Psalm: Difference between revisions
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In months with 31 days, the Psalms of day 30 are repeated. | In months with 31 days, the Psalms of day 30 are repeated. | ||
== | == Incipits == | ||
===Vulgate=== | ===Vulgate=== |
Revision as of 09:27, 28 April 2006
Table of Psalms << Psalm # >> | ||||||||||||||
(NOTE: Text pages are being added for every psalm, please consider helping)
General information
spiritual song, originally Hebrew poetry (150 pieces) collected in a prayerbook in the bible: the book of psalms, adopted by the church and translated in many languages. Musical adaptations in the form of Latin motets are very famous in the roman catholic tradition. In the protestant world translation in metrical verse, supplied with special melodies, became typical for the churches in the calvinist tradition. The words were supplied by Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze and they were set to music by many French Renaissance composers, like Claude Goudimel, Louis Bourgeois, Paschal de L'Estocart and Claude Le Jeune, but also by the more secular oriented Clément Janequin.
A special mentioning deserve the early Dutch metrical psalter which uses secular tunes, the Souterliedekens, which were set to music by Jacobus Clemens non Papa.
Note on the different numbering of the Psalms
There is a confusing difference in the numbering of the Psalms. This is caused by the fact that Hieronymus (translator of the bible in Latin, usually called the Vulgata (V) , folowed the numbering of the Greek translation of the Bible (Septuaginta). Every Psalm in Latin follows this numbering.
Protestants and protestant composers returned to the numbering of the Hebrew Bible (H).
Almost all modern bible-editions use the Hebrew numbering.
A résumé of the differences
- 1. Psalms 1-8 (V) = Psalms 1-8 (H)
- 2. Psalm 9 (V) = Psalms 9,10 (H)
- 3. Psalms 10-112 (V) = Psalms 11-113 (H)
- 4. Psalm 113 (V) = Psalms 114,115 (H)
- 5. Psalms 114,115 (V) = Psalm 116 (H)
- 6. Psalms 116-145 (V) = Psalms 117-146 (H)
- 7. Psalms 146,147 (V) = Psalm 147 (H)
- 8. Psalms 148-150 (V) = Psalms 148-150 (H)
tip:
- Except for 1-8 and 148-150 Psalms in Latin have one number less than the modern ones.
- When in the range of 112-116: check the numbering twice
Examples
The famous penitential psalm Miserere mei, Domine is psalm 50 in the Vulgata, but will be found sub Psalm 51 in any modern bible.
Another penitential psalm: De profundis (psalm 129 in the Vulgata) is psalm 130 for protestants (Aus tiefer Not for Germans).
A psalm very dear to protestants like psalm 116 (f.i. very famous because almost all German composers were invited in the around 1618 to make a musical score of this psalm (Schütz, Schein, Praetorius) has its counterpart in the Latin psalms 114 and 115.
Information about Performance
It is the custom in some circles, for example among Monks and Nuns, and in the Anglican Communion, in many Cathedrals, to sing the Psalms frequently. Schemes in which the entire Psalter was sung in a day, a week, and a month were common, with the last being perhaps the most common of all. The earliest tradition of singing the Psalms developed may have originated in the Jewish Synagogue or Temple, and evolved into plainsong, in which the Psalm was sung in unison to a Psalm tone, a formula for handling texts with different numbers of syllables and accent patterns. Elaboration of the plainsong Psalm tone, by adding Organum, singing the text and melody in parallel intervals, first octaves, later fifths, (and less commonly other intervals) later developed into complete harmonizations, called Faux-bourdons; these in turn evolved into Anglican Chant.
It was the usual practice most places for the Gloria Patri (sometimes called the lesser doxology) to be appended to each Psalm, set of Psalms, sung to the same tone, generally as two "extra" verses of the Psalm.
The Psalter contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) of the Church of England is very little changed from the Psalter included in the first English Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and generally matches the Latin text most closely in syllable count and accent patterns; when it is necessary to sing an English text to a setting originally intended for a Latin text, the translation from the 1662 BCP is often a good starting point.
The scheme for reading the Psalter in a month, from the 1662 Church of England Book of Common Prayer:
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In months with 31 days, the Psalms of day 30 are repeated.
Incipits
Vulgate
Latin text
1 Beatus vir, qui non abiit 2 Quare fremuerunt gentes |
51 Quid gloriaris? 52 Dixit insipiens |
101 Domine, exaudi 102 Benedic, anima mea |
Glória Pátri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sáncto: Sícut érat in princípio, et nunc, et sémper, et in saécula sæculórum. Amen.
Since the addition of the Gloria Patri is so common not only in Psalms, but in other types of texts, the doxology is often given in abbreviated form; the ending of the chanted psalm tone will be given with an indication of the final six vowels, which appear thus: "E u o u A e".
Church of England 1662 Book of Common Prayer
English text
1 Blessed is the man that hath not walked... 2 Why do the heathen so furiously rage |
87 Her foundations |
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen