May 2009

Singing the Psalms (The Revd Peter Thompson)

Hymns of praise, penitence, prayer, lamentation, petition, thanksgiving and much, much more are to be found with the book of the Psalms. 150 very different texts, written at different times and by different people, encompassing the whole range of human emotions and experiences. I would go so far as to say that there is not an event in life that is not reflected in the psalms.

The psalms have often been described as the hymnbook of the Second Temple, or even more simply as Jesus' hymnbook. After the Last Supper when Our Lord and his disciples “sang a hymn”, it was most probably (part of) psalms 113-118. As Our Lord hung on the cross, he meditated on psalm 22; in his dying agony the words of psalm 31 were on his lips. These were no mere formulae learned by rote, they were the building blocks of his prayer, as for any devout Jew.

For me personally the psalms have been a treasury of prayer and devotion since my teenage years. In the darkest days of my life I turned to them, and found comfort in them. They allow me to vocalise prayer when words fail me. They have taken me from “Out of the depths” where I “have cried to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice”, to the point where I can “lift up my eyes to the hills” and “let everything that has breath praise the Lord”.

I am fortunate to have grown up in parishes where traditional Anglican worship was faithfully offered week by week, and where the psalms played an integral

part in this. As a parish director of music in Donegal I was able to teach a choir the glories of Anglican chant (from scratch), and for years we sang the psalm each week. As a regular attender of choral evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (while I was a student in the RIAM), and as the organ scholar in Belfast Cathedral, I was exposed to a great range of psalmody (much greater than in an average parish church), and the words of so many of those texts are embedded in my mind and come readily to my lips.

I say all of this by way of introduction to the ‘Singing Psalms’ series of books. These books were born out of a realisation that this wonderful treasure has almost been lost to the current generation of Anglican worshippers. The psalm has all but disappeared in many parishes, despite the rubrics of the BCP.

In many places where the psalm was traditionally sung, if included at all, it is merely read. Again, what a loss. These were songs, and songs are to be sung — as St Augustine famously said, “to sing is to pray twice”. How true are his words — when we sing words, how much more quickly do they become emblazoned on our memory? I grew up at a time when memorising things in school was quickly going out of fashion, although we were still made to by certain teachers — and with everything, from Shakespeare to the Catechism, I found that if set to any sort of melody at all, suddenly the words became much more memorable.

A third consideration behind the book is that many people 'claim' that Anglican chant is 'too difficult'. Personally, I disagree with that; Anglican chant is a wonderful vehicle for psalmody, and if approached in the correct manner (e.g. a limited repertoire of chants, a strong unison lead from the choir rather than 4-part harmony, a solid lead from the organ rather than an accompaniment), is approachable by the 'average' congregation, if they are only willing to try (could this be the real problem?). I came to my present parishes (St Michael's, Castlecaulfield, and St Patrick's, Donaghmore) in 2006. In St Michael's there was a choir who sang hymns and canticles each week, but who had given up on psalm singing perhaps two decades earlier. They struggled with Anglican chant, and so I introduced them to the responsorial model of psalmody - a metrical response for the congregation, with simple chanted verses for the choir. My hope was to give the congregation a definite place in what so often becomes the exclusive domain of the choir. What I didn't expect was that the congregation would even attempt the verses -but they did, and joined in with great gusto (and no encouragement needed). It was a revelation to me. The only problem was that there were no settings of the BCP 2004 translations of the psalms (that I was aware of at that time), and so I turned to composing my own, something which had begun many years earlier when I was in Theological College.

As the collection grew, I made a decision to limit the number of chants for the verses. Had they been sung by the choir alone I may have increased the number, but given that the congregation was joining in, I tried to keep just enough variety to stop it becoming stale, but not enough to discourage the congregation. The end result was a collection of just nine simple chants — based on the style of Anglican chant, but with fewer notes in the melody. They were written with only a basic harmony in the inner parts, because they are intended for unison congregational singing. In preparing for the launches of “Singing Psalms” in 2008 we tried them in different formats, and at the Belfast launch we sang the chants in 4-part harmony, which seemed to work well.
The key to these settings is versatility — the refrain should always 'belong' to the congregation, but the verses can be sung by a single cantor, a small group (perhaps alternating the men and ladies in the choir), the full choir, the congregation — or even on occasion just read, to a soft musical accompaniment. The use of melody instruments can strengthen the refrain. They can be accompanied on piano or organ. No matter what resources are at hand, it should be possible to adapt these settings for the local church.

Ultimately our aim in ‘Singing Psalms’ is enabling the worshipping community to take the text of the psalms (particularly the verse chosen as the response), and to put it on their lips in a way that is easily memorable, so that it becomes a resource in their personal devotion.

I would like to finish with a request to the readers of soundboard — please let us have some feedback from your experience of using “Singing Psalms”, be it good, bad or indifferent, don't be afraid to offer constructive criticism or observations, and don't be afraid to ask questions — this isn't a finished piece of art, it is a work in progress! I can be contacted by email at: revpeter@gmail.com or by phone on: 048 87761214.

PUBLICATIONS YOU MUST HAVE

(and send the bill to the Parish Treasurer)

Singing Psalms: Responsorial Psalms set to Simple Chant. Music by Alison Cadden and Peter Thompson. (The Columba Press). Psalms for Year B are already available; Year C psalms will be published later this year.

Companion to Church Hymnal, Darling and Davison. (The Columba Press, 2005)

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