It would be grand to see a recovery of the ancient practice of Psalm-singing. Here are few URL's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yETRxtYIL-E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIdaP8nIM74&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZQlmvtZ7E&feature=PlayList&p=951039E06E1F4A32&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=35
While the Scottish Psalter is nice, I like the Anglican chant of the Coverdale much better. First, it doesn't modify the text to fit a meter, so it's more scripturally faithful; second, Coverdale's translations of the Psalms is beautiful, perhaps better than the KJV; and, third, the chant style just sounds nicer to these ears than the simplish tunes of the Scottish Psalter.
ReplyDeleteThe best collection I've heard is the double CD by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfaOA9Ak3Gc
Thank you for this Dom. I am not acquainted with Anglican chants. Beautiful and thanks for the URL. Will be downloading. Getting back to Psalm-singing is a desire, wish, but nothing here. It would take people willing to learn and willing to work at it. (BTW, no, never get to
ReplyDeletethe left coast. I don't travel much any more, contrary to the past.) Simply work in a corner, read, write, see the family and watch a grandson. I need and want to do this given the years at sea. Regards, Philip
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a travesty that most evangelical Anglicans have abandoned the practice of Psalm singing -- especially given that we're commanded in the New Testament to sing the Psalms (Col 3:16)! It's funny how those Anglicans who claim to have a high view of Scripture deliberately disobey this part of the Word (but I digress) while often more "liberal" and Anglicans are faithful to this Scriptural command "ritualist". There are, however, a few encouraging signs of those who are trying to revive the practice though. I know of a few solid "conservative evangelical" parishes in the Church of England with young clergy who are convinced about the need to sing the Psalms. Of course putting it into practice when the evangelical norm is to go the pragmatic route is another matter altogether.
ReplyDelete[cont'd below]
[cont'd from above]
ReplyDeleteAs DomWalk says the real advantage of Anglican Chant is that you can sing ANY words to a chant. No matter what Bible version you use at your church you can sing those exact words to Anglican chant. This not only means we can sing a form of words more faithful to the original Hebrew than any metrical rendition (hey you could even sing the original Hebrew to Anglican chant if you really wanted!) it also helps with Scripture memorisation.
Anyway this kind of Psalm singing today really only goes on in the Cathedrals and the Oxbridge colleges. That's a shame because it's something that ALL Christians can and should be doing. Even congregations without professional choirs can this to a reasonable standard. The first time you try to sing a Psalm to Anglican chant it's a bit tricky because it's not like anything else you've ever sung but once you've got the hang of it it's like riding a bike.
[cont'd below]
[cont'd from above]
ReplyDeleteFor Reformation who's not familiar with Anglican Chant let me explain how it works. With most songs the words and the music determines how many syllables you can sing to a line. If you know your hymn tunes they have a set "metre": eg 8.7.8.7. If you have an 8.7.8.7. tune then you can sing any set of 8.7.8.7. words to that tune. That's why you can sing the words "Glorious things of thee are spoken/ Zion City of our God" (an 8.7.8.7. D hymn) to any of several different tunes (eg Abbot's Leigh, Austria, Blaenwern and the list goes on). What you can't do is take an 8.7.8.7. text and set it to a tune with a different metre (eg 8.6.8.6.) or vice versa. Exactly the same works with metrical settings of the Psalms. The well known metrical setting of the 23rd Psalm is an 8.6.8.6. metre and you can only sing it to an 8.6.8.6 tune. Try singing this to an 8.7.8.7 tune and it just won't work.
Now the thing about Anglican Psalm chant is that you're not restricted in this way. You have a basic tune and you fit the words to it no matter how many syllables you have. You sing it to "speech rhythm". I could even sing this blog post or my PhD thesis to Anglican Psalm Chant and it would sound OK! Anglican Psalm chant means that you can have irregular metre and it works fine. So you can sing the words straight out of your preferred Bible translation without jigging them to make them rhyme or fit the music.
Take the following chant for example (Psalm 121 sung by the Choir of St Paul's Cathedral, London http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Px12gtcZvg )
Listen to the opening phrase sung by the soloist before the rest of the choir comes in. He sings "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills". That's ten syllables. Count the number of musical notes he sings: 4. La, la, la, la (progressively getting higher) Now compare this to the part from 1:10 on the video. Musically this is the same sequence of notes. On the musical score there are just 4 notes written (and not lots of notes for every syllable of the words). In verse one of the Psalm he fits 10 syllables to those four notes. Now in verse 5 (from 1:10 on the video: "The LORD himself is thy keeper") he is singing only 8 syllables to the same 4 notes. That's how Anglican chant works. You don't have to worry about putting the words into an even metre and then finding a tune to match that metre. The singer simply makes the words fit to the tune no matter how many (or how few!) syllable you have and how many notes there are to the melody.
Now the trick here is not to just make it up as you go along. You have what are called "pointed" Psalters. Someone with the requisite musical skill goes through the text of the Psalm and tells you which words to sing to which note (that is what is meant by "pointing"). That is how verse 1 which has 10 syllables and verse 5 which has only 8 can be sung to exactly the same four musical notes.
Finally, DomWalk mentioned a CD. For the real connoisseur of Anglican Psalm Chant probably the best collection is the 12 CD box set again by the Choir of St Paul's Cathedral, London which contains ALL 150 Psalms (in Coverdale's translation which is bound together with the BCP 1662) sung to Anglican chant. http://is.gd/2CeQq I own this box set (I think you may be able to get it a bit cheaper if you shop around.) If you'd like to listen to any samples I would be happy to assist.
