May 2009

Singing Psalms - A Review by Ann Keary

On Saturday 22 November at Saint Ann's Church, Dawson Street, a much welcomed publication called Singing Psalms was launched. Bishop Richard Clarke gave a short but succinct account of the history of the psalms and their huge importance in the life of the Christian. He referred to them as the DNA of Christian worship! As is pointed out in the foreword of the book, psalm-singing is an integral part of our self understanding. Unlike much of our hymnody, whose emotional content is more limited, the psalms express all aspects of human emotion: fear, despair, anger, doubt, frustration, joy, delight, love, etc.. They are an essential tool with which we can honestly communicate with God.

Bishop Clarke reminded us of how the psalms continue to be sung in the Daily Office and of how, up to quite recently, it was also the norm for all churchgoers in the Church of Ireland and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion to be familiar with singing them. They were an integral part of worship.

However, in recent times, for a number of reasons, singing the psalms at Sunday worship has become an issue to contend with! Many, if not most, members of congregation no longer attend church on a weekly basis. It may often be on a fortnightly or even monthly basis. The absence of a four-part choir in many churches reduces the confidence of the congregation to sing. Also, many families come to church from mixed confessional backgrounds, and may not be at all familiar with singing the psalms, particularly with Anglican chant.

We were then introduced to Alison Cadden and The Revd Peter Thompson, the composers of the chants found in the collection. They stressed that their priority was to make psalm singing as accessible as possible to everyone. As mentioned in the foreword, 'this is a real labour of love by both of them'. Alison spoke of the many efforts over the years by every denomination to find appropriate and accessible ways of singing the psalms: metrical settings, plainsong, psalm songs, paraphrases and responsorial psalms.

One big advantage of the responsorial format is that it includes congregational participation. The responses are tuneful and, because they are ‘SINGING PSALMS’ A review by Ann Keary The Revd Peter Thompson and Alison Cadden, composers of the music in ‘Singing Psalms’ repeated between the verses, are easily remembered, while the verses may be sung by a choir or cantor. The poetry of the verses and their beauty have been maintained so that when sung their natural flow can be felt. The translation is that in the Book of Common Prayer 2004.

We were led in singing by members of the choir from St Brigid's of Stillorgan with their very able director, Hilary Dickinson Guter accompanying.

We were first introduced to Psalm 80 for Advent 1 which was composed by Alison. Hilary played the response through, followed by the choir, and then we, the congregation, imitated: Turn us again, O Lord of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. The choir continued with the verses, which were punctuated by the response.

We then had the opportunity to sing a psalm written by Peter: Psalm 126 for Advent 3 of the current Church year. Alison's response, Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy, is very lovely and easily remembered. The composers differ slightly in their approach to the pointing of the verses: whereas Alison's are indicated with an underline for a note change, Peter uses the more traditional form of the bar line. Both systems work equally well.

We sampled a number of other psalms such as Psalm 47, God has gone up with a merry noise, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. This is very aptly written in the style of a trumpet call. A lovely setting of Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24, was written by Alison with the option of a descant with the response.

In my opinion, this publication is a most welcome addition to our music for worship. I, for one, will certainly put it to use time and time again.

Ann Keary is organist and choir director at Kiltiernan Parish Church and lectures in the department of Academic Studies and Keyboard at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. ann.keary@dit.ie

Synopsis of Bishop Richard Clarke’s address when he launched ‘Singing Psalms’

First of all, we can't emphasise enough that, if within the Anglican Communion we lose the psalms, we have lost something that is fundamental to our DNA. The two groups within Western Christianity for whom the psalms are absolutely fundamental would tend to be the Roman Catholic religious order, where the psalms are said in routine day by day; and inherited from them from medieval times, the Church of England. The Anglican Communion always intended that the psalms would be part, not simply of the corporate life of the Church, but also part of the spirituality of individual members of the Church. In the old Book of Common Prayer, you went right through the psalms in the course of a month. Thirty five years after ordination when I should know the psalms pretty well, I still find that a phrase will come at me as if I have never seen it before in that context. There is always newness and richness because in the psalms there is always poetry and the poetry of the psalms is part of what it is to be as thinking reflective Christians. So never, never, let us lose the psalms

Now going to the matter of singing the psalms, and one of the reasons why I truly welcome a book such as this, is that there may be the danger that we will only ever think of saying the psalms — and that's a perfectly good way to get to know them — but the psalms were made to be sung, and in our tradition we of course think instinctively of Anglican chant. I hope it won't sound offensive to anyone, but I often think psalms sung to Anglican chant remind me of my attitude to violinists — if they are not wonderful, they are absolutely awful! Because we have got so used to hearing recordings of psalms sung superbly in a way that really lifts one, one's standards become extraordinarily high.

Yes, if you have a good choir, you can sing the music that is in this new book, but an enormous advantage of it is that if you have only one or two singers, you can start with these singing the verses and eventually get the congregation singing. So this is a resource that we must treasure, that we must use because we must not lose the psalms. So in commending Alison Cadden and Peter Thompson, may I commend this book to all and indeed say that with great pleasure, I now officially launch Singing Psalms: Responsorial Psalms set to Simple Chants.
 

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