a modern version which didn't sound too bad.

I remember at my second girls' grammar school that I attended (father moved from York to Chesterfield) it was the tradition for the girls to sing a psalm at the annual speech day - we all hated it. Anyway, the music mistress always chose a short one, and this year it was the psalm mentioned above. These are the words we had to use - from the AV or Anglican prayerbook I suppose:

*1 Lord, I am | not high- | minded : I | have no | proud | looks.
2 I do not exercise myself in | great | matters : which | are too | high for | me.
3 But I refrain my soul, and keep it low, like as a child that is | weaned . from his | mother : yea, my soul is | even . as a | weaned | child.
4 O Israel, | trust . in the | Lord : from this time | forth for | ever- | more.*

Yes, I know, it's about human humility in the face of God, but when I was a schoolgirl, it seemed to be glorifying intellectual stuntedness, quite the wrong thing for an academic girls school.

I can still sing this psalm from memory, however, so all was not lost. I can't find the tune on YouTube, but here is something similar - I think possibly the music mistress transposed the tune into a moody-teenager-friendly key:


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## Ingélou

Please do post on here any other musical settings of psalms that you like - or dislike - or have something to say about. Thank you.

My favourites come from Renaissance times. This is one, 'Dixit Dominus' by Diego Ortiz:


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## Pugg

Antonio Vivaldi "Nisi Dominus " Teresa Berganza
I do hope this fits the criterium if not, just take one good listening..

Stunning, capital S.


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## Ingélou

Pugg said:


> Antonio Vivaldi "Nisi Dominus " Teresa Berganza
> I do hope this fits the criterion if not, just take one good listening..
> Stunning, capital S.


Very glad to have it. I was surprised by the length and looked it up - 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_127

- and it is a Psalm, just an extended one, with an interesting history in Catholic liturgy. 
So I have learned something.

I am listening now, and it's beautiful. 
So even if it hadn't fitted the criterion, it would have been very welcome! 

Thank you, Pugg. :tiphat:


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## Ingélou

tdc :tiphat: has posted a Monteverdi psalm, Beatus Vir, on my thread For Love of the Baroque, and it's lovely.

So I've nicked it for here.


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## TxllxT

More than five hours of the complete Book of Psalms


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## TxllxT

Psalm 51


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## David Phillips

Two gems by Gustav Holst: Psalms 86 and 148. Apologies for the annoying camera work.


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## Josquin13

Naturally, one of my favorite Psalm settings is Josquin Desprez's "Miserere, mei Deus" (Psalm 51), for 5 voices:






I also find Thomas Tallis' setting of lines from Psalm 122, Miserere nostri, deeply moving. The best recording I've heard of this beautiful work comes from the Magnificat Choir, led by former Tallis Scholar singer Phillip Cave (on Linn):

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8040137--tallis-spem-in-alium

But, Magnificat's performance isn't available on You Tube. So, I'll have to make do with the Tallis Scholars recording, which is excellent too, but not as moving, IMO:


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## steph01

Those interested in psalms set to music may find this album by the choir of New College Oxford interesting

It contains ten settings of psalm 42, from Palestrina and Tallis to Howells and two new commissions.

There's quite a bit of variety on there, with various texts used both Latin and English, but the emotion behind psalm's words is conveyed by every track.

http://www.newcollegechoir.com/like-as-the-hart-recordings.html


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## cougarjuno

Mendelssohn wrote many in a High Romantic style. Corboz and Gulbenkian Orchestra recorded many of them


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## Pugg

Psalm 78 "Hear my law, O my people" - Choir of King's College Cambridge


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## elgar's ghost

Towards the end of his life Schubert set Psalm 92 - in its original Hebrew - for solo voices and a cappella choir, and eight years earlier set Psalm 23 for four female voices and piano. As with all vocal Schubert, they are both worth listening to.

The former I have in a recording by the Monteverdi Choir but it seems to be blocked on youtube. The latter I have in an old mono recording by the choir of St. Hedwig's Cathedral Berlin which was one of the fill-ups to Karl Forster's stereo recording of the _Deutsche Messe_. See pics below.


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## RICK RIEKERT

Although known mostly for his amazing keyboard works, Sweelinck's vocal music is comparable in quality to the works of great masters such as Marenzio or Lassus. Sweelinck's Psalms have been called his self-portrait. He spent a great deal of his life composing them, to the exclusion of other forms. They are written like spiritual madrigals and were based on existing melodies from the Geneva Psalter, from which J.S. Bach and others also borrowed melodies.


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## Manxfeeder

I think Handel's Chandos Anthems are wonderful. This is from Anthem No. 4 and the 96th psalm.


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## Taggart

While doing some Baroque research, came across this version of psalm 150 by Schütz


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## Pugg

Antonio Lotti : Dixit Dominus, psalm 109.
I hope you like it.
( I do)


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## Joe B

Psalm 23 set to music by Will Todd:


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## Vronsky

Father Vladimir Sandzakovski, Psalm 137 "By the rivers of Babylon"/"Super flumina Babylonis" (136 in Greek/Eastern Orthodox numbering). Performed by the Byzantine chorus Kalistrat Zografski at the Festival of Byzantine music.


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## SixFootScowl

Manxfeeder said:


> I think Handel's Chandos Anthems are wonderful. This is from Anthem No. 4 and the 96th psalm.


Excellent. I think there are eleven total that occupy four CDs. Also there is Handel's Music for the Chapel Royal. I don't know if they are drawn from the Psalms, but they look pretty Psalm-like to me.


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## elgar's ghost

Fritz Kobus said:


> Excellent. I think there are eleven total that occupy four CDs. Also there is Handel's Music for the Chapel Royal. I don't know if they are drawn from the Psalms, but they look pretty Psalm-like to me.


You're right, FK. Also, I'm pretty sure that at least half of the _Chapel Royal_ texts are different psalm settings to those of the four _Chandos Anthems_ which bear the same titles.


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