Many, many thanks for this information. None of this was addressed in either of the two seminaries I attended...nor their churches. This is quite an education. I think I'll see if I can get the CD set noted by Apodeictic.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, my wife was involved in a workshop with the Organist and Choirmaster of Canterbury Cathedral, UK, last week for a 4-day in residence workshop for Organists/Choirmaster--which she is.
Are any of these on youtube?
No, not on youtube. But there are sample audio clips (excerpts -- not each Psalm in its entirety) at the record company's website.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDS44101/12
I just want to add that I'm not against other forms of Psalm singing. I've sung metrical Psalms with Presbyterian and Reformed folks and I've also sung plainchant versions in higher Anglican circles. There are pros and cons to each way of doing it. For the uninitiated, metrical Psalms are certainly the easiest to sing and for that reason in trying to re-introduce Psalm singing to modern day Christians who aren't familiar with Psalm singing I might start by doing good metrical versions of the Psalms to relatively well known hymn tunes. But (beyond the short term) in an Anglican setting I would definitely aim to get people singing Anglican Psalm chant over the longer term for several reasons:
(1) It's OUR particular way of doing Psalms; "the Anglican way" of singing Psalms is to Anglican chant;
(2) It means you can sing the actual words of whatever Bible translation you prefer (whether old translations such as Coverdale or the AV or modern translations such as the NIV or the ESV) rather than a metrical version of the Psalms which resembles no known English Bible translation; If someone were to produce a pointed ESV Psalter we may be able to convince the "New Calvinists" to take up singing the Psalms to Anglican chant :-D And this could have an impact beyond Anglican circles: Imagine our Reformed Baptist brethren singing the Psalms to our beloved Anglican chant!
(3) Anglican chant doesn't just work with the Psalms; as I mentioned before, you can put ANY set of words to this music regardless of metre, rhyme or rhythm. Once the congregation is familiar with singing Anglican chant, why stop at singing the Psalms? You can get them singing other scriptural songs as well (eg the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), not to mention extra-scriptural texts from the early church such as the Gloria and the Te Deum.
(4) It may require some extra work outside of regular service times in teaching the congregation how to sing Anglican chant, but this will have huge benefits down the line. Teaching your congregation how to sing Anglican chant will provide you with an excuse to teach them how to *sing* ;-) (which they probably need to learn and which you probably wouldn't be able to do if you were to just stick to more familiar forms of church music)!
Those are just a few reasons in favour of Anglican chant. But like I said, I have nothing against other forms of Psalm singing. As far as I'm concerned it's more important *that* we sing the Psalms than arguing over *how* we're going to sing them. And I wouldn't dream of going to a Presbyterian church and telling them that they were doing it "wrong" :-)
Blessings,
Apodeictic
One further thing I should add: While it is possible to sing a set of words to just about any tune using the Anglican chant method, like any music there is a need to make sure that the "mood" of the music reflects the "mood" of the words you are singing. It would be completely inappropriate (although technically possible) to sing, say, Psalm 137 to a happy, jaunty tune and Psalm 150 to a mournful tune. (Listen to the samples of these on the website I posted above and you'll get the idea of how the Psalms are being sung to appropriate tunes: 137 to a mournful tune and 150 to a big praise sound). Good musical Psalters will generally get the choice right in their selection of musical settings to go with the words, but there is still room for personal input from church musicians here. (And of course there is room for musicians to be composing new chants for the singing of Psalms). If you're a musician in a cathedral, say, then typically you would have a selection of musical Psalters to work from and then from one of several at your disposal you would choose the tune(s) you are going to sing for the appointed Psalm(s) for the day. But in a typical parish setting you may want the congregation singing from a single Psalter (with printed tunes). Obviously if you do that you won't have as many tunes to choose from. There's a trade-off here. Some Psalters will offer a choice of more than one chant for a particular Psalm, but for most Psalms they tend not to offer a choice, otherwise the printed Psalter becomes too unwieldy.
ReplyDeleteAlso worth noting is the fact that with some Psalms there is typically a change of chant (tune) part way through the Psalm. This is usually for one of two reasons: either (1) there is a notable mood change in the text of the Psalm and a change of music is completely appropriate -- eg the Psalm starts off questioning God's ways and then moves into a song of confidence in God's character and promises, or (2) the Psalm is quite long and a change of tune makes singing it a bit more interesting for everyone involved.
Apodeictic:
ReplyDeleteMy delayed response does not mean non-involvement with your post and ideas.
Some miscellaneous connections.
First, are you doing a PhD? Are you British?
Second, have been talking to my wife, Sharon. She plays the pipes at St. Peter's Episcopal Church. She recently was involved in a four-day intensive (830AM-9PM), residential seminar with the Choirmaster and Organist of Canterbury Cathedral, UK...Dr. David Fludd. Dr. Fludd came to North Carolina, an eastern state in the U.S. (am assuming you are British).Sharon had grad training in piano performance and was headed to the international concert circuit prior to marrying this Marine and Sailor. We have 45,000 U.S. dollars on hand and allocated for her further graduate work, but in pipe organ studies. It would appear she may get an opportunity one day to play the organ at Canterbury. All this is in progress.
Third, after these posts, as well as some posts with Dr. Iain Campbell in northwest Scotland, the recovery of singing Scripture is not lost on this foroorn scribe. After these posts, your's and Dr. Campbell's (a capella, exclusive Psalmodist), I asked Sharon about Anglican chant. Hah! She knows all about it.
Fourth, Lord willing, will be revisiting this set of exchanges.
Fifth, the Rector where Sharon plays the Pipes wants to introduce Anglican chant at St. Peter's Episcopal. More as that develops.
Sixth, I took note of your comments on the Chants multi-perspectival use and transdenominational value.
Your comments are enriching.
Regards,
Philip